Over the past few weeks I have been deer hunting and, as per usual, I am STUNNED at how often other hunters shoot. I rarely if ever here a single shot, WAY more common is a volley of 3,4, or 5, and sometimes a dozen or more. Frequently, these shots are so close together that I can hardly believe that there is even time to recover from recoil much less time to aim and squeeze. Ethical, clean kills cannot possibly be the intention or result (except by random chance) of this type of wholesale blasting.

Rapid fire is prohibited at every range I have been associated with, but I guess it's perfectly legal while hunting.

Who are these people?

Some are folks who don't practice often enough to become proficient and familiar with their rifles; some are folks who are not prepared for the animal's appearance, rush their first shot, then try to hit a fleeing animal. Some are folks who have scored a hit, and are just trying to put the animals on the ground before it escapes, or is claimed by another hunter.

Some are just enthralled with their rifle's ability to put a lot of lead in the air.

George

Agreed to all of the above...just have to add that they MIGHT be someone getting into a herd of wild pigs. Where I hunt, they are thick and considered vermin. Shoot early and shoot often when a group of them is in the open!

But usually is it someone who likes everyone to know they were there!

I had a close call with one of those yahoos a few years back. A deer (I didn't see antlers so I wasn't even about to shoot) walked out in front of me at about 35 yards, and another "hunter" who I hadn't seen across the hollow on the neighboring property opened up on the deer. He shot 10 times in about 25 seconds. Probably hit the deer 5 times, mostly in the guts and the hindquarters, and the rest of the bullets came in my general direction. I literally hit the deck and belly crawled behind a big oak tree. There was hair and guts flying off the deer. I waited until he stopped shooting and got the hell out of there.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the guys that rack off lots of shots in quick succession are almost always idiots, poor sportsmen, and poor marksmen.

Generally, it's pretty rare for me to shoot more than 3 or 4 times in a entire deer season, and I usually kill 2 or 3 deer.

Probably semiauto shooters or (2) guys. I like hunting w/ a single shot so you know which side I come down on, accuracy vs firepower.

OK, OK, I have the answers.

First let me say, I'm sorry. I am the hunter firing many shots. The first shot kills the deer. Then, I empty the magazine into it to make sure it doesn't get up and run off because the bullet may have failed.

Then I reload and fire more rounds that my hunting party will recognize:

2 more shots= dead doe
3 more shots= dead buck
4 more shots= big slunger buck!!
5+ more shots=how many points are on each main beam.

Then, after I do that, I throw a grenade at the deer that I put down just for extra insurance that it won't still get up and run because all 4 or 5 of the bullets may have indeed still 'failed.'

Then I usually shoot a flare gun so my party will know where to come and help with the deer, well, what's left of it.

On a more serious note: I couldn't agree more. This weekend was the opener in KY and that is about what it sounded like within 2-3 square miles. I've always wondered what these guys are doing too.

No wild hogs in that area.

I like to count the shots I hear while in the deer woods. I get to my stand up to an hour early on opening day and hear shots 30 minutes before the season even opens at sunrise. I've counted more shots by the end of the 'early season' than I do the rest of the season! I've shot just a handfull of deer, no more than once a few times and then never more than twice. I've recovered all but one and she decided to cross on to private property before expiring. If you hit what you're aiming at two shots is plenty.

Worst day, 4 rounds fired, 2 dead deer (1 shot ea, 1 miss (running) and 1 finisher).
Best day, 1 round fired, 2 dead deer.
Highest season, 18 shots fired, 15 deer in the cooler.
Lowest season, 3 shots fired, 3 deer in the cooler.
Average range over the last 10 years, 173 yards.
Average number killed per year 11
Closest kill 35yd
Furthest kill 420yd
Number of deer hit but not recovered 2
Most embarassing moment, took a "shot" and only heard a CLICK, than I remembered the shells were still in my pocket. DOH

Hey Tailgunner, you must know my buddy AJ, he's forever getting a click when we're sitting in the blind. I've even started to pick on him as we settle in telling him to make sure to load one in the chamber this time. He comes back with something like, "How stupid do you think I am, er ah, don't answer that." Less than 3 minutes later in fly a triple. I get two with three tries and from his side of the blind all you hear is, "-click- F$#@!"

It happens to everyone once in a while (most just don't have the stones to admit it). In my case I normaly load before leaving the car (not uncommon to spot one on the way), that day I decided to wait until I was in the blind. That change in routine was what did me in.

I shoot until the animal is down. In the brushy forests
of Northern Wisconsin, bullet flight is never certain.
I do know my target, and what is beyond, or I don't shoot,
but if I deem it safe, and the animal I have selected to
kill, is running after the first shot, you can bet there
will be a volley. If I hunted out of some comfy elevated
stand, over a crop field, or some open country meadow,
with a rifle, there would be no need for follow up shots.
But I don't, so until the animal drops, if you are within
earshot, you will hear boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, click,
click, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, if need be

Now I do agree with the idea that there is a bunch of
hunters out there trying to make up for poor skills,
or shaking hands, with multiple shots. But we all didn't
hit the ground armed with perfect zeroed firearms, in
perfect conditions, with a rich set of shooting skills.
So I will give the volley shooters the benefit of the
doubt, as long as they are safe, and do a thorough job
of looking for signs of hits, and follow up tracking,
at the sign of a hit. It is not how much one shoots,
but how safely one does the shooting, and what that
shooter does after the shots that tells me volumes
about their charactor.

Squeeze

The most I have ever shot at one deer is 14! Hit him on the seventh and the 14th using a smooth bore 12ga.

I have only heard in the last two years people begin to brag about how many shots it took them to get the job done. I've even heard them brag about a gut-shot.

What disturbs me worse is that years ago everyone else in camp would shame the poor bastard so that he either improved or quit the sport; or else simply got excluded from the hunt the following year.

Now someone will brag about how it took him four shots to kill the poor deer and someone else will jump in to top him with a six shot story.

If I am trophy hunting usually one shot, maybe two. If the animal is wounded perhaps another. But generally one is enough.



If hunting pigs or goats (feral) it could be anywhere from 1 to 20 shots. If shooting ferals and if the landowner wants them exterminated sometimes we would do our own thing and shoot for meat, a nice skin or a trophy. Then its one or two shots as before.



When I was younger we would maybe get several out of a herd. Later with age (perhaps not wisdom) we planned our ambushes and could take out most of the herd. In the good old days sometimes 200 or 300 rounds (or more) would be needed for a weeks hunting/shooting. With a suitable calibre (eg .308 / .30-06) still one round per beast. Plus outright misses of course and finishing shots.



But were not talking about crowded public lands here, private properties of many hundreds of square miles.



Nowadays ferals are hunted much more and perhaps less numbers of animals and less availability (ie commercialisation of feral animals) so a hundred round is more than is ever needed.



"Only four or five rounds in a year" !

I shoot until the animal is on the ground, especially on elk. I usually take two shots very rapidly. My most recent elk was shot in the chest at 40 yards, he took two steps and was tettering, I shot one more into the chest and he dropped. Bullets are cheap.