had my shot and passed

so i hunted hard with my new flint .62 and finally found a really nice wt.he was beded about 250yrds in a field from the landowners house.with his permission i tried to sneek up to it but it and a doe slowly moved to the forest about another 250yrds away.Iwent arounf the other side of the forest and slowly worked my way in.I jumped them at 40yrds running shot but a road and the landonwers house were in the path.i have never shot at running animals but what kind of lead would you need for that kind of shot.sorry for the long thread just excited he was the biggest wt i have ever seen

That's a no shoot for me with a flintlock...

good call...no running shots here either,,add in road an house..nope fer sure... :thumbsup: ya dun right!

Running shots although tempting aren't for everybody and I'll never recommend them. We used to practice many moons ago with modern guns and I have taken a few but that was a long time ago and never with a flintlock. It's just to easy to make a bad, regrettable hit on an animal.

i feel good that i didnt take the shot but wish i would have played it a little better.the good thing is the landowner is excellent and next year i might for the first time try stand hunting.there also is a decent mule deer buck in there as well.i did call this mule deer in nov1 but this is a draw tag

I take SOME running shots, but with a mountain of experience behind me. All that aside, you made the right call with the house and the road.

Dunno how much (if any) of this applies to your situation, but you can't even consider running shots if you haven't practiced them. I started out in the 1950's whanging away at running jackrabbits in the desert, graduated to cottontails in the brush, all with 22s, and along the way added in decades of quail and such with shotguns. Switching to muzzleloading shotguns changed that some, and I recognized that it was going to be different with muzzleloading rifles too, and required more practice. Some version of the Running Boar type of target shooting would be a great place to start if you don't have access to small game shooting and lots of it.

I don't recommend it without a whole lot of practice, and even then, it has to come with a whole lot of judgement and restraint. You've already demonstrated you have that, which is probably the hardest part of all to learn.

BrownBear said:

I take SOME running shots, but with a mountain of experience behind me. All that aside, you made the right call with the house and the road.

Dunno how much (if any) of this applies to your situation, but you can't even consider running shots if you haven't practiced them. I started out in the 1950's whanging away at running jackrabbits in the desert, graduated to cottontails in the brush, all with 22s, and along the way added in decades of quail and such with shotguns. Switching to muzzleloading shotguns changed that some, and I recognized that it was going to be different with muzzleloading rifles too, and required more practice. Some version of the Running Boar type of target shooting would be a great place to start if you don't have access to small game shooting and lots of it.

I don't recommend it without a whole lot of practice, and even then, it has to come with a whole lot of judgement and restraint. You've already demonstrated you have that, which is probably the hardest part of all to learn.

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Exactly, you said it better than I. :thumbsup:

I don't. I had to once when a doe trotted by at 5 yards with her intestines exposed. I had not noticed until I saw her broad side. I was glad I could put her down. I sort of went into clay bird mode and got her through the shoulder and lungs. She of course rolled down in the gully, this always makes it kind of a drag . I just do not want to injure a deer

The only running shot I ever took at a deer was at 25 feet, as she was spooked from another field, crossed into the field where I was, and ran parallel to the hedgerow where I was standing in to hunt, and came right by me.

Van Dyke in The Still Hunter talks about judging where the deer will land as it's bounding and aiming at that point so as the deer comes down on it's front hooves, so you only adjust your aim a little to the lung area, and fire. That's a little different than trying to swing on a moving deer as one might do so on a bird when using a shotgun. So he's not "leading" the deer, he's picking a point and getting the timing right when the deer will be at that point. He was a professional hunter, and did that a lot..., he also used a Winchester '73 in .44-40 and had the ability of a quick second shot if his first was not so successful.

You did well to pass on the shot. Although Van Dyke might not be a good source on how to shoot, his book The Still Hunter is very good on learning how to move in the woods, and I'd recommend it to you so that next time you will be close and not spook that buck... or at least have a better chance not to. :wink:

LD

Mr Hawken said:

I jumped them at 40yrds running shot but a road and the landonwers house were in the path.i have never shot at running animals but what kind of lead would you need for that kind of shot.

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Walking, fast walking, and an 'even' constant trot type gait where the deer is basically level and floating on their hooves so to speak are certainly OK shots in the clear at only 40yds.
But a deer "running" with all the typical bounding, and front to back rocking chair motion, flashing in and out of trees is best left alone.

I watched a magnificent buck in an all out chase after a Doe he wanted to breed...probably going 25+ mph charging through my oak ridge crossing 90* in front of me at only 35-40yds...tried to whistle-stop him but he never even flinched.
I just laid the rifle back down across my lap and watched them dodging & weaving off through the trees as a beautiful spectacle of nature...I'd have taken him home with a Remington .30-06 auto...but not with a Flintlock.

you made the right choice! shooting at a deer with a house behind it is a bad move even if the deer is holding still. there is no good reason to risk the house owners property or possible someones life by making this shot.

-matt