| Not meaning to break the beautiful silence(in this topic, anyway),
no news is good news in this case, but I want to make you aware of some
of the mentality in the woods. A jogger in Conn. was running in a
firecut in the woods and was shot by a hunter and killed. Let me
re-phrase that, he was shot by a moron and killed. He was wearing a
blue ski jacket. We hunters have it bad enough without these ___holes
in the woods. Even if it is 1 or 2 out of a million, too much. Be
careful of these jerks out there. I just caught the tail end in the
news so I don't have a lot of details. I don't think I want to.
Butch
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| You know...
...I just have to respond about the slobs (not hunters) that
invaribly roam our woods. We are being stereotyped because of these
dim-wits, and our sport is at risk because of it....
Not that I'm any great hunter (which I am not), but on the safety
side of things, I am! Maybe these people have to have it BURNED into their
brains that the DEER deserve a good, clean, safe kill. This will in-
varibly lead to less accidents from the shear fact that to GET a good
clean safe kill requires that the deer be *very much* in the open...
4 years ago I sat on a ridge and watched a deer to my left about 60-
70 yards away for over 5 minutes. I didn't take the shot because I
could only see the hindquarters. The rest of the deer was hidden behind
a tree. Finally, it came into the open somewhat, and I missed. BUT,
I didn't take a haphazard shot at the deer when I first saw it. In
another hunt, I shot a big doe that I watched trotting through the
woods for over 100 yards directly in front of me. If I was like some
of the hunters out there I'd have "opened up" when I first saw her.
In fact, in the same area two days before a guy took a small button
buck and took it by what I call "woodsblaster mode". You know, the
old BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG! One of my hunting partners was in
the woods and heard the bullets flying over his head! When he came up
on the guy, it was hit once in the hindquarter. He was using a 30/06
M742 Woodsmaster (Woodsblaster!). The doe I got was dropped at 75 yards
with ONE shot from a peep sighted lever action carbine. Which kill
was the "more ethical" kill ?!? Almost the same thing happened this
year. A nice sized doe was jumped and ran right down the ridge directly
behind me. That deer was parrallel to me on that ridge for over 10
minutes. BUT, I could never get a clear view of her (except for a
straight-away rear end shot), AND I was using a muzzleloader with a
patched roundball. The deer was about 50 to 60 yards from me. I didn't
take the shot, and the deer finally saw/winded me, blew at me and took
off, tail held high.
... Now for the weird thing... This experience was better than taking
the doe I got this year in Pennsylvania!!! Why? I don't know! Maybe
because it was the "classic setting" in the Northern NH deer woods, AND
I had one of those elusive grey ghost right there, and she didn't even
know she was being watched! I even used her for an experiment by trying
my Woods-Wise 6-in-1 game call out on her. She'd just lift her head up
everytime I did the "bleat" call...
It is THIS type of hunting mindset that ALL hunters should have in
my humble opinion. Taking clean shots, and being an OBSERVER of deer
as well as a HUNTER.
If you don't take clean shots at deer, in other words "have com-
passion for them", then you're not a hunter, you're a, for lack of
better words, an "animal killer". This is, I feel, the key to our
sport, and it's something that'll make us all safer hunters too!
Sorry for the rambling...
Joe
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| The Vermont season is only 4 days old, and we've already had two
hunting fatalities. Between 1987 and 1991, there was a total of
3 fatalities.
In both instances this year, the shooter was in the same party
as the person who was killed.
The first one was opening day. Single shot, thru the hip (must have
hit the femoral artery). The paper reported that the person who was
shot was not wearing "reflective clothing" (I assume they meant he had
no hunter orange on). He was shot by his best friend.
The second, which occurred yesterday, was in southern Vt. A hunter
had shot a 4-point buck, dragged it 100yds to a rock wall and started
gutting it. He propped the head up against the stone wall (why?). The
hunters brother saw the head of the deer, saw the movement, and shot.
He then discovered that he'd shot his brother. This one is a little
strange. Its almost easy to see how it happened... the guy definetly
saw a deer, identified it as a buck and shot. I assume the shooter
couldn't see the brother behind the stone wall. Very unfortunate cir-
cumstances.
-Ron-
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