Thread: Does gunshot clear a area in the bush

Don't give up hunting an area just because shots were fired.

If the deer have cover, I don't think they move far if at all. If they are in the open and feeling vulnerable, they will probably run for cover.

I have sat on a cliff top shooting over a gully for rabbits with a 22-250 firing probably 30 rounds in 1/2 hour, and then 13 deer including two stags meandered out of the scrub below me no more than 200m away, and I had been shooting over the top of them. They came out for their early evening feed. I stopped shooting and watched them with my two boys, telling them to soak it all in because they probably would see another sight like in in all of their days hunting.

Two weeks ago I was using the thermal to hunt for rabbits. Drove the quad into a paddock of hill country and with the motor running and the lights on, did a quick thermal with the bino's. Spotted 4 deer out in the open on a face probably 250m away. Thought 'this will be interesting test on deer behaviour'. I deliberately drove the bike with the lights on for 100m into the paddock parallel to their position and stopped the bike. Checked the deer with the thermal and they were on alert, and had moved off and up the face by 50m or so but where still reasonably settled. Got kitted for a walk on rabbits and headed up a ridge in the opposite direction to the deer. Checked them a couple of times and they had settled and were feeding. Shot the first rabbit with the .17HMR with a suppressor on, then checked the deer. The had bunched up and started to move off across the face. Another couple of shots at rabbits and checked the deer and they were now going over the ridge line. These deer were in a paddock there there wasn't a single tree or piece of scrub for +300m in any direction. They clearly felt vulnerable. That said, they probably only went 500-600m from their original position and settled again, after a noisy quad bike, lights and shots fired.