Unclean kill shots…😞

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L.Leon

L.Leon

Member
Aug 29, 2018
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NY, Ulster County, United States
While the higher percentage of shots I take on small critters are DRT kills. There are days like today. After a seriously contentious day at work. I bagged three starlings, the first? A DRT lightning strike. The next? A solid thwack, but it glided until it crashed into the side of my barn. The third took two! Shots! And while they where still coming in to the suet cakes I backed off because I clearly was off my game.
 
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Wouldn't feel too bad, as much as you practice, keeping skills sharp and gun on target. It happens, you've done your best to keep such occurrences to a minimum. Be different if pest shows up, you run inside, scrounge around back of closet for a long-neglected gun, then start wildly flinging lead. We show respect striving for accurate, clean dispatch of any living creature, you've demonstrated this clearly in your videos. Now, get on with it. WM
 
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That is just the way it goes sometimes. With big game hunting. One time a good heart lung shot will drop a deer instantly and with the next one everything being equal, same gun, same bullet, same range, everything and a good heart lung shot, and it runs 150 yards who knows why. Still more humane than nature's way with something being eaten while it is still alive, kind of like a shark does to people.
 
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PasadenaMike said:
Yeah it happens Luis and I’m sure it happens more than people admit. Nothing is perfect .
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Agreed. I had one of those days not too long ago. I simply could not get a good connection. Stopped and analyzed and figured out I was not getting a good cheek weld on the gun. I just got sloppy.
I hunt upland birds a lot. Somedays my shotgunning is good to really good. Some days the ammo guys love me. In between those extremes are the worst days. If I cripple the first few birds I simply call it a day. My dogs usually find them, but that is not the point.
 
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Yesterday got a ground squirrel, 50ish yards, good solid hit 18.13 920 fps, jumped around, friend went over to retrieve it and it was still breathing, I had to load up my pistol then walk over, note I don't walk really well, busted up ankle from decade ago, two pellets point blank before it died.
 
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HogKiller said:
Yesterday got a ground squirrel, 50ish yards, good solid hit 18.13 920 fps, jumped around, friend went over to retrieve it and it was still breathing, I had to load up my pistol then walk over, note I don't walk really well, busted up ankle from decade ago, two pellets point blank before it died.
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You do what you can do to make an ethical shot. Sometimes the squirrel has more than one life .
 
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I hunt within my comfort zone . If i think a shot might be slightly iffy i just do not shoot .
squirrels are all under or at 30 yards Max. Rabbits a bit longer range but not much .
I would rather stalk and get closer ,or wait for the target .

EDit : 5/9/24 yes i have shot and missed a bit if the squirrel moved at the trigger let off , Certainly not pleasant but it happens .
 
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beerthief said:
I hunt within my comfort zone . If i think a shot might be slightly iffy i just do not shoot .
squirrels are all under or at 30 yards Max. Rabbits a bit longer range but not much .
I would rather stalk and get closer ,or wait for the target .
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Ditto 👍
 
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Luis, as long as you know you're doing everything in your power to kill humanely the "human factor" is always at play. We ARE NOT machines. Our personal ethics should guide us on days like what you described. I definitely have my off days & have to decide on those, at what range is my skill set too iffy for humane kills on that particular day. I can live with that much more easily than causing gruesome suffering to an animal I'm ultimately trying to put down.
 
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Chief55 said:
That is just the way it goes sometimes. With big game hunting. One time a good heart lung shot will drop a deer instantly and with the next one everything being equal, same gun, same bullet, same range, everything and a good heart lung shot, and it runs 150 yards who knows why. Still more humane than nature's way with something being eaten while it is still alive, kind of like a shark does to people.
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Hunting moose is like that as well. My first one I split the heart in half lengthwise-took the entire blood pumping mechanism out of commission…. 3 more perfectly adequate kill shots and he laid down. 45 minutes later the critter still threw its head at me when I approached it. Adrenaline does strange things. He was dead with the first shot, he just hadn’t realized and accepted it yet.
 
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L.Leon said:
While the higher percentage of shots I take on small critters are DRT kills. There are days like today. After a seriously contentious day at work. I bagged three starlings, the first? A DRT lightning strike. The next? A solid thwack, but it glided until it crashed into the side of my barn. The third took two! Shots! And while they where still coming in to the suet cakes I backed off because I clearly was off my game.
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Those things happens Luis.

If every shot we make would be a DRT, our hobbie would have not challenge at all.

We need to try harder .... But we will never be perfect.
 
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