The situation is this: You are in your treestand and you see a buck running behind a doe set to come within lethal range of the weapon you have with you (doesn't matter bow or gun). The buck won't stop as it gets by you so.....do you take the running shot or not? PLEASE REFRAIN FROM POSTING....WELL YOU SEE IT ALL DEPENDS AND SUCH....YES OR NO.
It does matter if its with a bow or gun. With a bow no. With an -06 at 3000 fps absolutely. Let him run right into the shot. And when the doe stops and looks to see where the noise came from cap her too...
In an attempt to keep things civil and try to understand the Yes mindset...please elaborate why with a gun you'd take a running shot but not with a bow? Exclude using fps as reasoning because that shouldn't or doesn't matter because you still have to connect in the magic zone for a clean kill which has high rate of recovery.
If it was a close shot i would! I have never seen the same buck twice in the treestand so i wouldnt want to risk not seeing it again.
There are things it would depend on. It's not a black/white question and that makes it impossible to respond with a black/white answer. I'd never do it with a bow. With a gun in the right scenario I'd take the shot.
I imagine many have a similar feeling. I guess what I'm trying to understand is what or why is that situation where you would? To me it is black and white but I am not naive enough to think that all feel the same.
I voted yes for a gun but I would vote no for bow. Even though you said don't answer "it depends" it does really depend on the situation. The speed the deer is running, how close they are to you, angle, wind. Back when I was younger I would not hesitate to take a shot on a running deer even if they were going Mach1 but as I have gotten older, smarter, and more patient I will only really take that running shot with a gun if its more of a slow run or jog. If the deer is quartering to slighty or broadside and if its going to be inside 30ish yards. But if its a really windy day I won't take the shot at all.
I don't want to sound completely arrogant on this, but I'm gonna say it.........I'd bet good money that I'll have a considerably better recovery rate on a running deer out to 50 yards with a rifle than most average bowhunters would have on a 30 yard stationary target. I've killed a lot of deer that were moving faster than a walk with a rifle. I've also passed a lot of shots at running deer with a gun as well because I'm not going to just wing lead and hope for the best. As best I can remember I've shot at 14 deer on the move with a rifle and killed and recovered 13 of them. I did miss one completely.
