Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

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JV NC
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby JV NC » Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:50 am

Great mantra.

First time I remember emptying the quiver was on a 4.5yo I'd hunted for three seasons. When he walked under me (directly) that morning, I was shaking. My first shot spined him at 20yds.. He went down and quickly got to only his front legs and started dragging himself at a pretty good pace. I shot again and hit him at about 30yds or so. I re-loaded and missed at about 40yds. At 50yds (which is why I always keep pins to at least that distance) he stopped and was laying, quartering hard away, with his belly towards me. I hit him really good, and he stopped moving, seconds later. I'm not proud of that first shot. But, the follow-ups I was forced to take.....I am.

I had a friend (forum member here) hunting with me a few years ago, and he arrowed a buck @ 20yds.. We were 40yds. apart in the woods and the buck (spined) went down behind a tree (blocking my friend's view). I emptied my quiver into that buck, because he was moving after each shot. He expired pretty quickly, after my 4th (his 5th) arrow. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and there's no question in my mind that the buck would have expired (eventually) from the 1st shot. My buddy's buck. No questions about that.

I spined a doe a few years ago and put three more arrows into her in record time. She was still moving, and I DID climb down the tree, remove one of the arrows...and shoot her again. Again, not proud of the first shot. But, I'm not ashamed of what happened after it. They're unbelievably reilient animals.

That's three instances in 40+ bowkills. I'll always keep shooting, until they're out of range or they've stopped moving. My buck from last year lived 15.5hrs with 6" of BH-tipped arrow in his brisket (right lung was taken out on the initial hit). I shot him with the arrow at 4:00 one afternoon, and put him down with a ML shot (after jumping him 3X) at 7:30 the next morning. If I'd been able to put more arrows in him the previous day, I would have.

The guys on TV who spine an animal .....and do nothing.....get NO respect from me.


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Stanley
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby Stanley » Thu Aug 02, 2012 3:11 am

Have sent a second arrow many times over the years. Learned that lesson in 1976 arrowed a buck and dropped him like a hot potato. Started to climb out of the tree (no tree stand back then). Buck got up and took off. Had I just put another arrow in him, but didn't. The buck was found by another hunter couple weeks later. After that lesson I shoot until the deer is down, for good or I'm out of arrows.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Thu Aug 02, 2012 3:33 am

Wyoming September 2000. A cow and calf trotted by my cousin Louie and I. I kept waiting for him to pull up, but he didn't hear them coming. He was in front and a bit and lower, we were overlooking an L shaped meadow. I couldn't take it anymore so I shot once, the cow kept running. I couldnt tell if I hit or not, then he stood up and worked that bolt like a magician. When the cow was finally on the ground we counted 4 holes. So he either hit all four on a moving animal, or went 3 for 4 and I actually hit the animal on my first shot. It was so cool to see, I just said that is your elk.

He said don't stop shooting until they are down. I had only been hunting with a rifle for four years at this point, and every deer I had hit with the 7 mag just went straight down, so I was not good at follow up shots with a bolt. I made that change in mind set after this.
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby mossyoak » Thu Aug 02, 2012 6:08 am

Oh man, i have a couple interesting stories coming back to me some mine some from others I hunt with. Shoot until they drop is what I used to tell all my hunters when I used to guide in Colorado.

I figured I should prpbably start with one of my shoot until they drop stories. It was either 2008-09 I could only hunt the first couple days of season before I left to go guide in Colorado. On the last day I could hunt before I left I had a doe at 50 some yards standing broadside. This is a shot I pracitce frequently and it was early in the evening and I had plenty of light and figured it would be nice to get one on the ground before leaving and I would have plenty of time. So I shoot the deer and it looked like I 12 ringed it. I was pumped because this was my longest shot to date. I waited 15 minutes in my stand and went and got my truck. It worked out nice since I could drive almost the whole way to the stand and I was taking it down anyhow. I then went to pick up the track probably 30 mins after the shot. I found the arrow and it was covered in bright red blood. tracked the deer for 150-200 yards and it got into some real thick cover. When I was going starting into the cover I seen a deer jump up about 40 yards away it a spot that did not look consistent with the blood trail I was following. The cover was so thick I decided to just check the area were I had see the deer jump. As I snuck over to the area i got within 15 yards of the deer that was bedded. At first I did not this this was my deer but then it stood up and you could what sounded like weezing it was blood being pushed throught the chest cavity and the deer was still dripping blood. I knocked another arrow at 15 yards which should have been a gimme but of course I make the long shot and gut shoot the second at 15 yards. I got the deer and gutted it out and found the first shot was a little low but still had sliced the bottom of the heart. The deer had lived live 40 mins and went probably a total of 300 yards with a leaking heart.

Another time I was practicing this moto while young it could have got me into trouble but lucky for me I had doe tags. It was late season and I was hunting a morning. I had a doe come in right away and I shot her. looked like a good shot so I stood up and went to climb down and noticed a deer standing 35 yards from my stand in the direction the other had ran off. I though it was the deer I had shot and put another arrow into her or so I thought. Long story short it was my first double.
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rizzo999
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby rizzo999 » Fri Aug 03, 2012 4:23 am

Since taking up archery I have been really fortunate that I have not had to take a follow-up shot, but I'm sure it will eventually happen. Early on I was shooting a mechanical BH with a bow that should NOT been shooting those heads as it was way too slow. I hit a doe at 25 yrd in the shoulder in early Oct and she runs away with the arrow hanging out. When she made an abrupt right turn I saw the arrow fly out of her. I was excited as this was going to be what I thought was my first archery kills. I get over to the arrow in a dried bean field and there was less than 2" of penetration on that arrow. I found literally one drop of blood the remainder of that morning. Fast-forward to the IL 2nd shotgun season. My Dad shoots a doe that has a scar on the same left shoulder. She was fine for over 6 weeks and I switched to cut-on-contact blades after that!
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby stikman » Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:05 am

My first deer ever was opening day of early archery season in Wisconsin when I was 12 yrs old(I'm now 33). The first day I could hunt ever(no youth seasons back then). Snuck in the dark and hung a stand the night before. Hunted the next morning and had fresh sign everywhere. Went back out for the evening sit. About 2 hours before dark a small doe and a button buck came wandering in. The doe walks past at 10 yards and the button buck took a short detour trail and ended up cutting my track. His youthful age his downfall, however instinctively swayed, he stomped his feet a couple times, started the ole head bob and then joined back up with the doe about 15 yards in front of me. Being the young rookie I was I sent feather and stick flying at him hard quartering away and broke his spine. My stand could have been a fire-man's pole! I hurried down the 10 feet out of the stand, ran over and got my buddy's dad(locally referred to as Rat) who was a short ways away. Rat and I came back to find the deer still very much alive and holding himself up on his front feet. Rat then informed me another shot would be necessary as "Bambi" as he called my first deer, was much too alive to finish off by "other means". Standing now about 10 feet from the buck I took aim by looking down the arrow shaft(who sights in for point blank shots right?). I relaxed my finger tabs and the thunderhead clipped skin in the bucks neck then back out and in again angled down into the lungs. The bucks life ended and my enveloping, all consuming obsession with killing animals with archery equipment instantly took life. I learned that first day I could hunt how the killing part was my least favorite aspect of this rewarding, frustrating and miraculous activity we call bow-hunting. Since then I've been lucky. Only 3 or 4 deer required additional shots and all with the rifle. I am a firm believer in making the first one count however, buck fever can and will dictate additional tugs of the trigger finger I've learned, but that subject is a post for another thread.
If we aren't supposed to eat animals why are they made of meat?



Genesis 21:20 - speaking of Abraham and Hagar's son Ishmael:
"And God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow."
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UntouchableNess
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Re: Dont stop shooting till they stop moving!

Unread postby UntouchableNess » Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:18 pm

"Pincushion 2008"

I heard the neighbor start to combine a corn field across the road to the south. I figured I'd go sit the creek bottom to see if he spooked anything out, strong south wind.

For some reason, I turned to look north to see a buck mount a doe less than 30 yards downwind of me. His rack was full of grass from raking the ground. I immediately swiveled to draw; the doe caught the movement and scooted out from under the buck.

The buck must have thought that there was another challenger coming in, so he trotted under my tree, in what I guessed was an attempt to protect a flank.

The shot was almost straight down, but I took it. I could see I got decent penetration. He trotted back to where he had been tending the doe, then headed west. As he turned, I had another arrow nocked and caught him behind his left shoulder.

Imagine my disgust as the second arrow flopped around as he ran off. Looking at the arrow after finding him, I realized I had shot a deer with it the previous week. It was a Wasp Jakhammer and one of the blades was "glued" shut, actually broke the blade off instead of opening, thus minimizing penetration. Of all the arrows in the quiver, I grabbed that one. :doh:

Oh well, worked out ok as both had enough penetration and the deer didn't go 150 yards. Notice the two arrows laying in front of him, as I pulled them out before taking field photos of "pincushion".

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