Take a second shot?

4wanderingeyes

5 year old buck +
With all the talk about deer going into the neighbors land. If a deer is still on its feet, after you assume was a good shot, and it is running away, do you take another shot?
I was wondering if you guys attempt to stop it on the run, or let it go, in hopes it doesn’t make it across a property line.
 
With an arrow, on the run? No. No need to spook it more.

Standing hunched over. Yes.

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I was thinking with a gun.
 
I was thinking with a gun.
Opps! I spend a lot of time bowhunting and a lot of time on archery type forums. Didn't look when tapatalk showed me your thread to look at where it came from.

I probably wouldn't keep throwing lead at a running deer unless I thought I had made a bad shot.

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Yes.
and I’ll go further. If he hits the ground be ready for a second shot. Lots of story’s of spine shocked deer that went down only to get up and never be seen again.
 
The reasoning for my question, last year I had one barrel roll, and lay down for 30 seconds, it got up, fell again, got up and ran out of site. I heard it crash at least once, and ended up tracking it a few hundred yards. I ended up grazing the heart. We found it on the neighbors land, which the property line is about 150 yards.
This year I shot one, it fell and got up and walked fast kinda drunk to a spot I was going to lose sight in 10 yards so I took another shot, and it dropped. But right away I was thinking I just wasted meat. But I didn’t want to have to deal with asking a neighbor to track a deer on opening day.
The deer was just a lone big doe. Those are my only two criteria for shooting a doe, it has to be alone, and big.
 
The reasoning for my question, last year I had one barrel roll, and lay down for 30 seconds, it got up, fell again, got up and ran out of site. I heard it crash at least once, and ended up tracking it a few hundred yards. I ended up grazing the heart. We found it on the neighbors land, which the property line is about 150 yards.
This year I shot one, it fell and got up and walked fast kinda drunk to a spot I was going to lose sight in 10 yards so I took another shot, and it dropped. But right away I was thinking I just wasted meat. But I didn’t want to have to deal with asking a neighbor to track a deer on opening day.
The deer was just a lone big doe. Those are my only two criteria for shooting a doe, it has to be alone, and big.
If it’s not dead and it gets up. Follow up shot is the responsible thing to do. Worry about meat lost second.
 
I mainly bow hunt and when I gun hunt its with a muzzle loader so follow up shots are not something I often think about. With that said, I hit my bow buck a little low in the chest this year. He stopped around 45 yards away with only his back half exposed to me for a short time. At the time I thought he was about to go down but I ended up regretting not putting another arrow in him. He went about a mile on one lung. I wasn't able to find him till the following week and it was long rotten by then. I had almost the same situation with a doe a year ago where I thought she was going down and instead I never found her. I've never done it but I'd really like to get in the habit of loading another arrow and taking another shot whenever possible.
 
When I was young my dad always instructed us to shoot till they were down and then watch them carefully and should they move, be ready to shot some more.
Old habits have a way of sticking with ya.


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We hunt public and we've had instances where we shot a deer and it was dead on it's feet but was still moving, and someone else further down shoots it and claims it, so now we shoot till they don't move.
 
The reasoning for my question, last year I had one barrel roll, and lay down for 30 seconds, it got up, fell again, got up and ran out of site. I heard it crash at least once, and ended up tracking it a few hundred yards. I ended up grazing the heart. We found it on the neighbors land, which the property line is about 150 yards.
This year I shot one, it fell and got up and walked fast kinda drunk to a spot I was going to lose sight in 10 yards so I took another shot, and it dropped. But right away I was thinking I just wasted meat. But I didn’t want to have to deal with asking a neighbor to track a deer on opening day.
The deer was just a lone big doe. Those are my only two criteria for shooting a doe, it has to be alone, and big.
Congrats
 
With all the talk about deer going into the neighbors land. If a deer is still on its feet, after you assume was a good shot, and it is running away, do you take another shot?
I was wondering if you guys attempt to stop it on the run, or let it go, in hopes it doesn’t make it across a property line.

Unless I have advanced permission to hunt or track and trail on the neighboring property, I won't set a stand closed enough that I could see a deer running after the shot that was in jeopardy of leaving the land I'm hunting. I really avoid running shots with a rifle. I'm not saying there is never a case when I would take on, but I find it to be a safety issues in the places I hunt. Perhaps if it was a very large open field, I was shooting from an elevated position, and I had previously ensured I had a good backstop. In the heat of the moment, target fixation can really limit what you see. So maybe if I had previously established a safe zone of fire, but otherwise, I'd probably pass on safety grounds. I would probably take a second shot if the deer fell and was trying to get back to its feet in a fairly fixed position.

I've had a few situations where what I thought was a great shot was a clean miss. This has usually been an equipment failure like an internal scope failure or something. The best way to deal with a situation like this is before it happens.

For years, I hunted a military base and suburban archery properties. The military base was divided into training areas that were open to hunting, with a pass for the day, if they were not being used for training or in a firing fan of a hot range. There were hunting locations I would not hunt on days when the adjoining area was closed because they were too close to the line. With suburban archery, stand site was even more critical as one owner wanted you to use nuclear weapons on the deer that were eating her poor azaleas while her neighbor considered them pets. Deer can cover 100 yards easily, even when double lunged. Choosing a proper setup was critical in a situation like this.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I’ve never regretted a follow up shot. Would you rather have less meat or risk getting zero meat? If you want minimal meat spoilage, get some beef, but this is hunting and things happen. Shoot until it’s dead.


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The first shot double lunged it, the second shot I got it in the upper neck and it dropped. I feel better about the second shot. At first I didn’t feel so good about it, but it helped listening to you guys.
 
If deer is hit and still up.....I'll take er to the plug to drop it.
Same with anything I've ever hit.
 
Thursday morning a buck crossed the fence onto my property and started chasing does. At the shot he immediately bailed back across the fence onto the neighbor. As I started to squeeze the trigger on the second round the buck fell dead. Even though he only made it 20 yards I hate the fact he made it off the property. I have a great neighbor and recovery is a non-issue. Givin the choice I will run a gun dry vs making that phone call.
 

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I think the responsible and ethical thing to do is always to kill the animal as quickly as possible. After every shot I reload another immediately. I've had to take a few follow-up shots on spined deer, including one with a crossbow. In all cases the deer would have died eventually, but why put it through that?

I use the bloodshot meat as dog food or predator bait.
 
I think the responsible and ethical thing to do is always to kill the animal as quickly as possible. After every shot I reload another immediately. I've had to take a few follow-up shots on spined deer, including one with a crossbow. In all cases the deer would have died eventually, but why put it through that?

I use the bloodshot meat as dog food or predator bait.

Inside the context of safety first, I completely agree. My only concern was where the OP talks about a running deer. While I hold respect for that animal very high, there are probably limited conditions where I would find a second shot at a running deer safe. The more thought we put into our initial setup and ask ourselves "what if...?", the better off we are at avoiding difficult situations. Too often we see posts complaining about trespass and neighbors putting stands right on the property line. There is nothing wrong with a stand near the property line if you have an arrangement with your neighbor and they are like minded. On the other hand, if I know a particular neighbor is going to have a problem with me recovering a deer that ran on to his property, I'm going to avoid any kind of setup where there is a high probability of that. It doesn't mean it can't happen as depending on the shot placement, a deer can cover a mile or more before dying. It does mean that I will choose hunting locations that will minimize the chance of that occurring.

Thanks,

Jack
 
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