Shooting Skills

[Stcloudangler]

I dunno, I just take my gun out and fire 3 rounds through it before season to see if it is still on. It always is.

I think that is all it boils down too, not seeing if you can group 1" from 100 yards. If you think shooting at a range = shooting at an animal, well, you've got icewater in your veins.

[deerminator]

I got chastized by some for pulling my bow out three weeks before season and practicing, but guess what, I started nailing the sweet spot on my Glendel at 30 yards on the first shot. Granted I've had a rought season. One miss (sight had come loose) and one lost buck, but it really had nothing to do with poor shooting. Point being, if it takes you three shots with the rifle every year to be ready, so be it. If it takes several sessions at the range, so be it. As long as you feel good about it.

Also, I doubt the people taking 5 shots have trouble hitting their target under shooting range conditions. They're most likely shooting at a running deer and trying to increase the odds one will hit the target. More power to them I guess so long as they are safe about it. It's not illegal. Not my style of hunting but they didn't ask me for my opinion.

Quick story. One year, my FIL was working at the shop and someone called for his buddy who was deer hunting...

FIL: Tom's not here. He's up north deer hunting this week.

Customer: He's gone ALL WEEK???

FIL: Yeah. He's a poor shot.

[morefishplease]

Yes, Tom, I agree with what you are saying, but many people on here are talking about hearing 5 shots and are making some very bold assumptions about them without knowing the person or the situation.

Also, I am the kind of guy that takes hunting very seriously. I don't know if I would call it so much irresponsible, as it is low priority. I don't agree with it, but just wanted to throw the other side out there as well.

Exactly.

[heat checker]

IMO, typically the 4-5 shots are coming from what started out as a nice shot, the deer ran wether hit well or not, and the shooter keeps shooting while it is still in range, trying to put it on the ground. May sound unethical, but if the first shot wasn't a killing shot, it's the most ethical thing to get another round in him isn't it? If you're shooting at a deer running wide open across a field, no way you are going to get that many shots off with him still being in effective range as you would wait with the first shot until he is the closest.

Once you've hunted wide open farm country, you can pretty much tell by the number of shots and how far apart they are if the deer is down.

[Wanderer]

I get the point of this thread and there is a lot of truth behind it, BUT, as others have mentioned, we don't know what we didn't see.

5 shots and two deer come running from that direction. How many deer where there before the shooting started?

You just can't lump everything into a nice little package of what it must be.

[rkhinrichs]

in our hunting camp, before you can carry a gun in the woods your first deer season, one has to sit out a season before you can carry a loaded gun and see what happens during deer camp. then after you sit out that year, you can carry a gun the next season but have to sit with an adult who has experence in the woods before your able to hunt in the stand alone. Also teaching kids from a young age about hunter safety, gun saftely, and hunting ethics is also in the syllabus! if one cant kill a deer in the first two shots, and its still running awayway why take the chance of shooting more and wounding a deer??