...So many people recommend heaver bullets for the edge in a marginal shot, but I don't take marginal shots. Ever. For any reason on live game. Nobody should take a marginal shot on live game. We owe it to the game we hunt to have enough respect for that game to be sure of every shot we take at live game...
This is wonderful in theory, but in reality seldom proves out over time. After over 40 years of deer hunting and not taking "marginal shots" I still have had deer take a step between the trigger squeeze and the bullet strike, making what would have been a perfect shot into a bad one. Because I usually shot bullets capable of more than "perfect hit" performance I recovered those animals. To plan for only "perfect shots" is to deny reality and could reflect on a lack of real hunting experience.
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It's been 39 years now since I became old enough to legally hunt deer here in Michigan, and I've missed maybe 5 of those seasons way back when I was younger and working for Uncle Sam. When I started hunting, one deer a year was the limit, and soon after two became legal with a doe permit. Some years I didn't get a deer, simply because I never got the "Right" shot. One that I knew was a killing shot that I could make. Many years ago, the limit was raised to two antlered deer, with multiple antler less permits available to land owners and the general public. I availed myself of many of them and seldom have an empty freezer. I like venison a lot, and when times were bad I sometimes fed my wife and kids on venison when grocery money was short. I have almost never taken a shot that I consider "Marginal" and never will. I, too, have had deer move after I started the shot, resulting in a less than perfect shot, but a 200 grn hard cast bullet at 900 to 1000 fps has plenty of penetration and power to completely pass through a deer even if your shot is off a little. This is not the load I've used for most of my hunting, but it is for the last several years, and is a completely ethical load, IF YOU DO YOUR PART. Any power left in the bullet after it has gone out the other side of a deer is waisted. The perfect bullet would penitrate a deer, and fall on the ground on the other side, but that's not reality, you need enough bullet to pass through even if the deer moves, or your shot is off just a bit.
Way back, when I was about 18 or 19, I took a Marginal shot on a deer, and that took me the rest of the day to track the deer and finish it off. Since then, I've never taken a shot at a deer that was moving faster than a slow walk, and probably 90% or more were standing still and didn't even know I was there till I shot. I truthfuly don't know how many deer I've shot over the years, but it's way more than the number of years I've been hunting, even given that some years I don't even shoot one. Some years I just hunt with a camera, and getting the perfect shot with a camera is much harder than with a pistol or rifle.
To imply that I deny reality and have a lack of real hunting experience from a reference to not taking "Marginal" shots, not knowing me or the level of hunting and shooting experience I have, is arragont and insulting. 150 years ago, this would have resulted in an invitation to coffee and pistols at dawn, in this day and age, it simply results in a loss of all respect for anyone being that insulting and rude.
I just got home last evening from traveling nearly 1000 miles to shoot for two days for a charity shoot to bennifet St. Jude's Childrens Hospital where the 180 shooters, spouses and range staff raised over $36,500 to be donated to St. Judes, I'm tired and my back hurts and I'm done with this thread.
By.
Greeenriver
