Hunters: the roar is almost here

**T.W.R** · 16th March 2010, 14:24

Well as a couple of local Hunting stores are reminding hunters that the roar is almost here and suggesting guns should be checked etc and offering for rifles to be sighted in and tested & so forth.
I wondered how often on average do we sight in our guns to ensure clean effective kills of our prey and if not often regularly do we get clean kills or have to track a wounded animal ?

I've always shot for meat so an effective shot with minimal flesh damage has been the priority and have on occasion had to track an animal to deliver the coupe de gra'ce

So how long tracking a wounded animal

1) Always a clean kill
2) less than an hour
3) less than 6hrs
4) A day
5) fark it go get another one

Sometimes it's impossible to retrieve a carcass if it's gone over a bluff or fallen down a washout etc. But all effort should be made to retrieve what you shoot or at least ensure it's dead.

**scumdog** · 16th March 2010, 15:56

I'm Scottish - too stingy to waste bullets on an uncertain shot!

**Tank** · 16th March 2010, 16:13

Hoping to get out there for my first time this year - if only the 'ol bill will pass me for my firearms in time.

**NighthawkNZ:Me** · 16th March 2010, 16:41

I hunt via crossbow...

**Skyryder** · 16th March 2010, 16:47

Originally Posted by NighthawkNZ

I hunt via crossbow...

Good one. Silent and steallthy.

Skyryder

**CookMySock** · 16th March 2010, 16:55

Originally Posted by NighthawkNZ

I hunt via crossbow...

I hunt via semi-auto spray-and-pray. Every two hundred meters I empty a magazine into the bush just for shits and giggles. Always a fun time hunting over the ridge from Tank.. Oh, did I take a wrong turn back there? Am I in the same valley? Who cares.. :shrug:

Steve

**BoristheBiter** · 16th March 2010, 17:02

up to the range to put about 20 rounds through both guns but as i look after them a know where they shoot.
Always aim for head shot so they go down or it's a miss but with the dog tracking them now its not so hard if it needs tracking.

**T.W.R** · 16th March 2010, 17:45

Originally Posted by NighthawkNZ

I hunt via crossbow...

So there's far more chance of wounding the animal huh?
slightly different but in "A quiver full of hope" (bow hunting) one of the opening scenes is a shoot & wound and fail to retireve a deer.

I like the almost 100% clean kill stats

even when it's a regular event to loose animals not knowing whether or not the shot was lethal or not; it's even been written about hunters coming across easy shots only to find why.... the animals suffering from maggot infested gunshot wounds

**duckonin** · 16th March 2010, 18:29

I shall say something dumb !...'Identify' your target beyond any doubt...

**peasea** · 16th March 2010, 18:35

Where's the "fuck it just go to the supermarket" option?

**peasea** · 16th March 2010, 18:36

Originally Posted by scumdog

I'm Scottish - too stingy to waste bullets on an uncertain shot!

Unlike your comrades in Porirua a while back eh?

**T.W.R** · 16th March 2010, 18:38

Originally Posted by duckonin

I shall say something dumb !...'Identify' your target beyond any doubt...

nothing dumb about it...it's one of the seven cardinal rules. shame not many adhere to it though

**T.W.R** · 16th March 2010, 18:39

Originally Posted by peasea

Where's the "fuck it just go to the supermarket" option?

Farmed venison tastes like shite by comparison to wild venison

totally washed out & tame in flavour

**peasea** · 16th March 2010, 18:42

Originally Posted by T.W.R

Farmed venison tastes like shite by comparison to wild venison

totally washed out & tame in flavour

Too true, never buy the stuff. I have a tame hunter just out of town, venison and pork in the freezer. He likes to hunt, I like to ride, it's an even keel.