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"Why didnt you shoot!"

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"Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Lefty » 12 31, 2020 •  [Post 1]

Quote from yesterday from the fellow I was hunting with. The geese came in on my end of the blind. maybe 20 yards out, 5 yards up. The only opportunity at geese and it was nearly 10:30 AM. Im not sure why I passed,.. But I think it was because I wanted the birds in front of us for each of us to drop one,
I also know his statement was his cover for the birds sliding off as he popped his head-up getting ready if he had a shot,.. but flared the birds off. The birds came around 2 more times under 30 yards,. only presenting me a shot .I knew he was totally wigging out, and bouncing the birds when he moved his head.
I havent killed many birds this year. and have given other birds a pass.

But I do the same thing with all game,.. well maybe not a big cat, or wolf.
Last winter I had geese land in the spread, after minutes a neighbor kid called me,.. why arent you shooting those geese. I've been in that situation before,.. I was sleeping :lol:
Ive been caught with my zipper down,.. and other things in hand. Too many times goose hunting but once with a big buck.
And for the first 30 years of my life I would only take head shots on squirrels and only with a rifle. I shot one squirrel with a shotgun,,.. duck hunting., Come to think of it I never shot a rabbit with a shotgun :shock:
Ive keep relearning this lesson,.. but if there is one twig in line with an animal while archery hunting ,.. I will hit it

A few years ago I didnt shoot,.. for a while, at a pair of coyotes. I needed a few things: a good back drop, no possible houses in the distance, and I was waiting to get them both with one shot,.. , After 20 minutes,.. Im going to be late for work I had to settle on the female.
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Swede » 12 31, 2020 •  [Post 2]

Over the decades I have hunted there have been many times I did not shoot for one reason or another. Sometimes it was a mistake, I am sure, but I don't remember just when or why. Here are a couple of instances that I recall well.
I was standing in my tree stand waiting for a bull to come up to the water trough I was looking down at. Just as I was about to draw my bow, a squirrel started chattering loudly. It spooked the bull that was already acting like it was set on a coiled spring. I felt like shooting the squirrel, but knew it would have done no good. The squirrel was just barking at the intruding elk. Little did it know it just saved its life.
Years ago I was rifle hunting. About 60 yards away a small herd of elk passed in front of me in some heavy brush along a river. At the tail end of the herd was a huge elk, that was a light tan due to age. I could tell from the muscle structure and size it was a bull, but I could not be positive.
Why is it that some of the biggest bulls I could have shot were out the day before the elk season opened? Some of the biggest bucks I have seen came right after.
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Lefty » 12 31, 2020 •  [Post 3]

Swede wrote:Just as I was about to draw my bow, a squirrel started chattering loudly. .



Swede now that reminds me of my first deer hunt 12 years old. My dad had me on a stand not far from camp,. A cool-10 near Hinkley Minnesota, I had been in my tree stand an hour before legal shooting. Minutes into shooting a red squirrel showed up,.. evidently I was in his tree,.. .,10 minutes 15 minutes, the squirrel would run up to my boots, then run to a tree,.. over and over and over, well and over 25 minutes I endure that squirrel. That all ended when a 30-30 silvertip entered his tine head,.. a shot for 3 feet away. My first game animal (actually a varmint at that time) with a centerfire
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Elkhntr08 » 01 01, 2021 •  [Post 4]

Any one of the 40+ does that walked by me during early season. The ones I can’t find now to save my butt. The non typical 10 that strolled by at 10 yards, because my release was tucked inside my coat sleeve. The chocolate horned 5x5 that I called in in 2019. It was the last evening of archery and the day before rifle. I had my rifle in hand.
I was also caught this my pants down, the very first time I went deer hunting. The coyote that was sleeping when I walked up on him in the fence row. Marlin 60 was jammed and just went CLICK, no more sleeping yote.
Man, I’ve had a lot of blunders in my hunting.
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Swede » 01 01, 2021 •  [Post 5]

Lefty, I too remember shooting a Pine squirrel that had scolded me for over a half hour. It never got as close as your squirrel, but I shot him with a broadhead at about ten yards. Suddenly the forest was quiet for a change.
Speaking of noise; last night, after I had fallen asleep, I was awakened to a lot of banging and shooting in our neighborhood. New Years eve is no time to get a good rest.
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Lefty » 01 01, 2021 •  [Post 6]

Swede wrote:Lefty, I too remember shooting a Pine squirrel that had scolded me for over a half hour. It never got as close as your squirrel, but I shot him with a broadhead at about ten yards. Suddenly the forest was quiet for a change.
Speaking of noise; last night, after I had fallen asleep, I was awakened to a lot of banging and shooting in our neighborhood. New Years eve is no time to get a good rest.

Evidently I slept through the neighborhood fireworks. But at 3:10 AM Something was amiss. The hayshed light was on. As soon as I stepped outside , a skunk blast hit me full tilt.
the neighbors horse and a skunk had a standoff Dint fall back asleep for over and hour.
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Re: "Why didnt you shoot!"

Postby Lefty » 01 01, 2021 •  [Post 7]

Elkhntr08 wrote:,,,,, I’ve had a lot of blunders in my hunting.
Thats a whole other book for me.

My first year in Washington state I had selected an area to hunt on topo maps. After deciding the first place wasn't quite what I thought. I was actually parked on a FS road and this weird little 14 inch basket head 7x9 kept getting in the way. Legal shooting time, then sunrise. I kept thinking I wont get to hunt the rest of the season if I take him; for 45 minutes he strolled around,, maybe tempting me, curious or just stupid. Just too easy. Looking back he was to freaky and belonged on a wall Anyway not shooting that little buck changed my life.
Then the next Saturday my wife and I spotted a huge "bench" deer. Bigger than any mule deer she had ever shot.
But in Minnesota you couldn't shoot across public water with a rife or from a highway with big game ( put ice on a lake and coyote and thats ok?) So I didnt shoot,.. we watched maybe a dozen bucks that day and one hundred plus does.
That buck had a split torqued left rear hoof and was easy to ID. I didnt pull the trigger on another deer the next three seasons,.. I passed on dozens and dozens of other bucks looking for "big gimp" Three of us hunted that buck the last two years. We believed he was winter killed of old age.
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