doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Long shots, Lucky shots & Lies

2-piper, I absolutely agree with you. I expect most of us do. Jake

I have had 2 very lucky long shot kills this year. While dove hunting I was using my 12 ga M21 that had just been repaired. I was really testing the gun to make sure it was OK for the duck season. There were no doves flying. Finally one flew by way out there and I shot at it. It folded dead at a measured 70 paces. Then last Sunday I was duck hunting with the same M21 and there were no ducks flying. I was very frustrated. Then a drake mallard landed in the pond quite some distance from the blind and my decoys. I was hoping he would swim closer upon seeing my decoys. No dice. Then a shot from another blind put the mallard up in the air. Out of frustration I shot and killed it dead at a measured 133 paces!

Miller,
I get your point. But, I'm willing to put dollars to donuts that more birds have flown away with pellets in them from a shot "within range" than the "occasional shot" beyond statistically lethal range. I believe that shooting "on wing", even "within range", is statistically a poor proposition, certainly on upland game.

Chuck;
You are undoubtably correct, I certainly would not argue your point. However the only way around that I am familar with is to totally give up shooting at live game, a situation most are not willing to do. While "On the Wing" certainly makes hitting more difficult, most birds are actually more vulnerable with their wings spread than folded, so even resorting to "Pot Shooting" would not totally resolve the problem.
What I was speaking of though is those folks who use large shot & intentionally fire at birds on which at best they can only hope to put one shot in & hope it hits a killing spot. These folks fire a large number of shots for each bird brought to bag & undoubtably for every one killed a higher number fly on carrying a shot in their bodies somewhere. This type of shooting is to me totally unacceptable. For those who do their level best to fire only at birds they have a reasonable expection of killing the only consolation I have for those which are lost, is that nothing which dies in nature is ever trully wasted, it will feed something or do some good in some way. This is however, no excuse for making shots which one does not have reasonable expectations of being successful.

Miller,
My point is that one man's ethical activity can be distasteful or even distainful to another. An outsider (big game hunter)looking in at shotgun on-wing hunting has told me that the low probability of kills to shots fired could in itself be construed as an indicator of the ethical/unethical nature of the activity. As we all know, many rounds are fired per bird bagged on average across the country. Maybe some of our members are high percentage shooters at wild game, but I'm not one of them. On wild quail, I can recall burning a couple boxes of shells to one 10 bird limit on many occasions. Some would say that my shooting might be bad, maybe unethically bad. Maybe they're right, maybe not. I call it enjoying my relatively difficult, legal, hunting. I just don't think we need to call the kettle black since all of us are practicing a shooting activity that we wound game with routinely, if we actually do it. BTW, someone told me they read that the national average for shells fired to dove taken is something like 7 shots to one dove.

A cold late November Day - most of the mallards and nearly all the geese had taken the southern freight. Still there were enough birds about to give cause to a final hunt on a local marsh. Sure enough a sizeable flock of mallards had determined to keep a pool of water open with their insistent paddling. There were at least 200 birds but they were wise to the hunter's ways and chosen a spot most inaccesible by foot and to get a boat to the marsh edge let alone busting ice for at least 300 yards was more challenge than I could choose to face. So my dog and I hunkered in the tall snow festooned reeds on the near side of the frozen shore hoping that at least a few birds would slip within range before joining their pals in the open pool. The 20 mph wind was from the north with both bark and bite and before long both the dog and I were thinking of warmer activities. Then the clarion call of a lone goose caught our attention, he was flying from the southwest towards the open water but very high - 50 yards at least - not a hope of a shot at this range. He passed over the mallard flock at 30 yards up then flew on towards the east until out of sight and my hearing of his cry. Thirty minutes passed - long minutes with only the occassional encouraging little flight coming within 100 yards of us. Still we sat immobile, hidden and freezing. Then to our ears came the cry of that same lone goose returning from his fruitless search for his brethern, again he passed over the open water but instead of turning to the south he continued to the west which would bring him right over us. He was 60 yards up and in full flight. I was carrying my ASEL that day and at the time it was choked .042 and .044 - never did pattern with a hoot with anything bigger than #3s and it was stoked with those in both barrels - tungsten matrix. On he came and when near ( if that word is at all appropiate ) but not quite overhead I swung the barrels through his form and with lots of what I perceived would be appropriate lead, pulled the front trigger. Hard hit his forward flight was stalled and near straight down he plummeted and me with time to center him with the second shot. Right through the ice he crashed only 20' from where we had awaited. Stone dead from the shot and the crash through the 1/2" of ice. My intrepid companion, my trusted dog ran across the ice surface grabbed that goose from the water hole and carried it back to me. The head neck and chest of the goose carried numerous shot. How far? I don't know but I hunt geese a lot and shoot quite a number so have some experience on which to base my estimation of range and he was at least 65 yards away when hit. Now some may say that the cold had effected my perceptions maybe so but I will always recall that shot as one taken with the opportunity a gift and a little earned.

Chuck and 2piper, I really think we are all in agreement that there is an ethical and moral obligation to kill cleanly. I, like 2piper, am rather disgusted by hunters who have not the slightest empathy or sympathy for their quarry.

Hell, my boy (12) and I hunted pheasants in South Dakota on a family farm this year where there was a dead deer, rotting away in a brushy bottom area. My boy apparently asked our guide's son about it. The boy (also 12) told him that the deer was "spooked" early in the pheasant season and ran from its rest straight into a hard to see metal pole and fell dead (or dying). They left it there rather than take it home because between son and dad, with bow, black powder, youth, etc. licenses, they only had nine deer permits and if they kept it they wouldn't be able to kill one of the nine. On top of that, their freezer full of deer meat was something they really didn't like or know how to cook. (To his credit, my boy recalled the story to me with disdain.)

For that matter, I remember reading when I was a lad that bow hunters only retrieve about 20% of the deer they shoot. I hate to think how many deer run off to die a slow miserable death with an arrow in their bodies. I have always had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for bow hunting tales for want of the many, many we don't hear about.

Having said all that, this thread is about that one shot you recall from the past. I appreciate some of the stories. Even if the tellers wouldn't "try that again."

Best Regards, Jake