Thread: When to pull the trigger

Yeah yeah you squeeze it. Thought I would start a thread about when you decide that you are going to take the shot from a safety point, probably more about bush hunting than the tops.I personally know three guys that have been shot and one who shot and killed a person. The 3 guys that were shot, all were shot by their hunting companion, all shot on the left side of their bodies, all shot by a 270 and unbelievably all survived. But with pretty major permanent injuries. The one who shot the guy, hit him with a 3006 in the chest and sadly he didn't. When I hunt which is mainly thick bush and small clearings, if I sight the animal, I watch it for awhile for a number of reasons.

1: To identify it beyond all doubt that it is my target, Deer, Pig, Duck. Repercussion, Andy a bullet thru his arse and thru his nuts, luckily only bruising the Femoral Artery and missing you know what. Barry failed to identify beyond all doubt and sadly taking a life

2: I like to place my shot for a quick kill and to minimise food wastage. Repercussion, a wounded Deer can cover a lot of territory and around here without a specialists dog that can mean a lost animal.

3: Purely from a lazy point, I try and shoot the animal so I get a favourable recovery, i.e wait for it to step out so it will fall or not fall depending on where I'm hunting.

4: Carrying and treating the firearm as always loaded and treat it as such. Repercussion Andrew a steel bar all the way down the left side of his leg.

5: Guns, Alcohol and drugs don't mix, ever. Mark no left arm.

Yes you will miss out on animals, so what, better than shooting someone.

Yes there are other rules that need to be followed and I guess what I'm looking for is why you took the shot when you did.

I have hunted with blokes who have not done one or all of the above, I have not hunted with them again. I have taught many a young/novice hunter how to hunt and these are my rules. The Gun safety that the Son displays in the field and Maimai makes me extremely proud and confident when we hunt together. The roar is here so be careful, it's not always the novice that wrongly pulls the trigger.

For the record I have shot quite a few deer and yes I have wounded and lost animals by following the above (Thank fuk for the dog), but by doing the above your chances of recovering a animal and not a person will increase. Your thoughts

It's all food for thought. The lad thought I was being a pedantic old bastard with rules and regulations when shooting,both legal and ethical rules. I was glad that when doing the HUNTs course, it was all reinforced, and drummed in. Some of the others raised their eyebrows, but the lad took in his stride, and said 'maybe you are right'

Got taught early on to not just identify 'deer' but how old, sex and what it's doing (grazing, sleeping, walking through) if you just wait a better shot may well present itself or a better animal may be following it a few minutes behind

Good advice you can't be to careful and if costs you a deer or two so what. I have lost two mates to hunting accidents and it sucks big time.
One my best mate was hunting Sika when he was mistaken for a deer and shot, it was summer and he was wearing brown and was a red hair but that was no excuse. The other was a Aussie mate how was shot due to bad handling of a loaded firearm. ( Both accidents were by members of there party)
It does happen so be vigilant out there and stay safe and come home.

The baby boomers are disproportionately represented in hunting shootings that is a fact,many conclusions could be drawn as to the true cause but basically its the she'l be right mentality at fault and a desire to be a successful hunter by shooting a deer.

Key I think is not caring if you shoot a deer or not,and you learn so much more about them and their behavior by not shooting or just waiting and watching a bit first.

Baby Boomers were at fault in all of my mentioned shootings, and only one was novice. Two of them were exprofessional shooters i.e Forest service and choppers and Goat cullers. Begs believe doesn't it.

Good thread GA. I saw the statistic about baby boomers and thought it interesting. There is a truth that we are older and our eyesight is not as sharp as it once was but it is also true that there are a lot of us who grew up hunting that are still out there doing it so it could be that there are a lot more older hunters tramping the hills. That aside, age is no arbiter of ability nor experience so it would be a mistake for younger hunters to think these things only happen with us baby boomers. We all need to identify our target beyond all doubt.

Just proves a 270 isn't an effective killer (sorry for the dark humour)

Me and a mate were down a horrible spur on Saturday sitting there arguing with a stag below us on whether to go in on him or not and some bloke showed up behind us, middle of bloody no where. He yelled out a couple of times prior to approaching which we replied back. Gave us a bit of a fright, we initially thought the movement noises was the fawn that had been hanging around for the last half hour. I was happy with the guys method of approach and glad also that I don't sound anything like a deer (work to be done there @Pointer) and he was older with glasses so that's a bit of a mute point in my eyes. I support Rushys post above.

Here's something to try and I do it often when game hasn't spotted you and you have time I go through a safety check and even try and convince my self its a human I'm looking at then lower firearm look at target without optics and then through scope again I do this several times by then I've usually found the game has moved closer to me by then as well when I'm 200% satisfied I'm looking at what Im intending to shoot that's when I decide to pull trigger or not

Originally Posted by northdude

look at target without optics

Very good point

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

Yeah yeah you squeeze it. Thought I would start a thread about when you decide that you are going to take the shot from a safety point, probably more about bush hunting than the tops.I personally know three guys that have been shot and one who shot and killed a person. The 3 guys that were shot, all were shot by their hunting companion, all shot on the left side of their bodies, all shot by a 270 and unbelievably all survived. But with pretty major permanent injuries. The one who shot the guy, hit him with a 3006 in the chest and sadly he didn't. When I hunt which is mainly thick bush and small clearings, if I sight the animal, I watch it for awhile for a number of reasons.

1: To identify it beyond all doubt that it is my target, Deer, Pig, Duck. Repercussion, Andy a bullet thru his arse and thru his nuts, luckily only bruising the Femoral Artery and missing you know what. Barry failed to identify beyond all doubt and sadly taking a life

2: I like to place my shot for a quick kill and to minimise food wastage. Repercussion, a wounded Deer can cover a lot of territory and around here without a specialists dog that can mean a lost animal.

3: Purely from a lazy point, I try and shoot the animal so I get a favourable recovery, i.e wait for it to step out so it will fall or not fall depending on where I'm hunting.

4: Carrying and treating the firearm as always loaded and treat it as such. Repercussion Andrew a steel bar all the way down the left side of his leg.

5: Guns, Alcohol and drugs don't mix, ever. Mark no left arm.

Yes you will miss out on animals, so what, better than shooting someone.

Yes there are other rules that need to be followed and I guess what I'm looking for is why you took the shot when you did.

I have hunted with blokes who have not done one or all of the above, I have not hunted with them again. I have taught many a young/novice hunter how to hunt and these are my rules. The Gun safety that the Son displays in the field and Maimai makes me extremely proud and confident when we hunt together. The roar is here so be careful, it's not always the novice that wrongly pulls the trigger.

For the record I have shot quite a few deer and yes I have wounded and lost animals by following the above (Thank fuk for the dog), but by doing the above your chances of recovering a animal and not a person will increase. Your thoughts

Can you give us a heads up where these guys will be hunting over Easter

Chose not to shoot a buck on Saturday as I'd have taken out all of the back steaks was not happy with a nexck shot either as I had no rest. Sometimes it's all about respect for the animal you shoot.

Originally Posted by northdude

Here's something to try and I do it often when game hasn't spotted you and you have time I go through a safety check and even try and convince my self its a human I'm looking at then lower firearm look at target without optics and then through scope again I do this several times by then I've usually found the game has moved closer to me by then as well when I'm 200% satisfied I'm looking at what Im intending to shoot that's when I decide to pull trigger or not

Whatever you are looking at IS a HUMAN until proven otherwise. To take any other approach may result in the unthinkable....

Yeah well obviously not to every one