One Shot, One Kill

[jaybird62]

After 40 years of deer hunting, I can think of a few times more than one shot was taken. I had a 250-pound-plus Missouri 9-pointer take a 140-grain Nosler Partition through both lungs and took a second shot to put him down for good. The buck had been trailing a hot doe for two hours (I knew that because he ran her past me at 30 yards earlier that morning.) Long story short, I was eating a bologna sandwich and visiting with a good friend in a shoot house at lunch time and speculated that it would be nice if a buck chased a doe across the timbered hillside so we could have some action. Seconds later, here came a doe trotting across the hillside about 500 yards away and getting closer. When they got to about 275 yards, the doe, with her tongue wagging, bedded down for a rest. Amazingly enough, they came from the opposite direction over a mile from where I had seen the pair earlier. I watched the buck through the crosshairs for 75 minutes but didn't have a shot due to obscuring limbs from the tree tops growing up from the creek drain between us. Finally, the buck got impatient and goosed the doe in the rump with his antlers. That got her moving. I held the crosshairs on the front edge of his shoulder as he walked from right to left. The 7-08 hit him just behind the crease of his shoulder, but I couldn't tell at the time. The buck bolted and ran across the hill's face toward a draw that emptied down into the creek drainage. The doe broke and ran toward me into the cover of the creek bed. The buck stopped and started back toward the doe, which was now almost 100 yard from him. When the buck stepped into a spot about 325 yards away where I could squeeze a bullet through a foot-wide gap. He was nearly facing me, so I took the shot offered and hammered him in the chest. That broke his leg, but he still managed to wheel around and run another 90 yards before piling up. My friend swore I missed the first shot until we skinned the buck out. First shot was a "perfect" double-lunger with the bullet stopping under the hide on the off side. That buck lived almost a minute after the initial shot was fired, which surprised me quite a bit.

Usually, whitetails are DRT with most shots, but every once in a while they can soak up lead like a bull elk. I keep shooting until they stop... permanently... and then I might shoot them again just to be sure. I had nightmares after I knocked down the first deer I ever shot (when I was 13) and watched him shake it off, stand up and run off with a pack of deer dogs in hot pursuit. For all I know that buck is still running 39 years later. That experience scorched my deer-hunter's soul, and I work real hard to not repeat it... ever.

"One Shot, One Kill" is a Hollywood-esque term best left to those who get most of their trigger time on an XBox. I have friends who are either retired or still active duty military snipers who will just grin and form a silent opinion of the person who claims to be a follower of the doctrine.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I agree, even if every shot a hunter makes in their lifetime hits precisely the spot aimed at, there are infinite variables that determine the effect it will have on the animal being shot. My 460 Weatherby doe that took 3 shots is a perfect example. I was so over-gunned that it's not even funny, yet it took 3 hits and she got up yet another time after that but stumbled and fell. You simply can't will that nothing will ever go wrong. And it's plain cruel to refuse to shoot again when you know that you should.

 

[WGK]

Had to shoot a doe twice last year. She dropped with the first shot and then I noticed her moving about 5 min later.

 

[gunrunner]

In 2012 I shot a big heavy bodied 9 point broadside at 100 yards.On the first shot he raised his head,looked at me and walked toward the woods.Thinking I had missed,I shot again,and then a third time.He kept walking,not running into the woods.I found him 40 yards into the woods.The shots were almost touching and all were clean heart shots.I still don't know why he did not react.No mule kick,not running,just strolling along.

 

[mathews338]

One shot is all you need, thats why i shoot a single shot in everything. I dont own a gun that holds more than one shot

1 shot is all you should need but nobody is perfect and I hope you never need that second shot. I don't understand why anyone would take that chance. Do you really think you are perfect and having to take more than 1 shot will never happen to you?