Are These Shots Unsafe?

[Cfriend]

A story about a hunter killing another hunter without orange got me thinking about shot selection. Basically 99% of the time I'm hunting with a gun everyone else is supposed to be wearing orange. When taking a shot at an animal, I'm not generally doing a detailed scan of the area for hunters in just camo. For a safe shot with a certain backstop it really shouldn't matter though.

However, does that mean you only shoot at animals in front of a hill or on a downward angle? I included some pics below. Honestly, it would be tough for me to pass on any them, but they all have at least partially unknown backgrounds that could conceal a hunter. Would you take any of these shots?

BTW lets assume this is a deep in wilderness area but during rifle season in an OTC unit.

 

[eamyrick]

I have a feeling that the story of a hunter shot has many more details and was a much more gross safety violation. For instance, every year hunters are killed turkey hunting because someone shot a movement in the woods. With that said……..

When I was 16 I was invited to a buddies large farm and he sent me down a creek bottom to hunt. He walked into a large wooded patch 500 yards away. After a few hours I heard two bucks fighting in the field outside of the bottom. I creeped into field and picked out a nice 6 point and shot. Buck dropped DRT. I met my buddy at dark and he let me know that when I shot the bullet ripped past his tree, narrowly missing him. It was a great learning lesson and sometimes it’s very difficult to avoid, despite taking every precaution (especially on small tracts of land or public). Mono bullets actually make me more nervous because they always seem to exit with authority.

 

[roadrunner]

#1 - better to just stay home for now on because this is typical backstop while elk hunting in dark timber.

#2 - how far is the shot? If 600 yds then no. If 200, up to you. I would.

#3 - don't know what's behind the elk, the background is out of focus. Obviously, a poor example of what a safe backstop is.

 

[Justin Crossley]

No reason I would pass on those shots from what I can see in those photos.

 

[Yoder]

I thought this was a covid vaccine thread. I would take every one of those shots.

 

[insanelupus]

Perhaps the better question: how do we train our hunters better to slow their roll and not get tunnel vision on their quarry and do their due diligence in ensuring safe and ethical shots, before they aim the weapon and yank the firing mechanism?

 

[roadrunner]

Perhaps the better question: how do we train our hunters better to slow their roll and not get tunnel vision on their quarry and do their due diligence in ensuring safe and ethical shots, before they aim the weapon and yank the firing mechanism?

Simple - stop glamorizing it on YouTube.

 

[insanelupus]

Let's not paint with too broad of a brush here y'all. I've met several young folks in the field who have been plenty safe in their hunting and passed up opportunities they didn't feel were safe.

I've also met several old timers that'll sling lead, regardless of safety or distance and with little follow up.

The OP asked a respectable question. I don't personally feel this is a generational issue as much an individual issue.

It ultimately boils down to individuals taking personal responsibility (and that's a rabbit hole for another thread to be sure) for their actions.

Many of us get focused on the critter and the moment rather than taking a step back to analyze the overall scene. I'm not above it myself if I'm not consciously considering it. Experience and reflection on the events often is the best instructor.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Perhaps the better question: how do we train our hunters better to slow their roll and not get tunnel vision on their quarry and do their due diligence in ensuring safe and ethical shots, before they aim the weapon and yank the firing mechanism?

Simple - stop glamorizing it on YouTube.

People have been doing dumb things while hunting since long before YouTube was invented.

I hold individuals accountable for their actions. Not a video platform.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I'm not comfortable with exposing myself or my horse on open hillsides. Random bullets are a choice by God as to whether my time is up. My concern is the idiot with buck fever that saw something move. (I have been known to shoot back.)

None of those shots represent any risk unless you are shooting beyond a range of confidence. In my entire career I have never seen an elk on an open hillside let alone a nice bull.

Once upon a time I drew a doe tag in SW Mt. I showed up in mid-season for my free meat and on top of the first hill I found a herd of whitetails. Behind the first one I aimed at was a herd of angus. I don't like black cows but I chose to pass. On the second doe there was a house behind it. On the third was a church parking lot. As I swung on the fourth, I could see movement in the creek bottom behind it.

I realized what hunting in the midwest was probably like, put my gun away and took a leisurely drive in the country on my way home. I fully realized the need for an elevated platform to shoot from. SAFETY !!

I have never applied for a tag on the flatland since. My comfort in hunting the dense forests and rocky slopes pre-empts the opportunity to have to explain a day of collateral damage. You can be assured that you will never see me on flatland of the midwest.

 

[Mojave]

There are nuances. But i'd shoot all those bulls.

I hunted deer on a limited entry deer tag, that was in a OTC elk unit one time. There were hundreds of other hunters per square mile. I went home and came back and hunted the weekday.

Every time i'd find deer some asshole would inadvertantly run them off in their persuit of elk.

Mountain looked like a sea of orange.

 

[87TT]

Years ago when I was hunting with my 12 year old son, he passed up a shot. It was his first year hunting and we had ridden our horse up into the mountains. We tied them up and I had him alk up an old trail while I down and right. A while later I had a big buck walk past me in the thick not giving me a shot. Later when I met back with him, he told me about the buck walking past him in the open but he wasn't sure if the horses were maybe below it ( they weren't), so he didn't shoot. He ate tag soup that year but I was good with it. He did kill a big buck up that same trail the next year.

 

[Jethro]

The fact that there are elk in the pics of the 3 hypothetical shot situations makes it entirely different from when the CO archery hunter was killed in 2021.

I personally can’t answer the safe shot/no shot question from a zoomed in still photo of an elk. Too many unknown variables.

 

[def90]

A story about a hunter killing another hunter without orange got me thinking about shot selection. Basically 99% of the time I'm hunting with a gun everyone else is supposed to be wearing orange. When taking a shot at an animal, I'm not generally doing a detailed scan of the area for hunters in just camo. For a safe shot with a certain backstop it really shouldn't matter though.

However, does that mean you only shoot at animals in front of a hill or on a downward angle? I included some pics below. Honestly, it would be tough for me to pass on any them, but they all have at least partially unknown backgrounds that could conceal a hunter. Would you take any of these shots?

BTW lets assume this is a deep in wilderness area but during rifle season in an OTC unit.

View attachment 540658

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The hunter that was shot and killed in Colorado was shot and killed because the shooter thought he was an elk, not because the hunter had a legit shot on an actual elk and missed and by some freak of luck tagged another hunter in the brush in the distance.

Your images are legit shots.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Perhaps the better question: how do we train our hunters better to slow their roll and not get tunnel vision on their quarry and do their due diligence in ensuring safe and ethical shots, before they aim the weapon and yank the firing mechanism?

The world is full of idiots so why would be people be so foolish to believe that these same folks can be trusted to do the right thing 100% of the time.

The most overlooked aspect of training? How to keep yourself safe in a world full of bozos.

 

[roadrunner]

People have been doing dumb things while hunting since long before YouTube was invented.

I hold individuals accountable for their actions. Not a video platform.

And they will continue to do so long after YouTube and modern society as we know it has ended.

Nevertheless, being any kind of a social media influencer has exacerbated the problem.