M
muzzle
Guest
I can't believe how many wounded deer I have seen this year! I have personally seen three big bucks wounded by long range shots and have talked to a couple of other hunters who took long range shots with apparent hits and never found their deer. I wonder if by some small measure that more hunters are talking longer range shots and wounding more deer since long range shots seem to be the rage. I can't help but think many of these deer do not make it through the winter or are killed by predators. If this is happening a lot, which I suspect it does, how much do you think it has to do with the the number of bucks declining? I know most hunters just can't help taking that long range shot at a big buck, I know I have been guilty of it myself in the past but seeing what I saw on this hunt, I am shrinking my distance so I am not part of that game. At 350 + unless you hit it in the vitals where it is obviously hit hard, its hard to know if you got a hit or not. Many deer just run off with less than immediately lethal wounds and the hunter just asumes it was a miss and continues hunting. It's possible given this scenario that a single hunter may be the cause of several killed bucks in a year. Multiply this by who knows how many and the numbers add up fast. Just wanted to know what others think about long range shooting.