I ought to be ashamed of myself

[Ian]

But I'm not.

This afternoon I went out to shoot some more targets with my Henry carbine and see if I could do better than yesterday in the overcast conditions. After posting a target at 50 yards, loading the rifle, and settling in on the bags for the first shot, two small whitetail does casually walked behind my 25 yard backstop and stopped to look at me.

So there I was. Last time this happened some years ago I had an 1860 Army repro stuffed with round balls cocked and on the bags, and it was venison time with a remarkable bang-flop. But this afternoon it the thermometer was standing at 29 and falling, an hour of daylight left, cat to take to the vet first thing in the morning, sonogram to see with the wife a little later, and work the rest of the day. But more than that, perfect as the situation was, after a quick poll of the cosmos, it just didn't seem right this time. Something philosophical, hard to explain. As I get older the urge to hunt for meat has been winding down and my sense of conservation has grown. Not that I don't still hunt, but that I wasn't hunting today, and hadn't taken my usual moment of silence and contemplation before loading my rifle.

I went to shoot paper and enjoy the brisk, clean winter air, so I thumbed the hammer down, found a small rock, and tossed it at the does. They scampered off and I tipped my hat brim after them. Next time, maybe, but things seemed like they'd be better off today if I left then be and just shoot my targets. Sitting here writing this, I'm sure I made the right decision, it just still seems odd. Generations of woodsmen before me are probably shaking their heads somewhere, but maybe not.

 

[Brad]

I once sat on a log with rifle across my lap. Watched a couple of does walk by at 25 yards. I never moved, never tried to raise the rifle.
Sometimes it just isn't meant to be. I hunt for enjoyment, not survival.

 

[Intheshop]

Ashamed?

Not in my book,you were going to shoot paper,which it sounds like you did.

For some reason,deer congregate in front of our 100 yd berm.Many a time have had rifle and rests in hand,and make the decision to go back in the shop.....waiting for the deer to move on.

Sometimes things are best left alone?

 

[Chris]

Always go with your gut feeling.

 

[yodogsandman]

Some how there's something honorable about allowing a legal deer to walk away when the circumstances don't fit our expectations or definition of "hunting".

 

[freebullet]

Don't sound like a real sporting opportunity but.......the gut wins.

 

[RicinYakima]

Elmer Keith tells the story of later in life sitting on a hillside in the sun above the Salmon river. Bob Hagel is a young man sitting with him. They watch a spike and three does walk below them. They pass out of sight and Elmer says to young Bob, "Purty ain't they?" Never resist the feeling to let something live, dead is a long time.

 

[Ian]

That's it, Ric, exactly. I may not get a deer this season, and that's ok, it isn't like the wife and I are going hungry and the wild deer in this area are few enough. Now feral pigs, that's a different story and the only reason I ended up buying a license this year.

 

[JWFilips]

While not a deer I had something similar: 2 summers ago on our public range; shooting my 243 win with cast on the 100 yd range mid week: I was the only one there sometime before noon on a beautiful windless day. A large woodchuck walks out on the field ( totally legal game at that time) I'm sitting there looking at him in my scope thinking how many cross hairs would be on him if it were a weekend! He wouldn't stand a chance! Set the cross hair just were they needed to be and scored a 10 x hit on my paper target! Sometimes I think one gets soft as he ages! Mr Big ole chuck just blobbed his way across the field!

 

[Brad]

Not soft Jim, wise.
At some point it is less about the kill and more about the hunt.

 

[yodogsandman]

Wish somebody had shot the chuck that made the hole that I tripped in this fall! Think he covered it in leaves on purpose! The non fall scored a 10! Happened heading down hill, dropped my gun after hitting my knee with it and ran 15 yards to keep from tumbling head first!

 

[35 shooter]

Nothing to be ashamed of. You went to the range to shoot, not hunt lol. Sometimes it's time to shoot the deer, and other times...not so much.

 

[fiver]

the area I hunt rock chucks in is hit or miss most times but this year it was pretty good and I was able to smoke 4 of them off one spot one afternoon.
4 is generally a real good day's worth of shooting so 4 from one spot is outstanding.
now we all know how it goes when you hunt an area enough there just seems to be one or two animals that make your list and you lay in some pretty outrageous plans to get them.
this year there was 2 of them.
one that come out in the farmers field and was eating a good hole in is grain crop right near the highway.
and a second one out on the other side of the lava rock field that was doing the same thing.
the first would sneak out of the sagebrush and belly low crawl to get into the field.
I missed him twice when I randomly run across him but eventually set up parallel to him with the sun to my back and got him coming out of the rocks before he could get to the field.

the second one would go out to eat in the field too but had to run across a little known and mostly overgrown 2 track to get back to his house.
approaching him was either across open wheat field or from the lava rocks either way left him higher than you or you sky-lined and neither option would let you within 300 yds.
I tried circling him and waiting in the weeds on the other side of the field [no go]
I tried waiting him out in the rocks [nope]
and finally they went into hibernation for the summer heat and dove season rolled around.
I had been shooting ground squirrels for the last few weeks and gave up on him for the season but knew that with some standing wheat in the field power lines nearby and water to the south of the area it would hold some doves this year.
and it did.
so opening day I mosey on out there and pull off a few shots over a small spilled grain pile along the power lines.
but things slow down so I decide to walk the field and jump shoot some stragglers for a bit.
as I work my way out to where that chuck and I had our little battle all spring I got to thinking about things and decided to investigate a little closer to see where he was actually going.
remember the 2 track?
I am walking down the middle of it when I step in a hole and side step just enough to tweak my sciatic nerve on the left side.
it turns out the little bastard had dug a hole in the middle of the road and down and out the side of the little hill there.
everytime he run off and disappeared he was diving in that hole coming out and going into a little crevice in the rocks.
it was a 3 mile walk straight back to the truck down a little game trail over/around uneven lava rock
or 5 miles back around the 2 track next to the field.
I was laid up for the rest of the dove hunt and could barely walk the first week of the deer hunt from the nerve pain and it took over 2 weeks for the numbness in my left foot to go away.

guess which rock chuck is gonna get shot first thing come april-may?
I'm gonna take my lawn chair and crossed sticks out behind the sage brush to a little ridge I found and he is gonna get an 87gr sierra from the 25-06.

 

[Ian]

I just got this image of Bill Murray playing with ground chucks modeled from plastic explosives, not sure why.

 

[RicinYakima]

Ian, me too! Great movie.

 

[fiver]

well Tim would probably be ashamed to know his XCB rifle is one of the finest Rock Chuck killing rifles on the planet.
I made a shot across the Black Canyon one afternoon at about 350 yds in a stiff wind that would make just about anyone proud.
hitting a 4" wide target laying flat on a rock at that distance takes a bit of figuring.
I was holding about 14" high and 10" to the left.

 

[Ian]

Mine shoots really well, too. Almost sold it but the guy backed out. I have so much in it with dies and parts, not to mention all the other stuff, that I'd never get the money back. 150-grain Bergers seated .015" off the lands and necks turned to .0115" is perfection and doesn't care much what powder you put behind them. Still, it's going to be a .30-'06 before it's over, but it would be more to my credit to shoot the throat out of it first.

 

[RicinYakima]

Experience and judgement is not luck.

 

[smokeywolf]

I've let game pass. Been so long since I've hunted, I can no longer remember the circumstances. But I have let deer and even coyotes amble on across my path.

With regard to what Ian did yesterday. I don't remember ever feeling like I made the wrong decision by following my gut.

 

[JonB]

You guys are funny. The few times I've seen game(while hunting), they've got away due to the Adrenalin rush...no doubt the game thought it was warning shots as they scurried away. Yep, I am the worst hunter there is, for everyone concerned. I learned over a decade ago, it's best if I stick to paper and/or steel targets.