Running shot

[bigbucks]

jt24,

I'm glad you stuck up for yourself. One of your responders said shooting at running deer in cover was not a good idea. You said they were running, you didn't say they were in cover. Some people are just geting out their axe & grinding on it. It's a personal choice you have to make. If you make a bad shot obviously you have to deal with it & live with it, no different than any of us who make a bad shot any other time.

I too have shot many deer running or moving. I immediately assumed you were talking about driven deer, as I know many times during the late season, at least in some areas, that's your best chance of seeing a deer in the daylight. I can't tell you how far to lead them at that range with a muzzle loader. The only moving deer I've shot at with a ML was a doe on a fast walk at 15 yards. I probably could have stopped her. I never considered it. I just shot her.

I know that I've shot a few running deer in the 80-100 yard range with a shotgun & many under that. One of them running away at a steep quarter I hit in the tail bone. My best advice is to swing with them & try to hit higher in the deer. If you break the back anywhere the deer's down. You will learn how far to lead them with some experience. With the ML I don't know that I would take a shot at a deer beyond 50 yards if it was going very fast until I'd been successful on a few less difficult running shots. Definitely a strong consideration is that lack of a follow up shot.

A running shot is not that difficult at closer ranges. I definitely agree that most I've missed were because I shot over them, not because I shot behind them.

[BLACKJACK]

I've shot a lot of deer on the run and I couldn't even begin to tell you how much to lead it, its an instinct and practice thing. Realistically not many people will set up a rolling tire to practice with but I think shooting a shotgun at crossing clay pigeons will help.

One thing that disgusts me is people that will take a moving shot at deer no matter how far away it is, there reasoning is that if they hit it in the right spot, it will go down but thats where you end up with deer with the shot off legs and unrecovered dead deer. Almost every year while pheasant hunting I'll find a dead deer or two after slug hunting - it didn't go down while they were shooting at it so they must have missed, right? Not.

Respect the animal you're hunting and keep your shots within a reasonable makable shot distance, which for most people will be 50 yards of less.

[bigbucks]

"It didn't go down while they were shooting at it so they must have missed, right? Not."

I hear you on this one. I trailed down a deer from some people in our party that were sure they missed this year. I think they would have gone & looked, but I still don't know if they'd have found it. I was close by when they shot at it, in fact saw the deer shortly before it went by them. When I asked where it was, how fast it was moving, & so on. I told them, well you probably hit it, that's not that far, they had. The deer was hit hard & would have died shortly on it's own had I not tracked it down & finished it.

I know personally I almost always assume I did hit it, even if it doesn't look like it. That's not arrogance, it's confidence & experience after recovering several that didn't react & I thought I missed. If you didn't think you could hit it, why would you shoot? Many deer that are hit pretty hard barely react at all.

You're much safer to go that route & really look hard for sign & try to follow the deer & proove to yourself that you didn't hit it. It's much better then finding out later that even though you thought you missed you left a dead deer in the woods.

[DitchPickle13]

Here's my 2 cents. If you're gonna shoot at running deer, know how fast your ML shoots and do the math at different distances. Don't just use muzzle velocity, because you're going to lose a lot of velocity with that big bullet once the bullet gets to 50, let alone 75 or 100 yards. Check out handloads.com for some ballistic calculators, et cetera.

Use formulas like one poster used, otherwise you're just guessing. Then practice, then envision it over and over so you train yourself to react instead of sh#!ting the bed when the moment comes and there's a lot of excitement.

That said, I'm not an advocate of making a habit of shooting running deer beacause of the dramatic room for error...however, I'm answering your question instead of trying to make your decision for you, so there you have it. Also, for the record, I'm giving my advice as an experienced marksman but I'm not here to toot my own horn so I'll leave it at that.

Good luck.

[BobT]

The funny thing about using calculation is that first, that's not practical in the real world when that deer busts out of the brush and is on the run.

Second, most will not accurately estimate the distance to their target. Typically, when in the forest, we tend to over-estimate the distance and when in open field we tend to under-estimate. Ask any bow hunter about that. Try it yourself. While afield take a guess at the distance to a particular object and then pace it off. See how accurate you really are. Do it often and you can improve your ability to estimate the distance but it does take practice.

Bob

[DitchPickle13]

BobT,

You're right about the distance judging. When I started using a rangefinder, I realized how far off I was sometimes...but practice guessing and confirming with the 'finder helped a lot. Good point to mention.

I wasn't saying to swear by the formulas, but saying they don't matter in a real situation is a stretch as well. You're still gonna have some guesswork, but without having a ballpark idea on drop, velocity, et cetera, you're gonna be doing a lot more pure guessing and a lot less educated guessing. That's all I'm saying there...get a starting point; doing so helps you get to know you're firearm a lot better.

[BobT]

I can go along with that.

Bob

[slick814]

Well, just guessing where you're hunting by where your avatar says you're from, but I'm going to assume that you've got a lot of open area where you hunt. That makes a lot of difference to me when you say that you take shots a running deer.

The area I hunt is extremely thick, swampy, and doesn't have a lot of open space, other than the swamps. If I have to take a shot over 50 yds., it's a minor miracle. I shot a doe this year at about 70 yds (used a rangefinder later on just to check), and I think that it's the second longest shot I've ever had to take while hunting in MN. Taking a running shot in such thick stuff would be a wasted effort for me. Too much chance of wounding the deer or just flat out missing.

Your area, on the other hand, all but requires you to take longer shots, and I would assume, some of them will be with the deer moving. I believe that the differences in area are the reasons for some of the different replies you've received. Maybe not, but that's my guess. It's easy to forget that Minnesota has a wide variety of hunting space, and not everyone hunts the same kind of territory.

If I was in your shoes, I'd try to see if I could figure out a place to be that's closer to where they're coming out from/going to, to try to make the shot shorter. That'll also make it a little easier to make as good a shot as possible.

Try doing the "bah" thing... (it really does work as well as it does on TV )...say it a few times if you need to. Maybe they'll stop or hesitate just long enough to give you a better shot. If not, know what you feel comfortable with, and don't take a shot that you aren't as sure as you can be will be fatal.

Muzzleloading is a blast, but we gotta remember that we only get one shot for the most part. Just do whatever you can to make it count!