Thread: hunting -- just starting out

Originally Posted by Ironbar

The are two things I know about hunting in the coast range:

1) There are a gajillion people who go up opening weekend.

2) There wasn't a deer within 20 miles of us the entire time.

Thats why I gave up modern firearm hunting. *GASP NOT THE GUN* Yes.. I gave up the gun (for hunting in the woods)

I now archery hunt, which is WAY more challenging, only a fraction of the people do it, its earlier in the season and the meat tastes a whole lot better, you dont get shot at, AND you see WAY WAY WAY more animals because all the city folk haven't had a chance to make them gunshy..

(for all you city folk reading this... gunshy is when the deer learn that when a someone stops and bullets get sent in their general direction without any real understanding of the word accuracy.. they learn to RUN at the first sign of a person)

Late archery season is bit more challenging because the deer tend to be quite a bit more skittish, and not as willing to stick around to find out what the cracking branch was!!

you think hitting a 4" target at 100 yards25% of the time is ok for a hunter? no, thats not really good enough, modern guns are almost all capable of 1" groups at 100 yards, and you should be able to hit a 4" target 100 % of the time at 100 yards there is no excuse for not being able to.

Originally Posted by plumberfishes

you think hitting a 4" target at 100 yards25% of the time is ok for a hunter? no, thats not really good enough, modern guns are almost all capable of 1" groups at 100 yards, and you should be able to hit a 4" target 100 % of the time at 100 yards there is no excuse for not being able to.

You forgot to include, "from a standing position". Yes, most non-competition shooters would say 25% is adequate, I think.

Well its not, my father would have not allowed us to carry a gun with shooting like that. And now with modern weapons, and newer scopes, there is really no excuse for poor shooting. If you cannot afford to go to the range enough to be a decent shot and, 4" at 100 yard 90% of the time off hand is "decent " in my book then you really do not need to be out hunting until you have more practice. But my main point is if you are not good enough with your weapon to make a clean ethical shot then you should not be hunting.

you think hitting a 4" target at 100 yards25% of the time is ok for a hunter? no, thats not really good enough, modern guns are almost all capable of 1" groups at 100 yards, and you should be able to hit a 4" target 100 % of the time at 100 yards there is no excuse for not being able to.

Good thing nobody needs your permission to go hunting. There wouldn't be anybody out there. I used to shoot competition, and 80/100 standing is good enough to win a lot of matches. That's roughly what you're calling for here. The average hunter I see at public sight-ins is happy with 4" from the bench. My Howa .30-06 will shoot 3/4" at 100 yards from the bench. That doesn't mean I can do that standing. But I have killed 5 bucks over the last 7 years of hunting with offhand shots at from 70 to 100 yards and I hit every one of them where I intended.