Shoot targets of opportunity

This hunter didn’t shoot at other animals. He jusr shot a nice buck.

There is one thing I've noticed over the years. The bow hunter who shoots at coyotes, fox, grouse, porcupines, rabbits and squirrels seldom bag many deer. Oh, there are exceptions but not many.

Years before the compound bow, and before we could hunt from tree stands, I knew a man who only hunted three or four times a year. One time out he shot a coyote, and the next time while hunting from a stand near a big pine tree, he shot a porcupine.

Year after year he would complain. The other hunters, he'd gripe, shoot deer but I never see them. I need to find me a different  stand where there are some deer.

Deer hunters must be narrowly focused on their hunt.

I gave him a fairly blunt answer. I told him that hunters who are constantly shooting at chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels and other game and non-game animals, very seldom shoot deer.

His argument was he got bored when not shooting at the varmints and small game, and that he wouldn’t be bored if he saw more deer. I wanted the man to shoot a nice buck, but he was his own worst enemy. He just wanted to kill something and couldn’t sit still long enough for deer to work their way to him.

I laid out a hypothetical situation and asked him to look at it mt way. There you are, perched in a tree stand or in a ground blind, and along comes a coyote. You draw back and shoot, and it makes little difference whether you hit or miss. The sound of the bow releasing the arrow, and all the commotion that follows, is what shies deer away from the stand.

Or , I asked him, think about it this way. Our deer wander quite a bit, and you are relatively open in a tree stand. The porkie waddles along the ground, making his little pig-like sounds, and you stand up, come to full draw and shoot. That amounts to quite a bit of movement.

Fifty or 100 yards away stands a buck or doe about to step out to walk in your direction. They see movement in the tree (you), movement on the ground (the porcupine), and then hear the bow go off and the arrow striking the porkie and the ground.

Shooting at targets of opportunity other than deer is not wise.

The porkie waddles off, leaking blood, thrashes around in the brush and dies. Those deer have seen enough to settle the case for them; they hightail it in the opposite direction.

I know a man that shot a coyote from a tree. It was a good hit, and the 'yote ran 100 yards before dropping. A deer that was back in thick cover and could see the hunter, hears the shot and the frantic fast-paced dash of the wounded coyote.

Curious, he steps to the edge of cover, and watches as you climb down from the tree stand and walk over to the dead animal. You'll take it out to show your buddies later, but walk off a good distance and put the carcass down, walk back and climb into your stand.

How many deer will you see that night? My guess is not very many.

A buddy of mine believed in object lessons. He put a young man in a ground blind, and told him not to leave the stand until he came in on a four-wheeler to pick him up. Stay in the stand, and don't open the door.

The man returned that evening after shooting time had ended, took the four-wheeler a half-mile back to the stand to pick up the dude, and there was the blind door banging back and forth in the wind. He said he'd shot a big doe right behind the front shoulder.

The shooter and his father-in-law looked, gave up for the night, and the young man was chewed out for leaving the stand before the four-wheeler came to pick him up, for not latching the door, and for being somewhat stupid. They found the doe fawn that weighed perhaps 30 pounds (ground shrinkage), and the kid was razed good.

My buddy said he'd give the kid another chance, and he could sit in the same blind the next night. The kid was again warned not to leave the coop or to open the door, and he didn't. He also didn't see any deer that night, and my friend said "it serves you right for not listening the first time." The kid knew he'd been had, and paid for his stupidity by spending an evening looking for deer that would never show up that night.

Shooting a game animal or bird is fine if you don't want to shoot a deer, and fine if the animal or bird is still in season and you have a small-game license. It's never a good idea if you want to shoot deer.

Shooting at game other than deer tips whitetails off to your presence. You may be the only hunter in your party with a porcupine kill, but the others may shoot deer. Take your choice.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors