Originally Posted By: Fishnfowler


While I didn't directly answer the query of the OP, I will posit that it doesn't really matter how well a hunter shoots, it matters how well one hunts.

Rob.


I could say that how well you shoot does matter to the birds you cripple and don't recover, but I don't want to play Disney with quail and pheasants. Something in nature will consume that which we cripple and leave behind. That being said, the fence-sitting nonhunters--who are, by far, the majority in this country--can be pushed off the fence when they hear about hunters doing a lot of crippling rather than killing cleanly. For example, the landowner I referred to earlier might just as easily have decided that if hunters were going to cripple as many roosters as they killed on her property, then she'd keep ALL hunters out. Not good for any of us. We owe it to the continuation of our sport to recognize our capabilities and limitations, and to shoot within them. We should all make at least some effort to be better shots, because being a better shot is part--but far from all--of being a better hunter.