doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT- Shooting deer with peashooters, humane?

Context is pretty much everything. I would have no problem using a .22 Hornet to take deer (meat animals) off my property for the rest of my days. I have used larger .22 centerfires, too. They can get me to about 250 yds.

But........general purpose deer rounds start with the .243 WCF and premium bullet, IMO.

When I travel to some other locale (ie., paying the bick bucks to shoot big bucks) I bring one of my .300 mags.

Sam

400, you sound a little bitter...what about my asking for you to post a picture of your - so say you - double rifle - which by the way you didn't - but you did have a wonderful sob story to go along with your nixing it.
Makes us wonder!

I have been bow hunting since 1952, starting with a 25# pull Osage orange long bow at age 11 (sticking rabbits in the suburbs); killed my first deer in 1962, and uncounted numbers since. It has been my experience that a well hit large buck (shot straight through the lungs and heart) will run on adrenalin up to 100 yards, probably not even knowing he has suffered a killing penetration. There is no impact shock like with a slug or sabot (which are the legal loads in IL). I have killed a large buck that ran less than 100 feet, and a doe that went down with a broken back (squealing like a baby until dispatched).

The idea of hunting is to reduce game animals to possession, and death ensues (hunting is not "catch and release"). A true sportsman tries not to make a mess of it. The skill level necessary to bag a deer (or anything else) with a bow and arrow is so much beyond that of gun hunting that there can be no comparison. I have always thought that sticking a deer with a razor-sharp broadhead was something like letting the air out of a tire, and no more painful than being cut with a very sharp object, as contrasted to the destructive impact and shock to tissues and organs of a bullet or slug.

In the final analysis, no animals are going to get out of this life alive, including posters on this site. Given my observation about an adrenalin-charged deer running up to 100 yards max, and cranking in 20 MPH (men have run a mile at over 15 MPH), that's about 30 feet per second, or 10 seconds till the deer collapses in a heap. When one considers the long drawn-out alternatives of starvation and hypothermia, and the weakened animals being eaten alive by predators (turkey vultures, crows, coyotes, wolves, bugs and vermin), not to mention the toll motor vehicles take, I think if the deer had a say about their preferred ultimate demise, they would cast their ballot for the arrow and not the bullet, automobile, or "natural death."

Jim: If you would like to get up to speed on "painful and lengthy times to die," you should visit a nursing home or hospice. And on topic there is an interesting picture in James Beard's famous book, The End of the Game, of a native that had been eaten by a lion. The lion started from the feet without regard to whether his meal had checked out. The lion licked the skin off the lower extremities to savor the blood, then started chomping the calves and thighs, cracking bones and shaking ("not stirred", Mr. Bond). How long the victim was alive, in shock, or in pain was only speculation. Someone once commented to me about this being the worst way to go. I pointed out that the killing process, albeit seemingly protracted, probably took less than two or three minutes. One needs only to become acquainted with how people die a "natural death" by way of disease, trauma, or simple aging to realize that few are so fortunate to achieve their four score years in painless perfect health and lie down, go to sleep, and not wake up. Maybe being eaten alive isn't so bad after all. Investigation continues. EDM

EDM- one of my current favorite fiction writers is Thomas Harris-who created the character "Hannibal The Cannibal"-He was a former NYC police reporter, is a "Rey Del Mundo Hombre" and his research is flawless, like Michener's you might say.

Read his novel "Hannibal" and see how well he describes the gradual eaten alive ending plotted for him by Millionaire scion of the Meat Packing Industry- Mason Verger-

Worse way to die- IMO trapped in a burning building or vehicle with the added fuel (Twin Towers) or a overturned acetone tanker truck- Best way to die-IMO- post-coital wrapped firmly up with a big round "Zaftig": Blonde, Brunette, Redhead- anything but Hillary C.- RWTF

Lord Ripon dropped dead in the heather at the end of a grouse drive in 1923. They were still picking his birds when they had to pick him as well.

Sounds good to me - except I can't afford to shoot grouse so keeling over in the pigeon hide will have to do!

Say-not a bad call-read he used a matched trio of hammer Purdeys and once had 7 dead pheasants in the air and dropping inside of one minute- How many loaders did he use for three shotguns? My kind of gunner-wonder how he and the legendary Harold Money (De Shootin'ist Gent'ma" of 1916 T.N. Buckingham fame would have fared together- I love Nash's writings, but a man who never missed on ducks-whether with a old "cornsheller" M1897 12 bore, or a matched pair of Powells-huumm. Ducks be tricky targets- you can maybe predict the take-off, landing and airborne tactics "under gunning pressures" between puddlers and divers- BUT running 15 for 15 shells-take 'em as they come, and no "crips"- huum again. I'd like to have the late Harold Money in a pitching rolling layout boat in early Nov. in Saginaw Bay when the big flights are in- and a 40 mph crosswind is whitecapping the Bay- toughest of the Divers to kill clean dead is the Bufflehead-RWTF!!

Humane? I stay away from the discussion of "humane" and "hunting" in circles where it's clear there are "anti's". It's a 'no win' debate with them or anyone else set on calling your hunting or particular ways of hunting "inhumane". I've seen it here and in other venues. Don't worry about convincing others, just stay within the law and enjoy your hunting time.

I'm going dove hunting with my "inhumane" .410 tomorrow.

Lucky you Chuck. I found the doves, inhumanely absent, in my section of Ohio this year.

Dave,
I may find a similar situation in Yuma tomorrow. Hopefully not.

Chuck, you better check your AZ dove regs. According to Commission Order 19 in the AZ dove regs 2008-2009, the second season does not open until Friday, November 21. I just pulled up their regs this morning to verify and I have a printed copy in front of me as I type this. If you are gonna hunt doves tomorrow, take a cheap gun.

I just phoned AZ GFD and they confirmed 11/21/08 for the dove opener.