Guns, Bows, Shooting Sports, and Hunting One helluva headache

[JR]

Was out hunting with the uncle during the first week of December when he bagged a buck. He processed the deer and as an after thought decided to do something different and try a European mount. I had never done one before either so I went over to help out and see how it was done. Back when he shot the buck we immediately noticed a nasty scar in the skull of the deer. We didn't think much of it at the time and wrote it off as an old battle wound with another buck. Well as we got into preparing the skull we found out different.

The arrow actually penetrated the tongue and lower jaw and somehow he was able to work it loose (probably through chewing) and eat like that! He had to of been in ALOT of pain, but did not appear to be mal nourished. Actually, considering what he had been through, he seemed to be fairly healthy.

 

[JCasper]

Wow, that is crazy

 

[HHhuntitall]

That is insane!! I've seen cows with bones stuck in their jaws... they'll chew on 'em for the calcium.... but that's the top of the pile, there!!

I've seen pigs with huge holes in their backs, looking like they got hit by an airplane prop, presumeably from a high shoulder shot from some magnum rifle.... but that broadhead.... Dang!!!

 

[GCroyle]

JR,

Gonna include the foreign object on the mount backboard somewhere? Ouch!

 

[BIGNASTY]

IMO another reason for GUNS ONLY, and even then PROVEN shooting competence making an animal suffer like that is a terrible thing

 

[JR]

It definitely hurts to look at it. Bow season starts the last weekend in September, that leaves 8 week that poor fella could have been wandering around like that. Judging by the way the hole in his noggin had started to heal, and the scar tissue around his tongue, were guessing it's been close to that long.

 

[DonFitzwater]

Big, rifle hunters cripple animals every year too. Don't go rooting to ban something cause it won't stop there.

 

[jgillott]

Heck, anyone can have a shot go bad. But unfortunately, we see that way too often around here anymore. We had a small spike limping around our farm here this fall with one sticking out of its rear leg.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Big, rifle hunters cripple animals every year too. Don't go rooting to ban something cause it won't stop there.

Hence the STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUNS ONLY, and even then PROVEN shooting competence

Take a Pole and somehow get an HONEST!!!! answer for the question how many times does a hunter practice shooting bow OR rifle ?? Of course most will BS about the practice.

 

[JR]

Big, rifle hunters cripple animals every year too. Don't go rooting to ban something cause it won't stop there.

This is true, especially with all the "trophy hunters" so to speak, or the guys who are out there more for social reasons than anything else. The guys that go out and buy all the latest and greatest gear and then leave it sit for the next 11 months, when it will either get brought out and either used again for a few weeks or traded in for the next best thing on the shelf. IMO, there should only be one reason your out there, and that is to fill your freezer to put food on the table for the family. Too many people concerned with buying the latest and greatest and looking good while doing it. Just like Christmas, the true meaning has been lost on the vast majority.

 

[JR]

Hence the STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUNS ONLY, and even then PROVEN shooting competence

Take a Pole and somehow get an HONEST!!!! answer for the question how many times does a hunter practice shooting bow OR rifle ?? Of course most will BS about the practice.

BIG, I understand your point and agree to an extent, but remember bow hunting was the norm waaay before the long gun came about (I know your aware of that more than most) For the typical weekend warrior, your statment holds true. Too many people are willing to take that shot that they shouldn't, and take the risk of winging an animal and maybe finding it...or not. Bow hunting definitely takes a level of skill and patience that most dart throwers don't comprehend.

 

[jgillott]

Hence the STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GUNS ONLY, and even then PROVEN shooting competence

Take a Pole and somehow get an HONEST!!!! answer for the question how many times does a hunter practice shooting bow OR rifle ?? Of course most will BS about the practice.

Speaking specifically of my immediate area, I would venture to guess that 99% of people in the woods during deer season here have not shot their weapon of choice since the previous year, if that. At most, they may shoot a little a couple of days before the season starts.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Speaking specifically of my immediate area, I would venture to guess that 99% of people in the woods during deer season here have not shot their weapon of choice since the previous year, if that. At most, they may shoot a little a couple of days before the season starts.

My point EXACTLY!!

I have shown this Post to my FIL who is an AVID bow hunter, this year he took a 5x5 Bull that I witnessed, Myself I have never been a fan of bow's JMO I DON'T CONDEMN there use, its just my own thinking that they don't kill as quick and clean as a bullet and in-turn taints the meat with adrenalin.

I have been proven wrong this year by seeing FIL take this bull. The bull took the arrow in the chest flinched like a bee sting and calmly walked away, we waited about 20 minutes, followed a MASSIVE blood trail to an Elk that looked as thou it laid down to see what if anything was following it, and died. When I dressed the animal I found another reason for ME!!!! to not like bows, the amount of blood within the body of the Elk was overwhelming, the meat however didn't have the adrenalin taste that I was expecting.

My FIL had only one comment and it wasn't about whether bow or bullet was best, his concern was with ETHICS!! how or why was this deer shot in the forehead? even a frontal shot is not real ethical with either choice of weapon. He also said that what was done was more than likely done from a tree stand, if not the arrow would have more than likely ran along the skull and deflect.

All food for thought, no matter what choice of take is used.

I don't TRY TO GET THINGS BANNED BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE THEM, so don't try and Push that agenda either!!

 

[jgillott]

I've never personally been a fan of bow hunting. But, my brother-in-law has been for years and he got my nephew and my daughter interested in it (both my daughter and nephew shoot archery in an organized league, but that's a story for a different day). So, now, I guess I have to show some interest in it also.

There are a couple of advantages to it now here in PA from my opinion. Without getting in to it too specifically, rifle season in PA has turned in to a dangerous joke. As JR mentioned about Ohio, we have been overrun by the weekend woodsman types that don't have first clue what they are doing. They are often hungover from a long Thanksgiving weekend at 'deer camp', strap a rifle to their back, and shoot at anything that moves. I personally refuse to hunt on the first day or last day of the season now just for my personal safety. There isn't a year that goes by that someone or something isn't mistakenly shot and killed on the first day. This year, some very smart individual, shot a little girls horse standing behind a fence near their barn. Now, I'm getting older and my eyesight and hearing aren't what they used to be, but even I can tell the difference between a horse and a deer. In 2011, the last year I hunted on the first day, I had a guy spotting me through the scope on his rifle from across the field while I was wearing head to toe orange. Enough is enough with these people.

Archery season here seems to be a lot more relaxed/safe.

 

[JJPage]

Big, rifle hunters cripple animals every year too. Don't go rooting to ban something cause it won't stop there.

Very true DFitz!

 

[JR]

My FIL had only one comment and it wasn't about whether bow or bullet was best, his concern was with ETHICS!! how or why was this deer shot in the forehead? even a frontal shot is not real ethical with either choice of weapon. He also said that what was done was more than likely done from a tree stand, if not the arrow would have more than likely ran along the skull and deflect.

We figured the same, judging by the angle at which the arrow went down through the sinus cavity. That is all we can really surmise, the rest is speculation. I too would be interested to know WHY the head shot, whether it was intentional? or an errant dart, or did they shoot while he was on the move, (still a poor placed shot), poor visability, etc. Most likely, it was a lack of patience that led to a less than opportune shot....
I can say that I have let many more walk away than I have killed because I was not confident I had a kill shot...

 

[BIGNASTY]

I've never personally been a fan of bow hunting. But, my brother-in-law has been for years and he got my nephew and my daughter interested in it (both my daughter and nephew shoot archery in an organized league, but that's a story for a different day). So, now, I guess I have to show some interest in it also.

There are a couple of advantages to it now here in PA from my opinion. Without getting in to it too specifically, rifle season in PA has turned in to a dangerous joke. As JR mentioned about Ohio, we have been overrun by the weekend woodsman types that don't have first clue what they are doing. They are often hungover from a long Thanksgiving weekend at 'deer camp', strap a rifle to their back, and shoot at anything that moves. I personally refuse to hunt on the first day or last day of the season now just for my personal safety. There isn't a year that goes by that someone or something isn't mistakenly shot and killed on the first day. This year, some very smart individual, shot a little girls horse standing behind a fence near their barn. Now, I'm getting older and my eyesight and hearing aren't what they used to be, but even I can tell the difference between a horse and a deer. In 2011, the last year I hunted on the first day, I had a guy spotting me through the scope on his rifle from across the field while I was wearing head to toe orange. Enough is enough with these people.

Archery season here seems to be a lot more relaxed/safe.

We get the same thing here with the CITY DWELLER'S coming up from city's with Montana Plates on their trucks thinking that makes them a hunter because the live in a hunting mecca, like JR said with the all new hunting clothes, that smell of the factory that they were manufactured in with the price tags still attached, these are even MORE of a hazard than out of state-ers

 

[BIGNASTY]

I can say that I have let many more walk away than I have killed because I was not confident I had a kill shot...

When my Dad took me hunting the first time this was far more important to him than the taking of game, IT'S CALLED ETHICS!!!

 

[DonFitzwater]

Very true DFitz!

Some like to mouth off without thinking of the consequences.......when one means of taking game falls prey to the anti gunners and anti hunters of the world, the rest are soon to follow.

I bow hunt for about two weeks a year simply to be able to hunt close to home. Believe me, if I could gun hunt in the area around my home for moose I would do that over bow.

 

[Wayne M.]

Speaking specifically of my immediate area, I would venture to guess that 99% of people in the woods during deer season here have not shot their weapon of choice since the previous year, if that. At most, they may shoot a little a couple of days before the season starts.

I totally believe that- and it really is a shame. Especially in your neck of the woods, J, where there are great public places to shoot- and get good! My BIL brought me to a public range in his area (York) and I was just a LITTLE jealous. No reason for a hunter not to be a good shooter with resources like that.