Shooting at Running Deer

[96trigger]

Its a good question, but comparing a silent death from a few bow hunters to the noise of shotguns and massive numbers of people in orange are two very different things. I bow hunt and gun hunt and the deer know immediately what the sound of those first gun shots mean.

Have you ever seen the terrain in SWMn?

[Bear55]

I've seen the terrain but never hunted there, I was just surprised to hear about people making drives on opening morning.

[96trigger]

I think deer drives are more common around here. We used to only sit for like an hour, and then do the deer drives, probably covered 300 acres of woods a day. I think alot of it stems from when there were very little deer and the main way you saw a deer was to push them. Alot has changed, at least where I hunt, and we do almost all sitting and very little driving now, a change I lobied hard for in our group. It might be harder to do that in areas where there is less cover, so alot of people try to cram in small areas. I really don't know.

[Bear55]

I think deer drives are pretty common everywhere but I guess it depends where you hunt. In our area most people stand hunt pretty hard for the first week and then might make a few drives 2nd or 3rd weekend. Just a note to some there is a 16 day rifle season up north, but by the time that 3rd weekend rolls around there is a lot less hunting and a lot more extracurricular activities usually going on.

[96trigger]

We have two nine day seasons down here in SEMN, we used to go the 2nd weekend, the deer often needed a little bit of a push. the first morning of the 2nd season was usually pretty good, but after that, it got very tough to sit for deer.

[mwal]

If you are going to have running shots leave the sticks at home. I guaranty you will not swing naturally with the sticks unless you practice moving target with them. Use a lower power scope and remember to keep following thru with your shots. Most standers miss running deer because they stop the swing and shoot behind. Treat the shot like a crossing shot on pheasant or duck. Standing is the most effective way to maintain a natural swing. I have a lot of 1 shot kills on running deer using this method.

Mwal

[koonie]

Originally Posted By: koonie

Ethical according to whom?

More than likely wound an animal. Hmmm.

Come hunt in western Minnesota where there aren't many places to sit and wait for a deer to walk in front of you. You learn really quickly how to shoot running deer. Not everybody is good at it but you'd would be very surprised at how good you can get when that's the only kind of shots available. Out of the 40 some deer I've shot in my life there has been exactly one that was standing still. Maybe I'm not part of that 90% though.

I do wish it was possible to actually sit and have deer walk past me so I could have a standing shot. It just isn't really an option around my area.

Koonie

I'm not questioning the eithics of shooting at running deer but it seems most people I know who hunt open farm country sit in the stand for an hour or two opening day and then start making drives. I'm sure you guys know what you are doing and it is the most effective way to hunt these areas. However from an outsiders perspective(bigwoods) it doens't seem like anyone gives the deer a chance to move on their own. As soon as you start making drives I'm sure those deer feel the pressure and hunker down in the thick stuff. Then you would almost have to make drives to hunt them after all that pressure. So I guess what I am asking is if everyone didn't make drive right away do you think the deer would move on a more natural pattern and people would still get their deer?

I guess in my area it's virtually impossible. We're talking about each one mile section having one or two farm groves and possibly a linefence(short grass). Maybe a dredge ditch in some sections. Natural movement is when a deer walks out of a grove or ditch and feeds and walks back into the grove or ditch and lays back down. It's not really a situation where deer move from a classic bedding area to a feeding area. Once the crops are harvested that takes care of most of the cover and the deer tend to "migrate" toward the river bottoms. It's pretty rare to see a deer within 10 miles of my area once December rolls around. I comes down to not enough cover to keep the deer around.

[Wanderer]

I've been hunting 21 years, been doing this in WI for 5 years, and have done countless drives before. So the practice and safety aspect of it I'm already well aware of.

Would love to have a range like that!

I've always shot off-hand standing, and never used sticks so was wondering if anyone had something that worked great or should I stick with what I'm doing.

If it works, don't fix it.

But if you want to try the sticks for drives get a solid adjustable tube bipod not the fiberglass shootinstix type.

I've tried a monopod and its not nearly as stable as a bipod. The fiberglass sticks have too much flex IMO and are too easy to wobble in all the excitement.

What I found is a Stoney Point bipod that adjusts from something like 18-20 inches to 60 inches. When folded closed it doesn't take anymore room than a monopod really.

When you get set up to post a drive, extend the bipod out to your comfortable standing shooting height. Then, with your gun in the "V" and your hand holding it in place, back up and let the bipod pivot down with you until you are in a comfortable kneeling position.

At this point you can take your shot from the kneeling position or raise yourself to any level you want until you're standing and have a solid rest the whole way through without adjusting the length of the bipod legs.

I've taken this approach from a belly crawl to standing and it works well.

You might want to look for a bipod with rotating rest though for the drives.

Enjoy the hunt!

[picksbigwagon]

great tip wanderer, makes me double think my monopod thoughts for coyote hunting......

[Bear55]

I guess in my area it's virtually impossible. We're talking about each one mile section having one or two farm groves and possibly a linefence(short grass). Maybe a dredge ditch in some sections. Natural movement is when a deer walks out of a grove or ditch and feeds and walks back into the grove or ditch and lays back down. It's not really a situation where deer move from a classic bedding area to a feeding area. Once the crops are harvested that takes care of most of the cover and the deer tend to "migrate" toward the river bottoms. It's pretty rare to see a deer within 10 miles of my area once December rolls around. I comes down to not enough cover to keep the deer around.

Thanks Koonie, that does make sense.

[crothmeier]

i usually end up posting in our group becasue i done well shooting at deer that have busted out of the woods. last year i missed an easy shot, but years previous i have had multiple 1 shot kills, the farthest being about 250 yds away (rifle zone).

[sparkydm]

PostFrontal,

My situation is similar to yours, except I stand hunt in Wisc. and do the drive/stand deal in MN with my family. My best advice is to keep it simple. Extra equipment just muddies the water IMO. From reading your post, it seems you are posted away from the edges of woods on the open hilltops? Ok, that makes sense. That way you can see all the deer that squirt out, right? We used to do a similar thing in northern MN. We would put standers on the long, straight open cuts where the power lines go through the woods. The terrain is hilly and if a deer squirts outs you will see it. The problem was that they were always running because they were in the open and usually at least 100 yards away. We stopped doing this because the shots were so far away. What I've learned about deer is that there is a difference between being pushed and being spooked. A pushed deer will travel in established patterns or routes. When deer get pushed too many times they become spooked and run every which way in semi panic. Where we hunt we know where these escape routes are and we post ourselves in those spots. So, this year when you are standing on top of the hill in the open, waiting for deer to come running out, think back about where the deer usually exit the woods. Of course pay attention this year as to where they exit. A stand location just inside the woods to cut them off before exiting the woods might make sense. Did you ever see a deer before it came out into the open? I bet it stopped first to check for danger in the field. Then it saw you standing out there in the open. Now it has to run flat out to escape you and the drivers. I guess my point is that we had better luck by changing our tactics. Good Luck!

[paul pachowicz]

I've often wondered what goes thru a deer's mind when they get pushed. Does the deer "think", oh-oh...I'm outta here and I'm headed to location X. Or do they just high tail it off helter-skelter and stop when they feel safe? I'm sure they know thier immediate area but do they take off in a determined route?

[96trigger]

The first thing they do is create distance. The second thing they do is try to identify the source. If they know that it is immediately life threatening, all bets are off and they just high tail out. If they had a specific route, the wouldn't scatter when scared. I've seen plenty of groups of 5 or 6 deer, shoot one and the rest scatter in a number of directions. IF there were one route, they would all go the same way.

BTW, sometimes the last thing that goes through a deer's mind is a bullet.