Moving Targets

[markg]

Do you shoot at animals when they are moving? Have you practiced hitting moving targets? Do you do it by "feel" or do you have a scientific and exact approach to hitting a moving animal or target.

I will start things off by saying i dont shoot at moving animals because I dont have any practice doing so. I have hunted both varmints and big game with people that do and frankly there percentage of success is quite limited.

[mgvande]

Originally Posted by markg

Do you shoot at animals when they are moving? Have you practiced hitting moving targets? Do you do it by "feel" or do you have a scientific and exact approach to hitting a moving animal or target.

I will start things off by saying i dont shoot at moving animals because I dont have any practice doing so. I have hunted both varmints and big game with people that do and frankly there percentage of success is quite limited.

My last ram up north was running. I was prone and he was only about 70m away. So felt confident also a little ****ed that he saw me. Clean rib shot.

[Okotokian]

This is going to go off the rails quickly.

For myself, I wouldn't shoot at a running animal because I'm frankly not that good of a shot. I feel confident handling a walking animal at a relatively close range.

I also feel differently about such shots depending on whether it's a first shot or a follow up shot. I'd be much more comfortable shooting a follow up shot at a running animal if I felt certain I'd already hit the animal with my first shot. And of course all of this is just for my own actions. No judgement about what you would or should do.

[Dick284]

I shoot lotsa stuff while it's moving.
Ducks
Geese
Upland birds.
And time spent shooting clays, be it stuff like 5 stand or even some intelligently hand thrown birds sharpens things up mighty fine.

I've also been known to poke a few 4 legged critters, when everything lines up just right. And by right I mean, the distance, the terrain, full out run vs. a walk or trot..... and you better be damned sure what is beyond your target.

Yes there is practice that can be done, having a range with a life sized running deer target helps, but let's face it, 60 kph, at anything beyond 100 yds, and you better be a damned fine or damned lucky shot.

[Zip]

depending on the distance, if its real windy, what are you using to shoot with, plus many other things...under ideal conditions I have had good luck on deer while they were moving..I've even shot a few ducks that were flying, but its hard to catch em walking..
Zip

[bat119]

My X brother in law couldn't hit a deer standing still, I've seen a lot of deer shot on the run some shots went good some not so well. That was back in the sausage days when people didn't care about horns just meat.
We used to roll tires with cardboard targets down a hill and try to hit them with high power rifles, believe me it was not easy to hit the tire let alone the bullseye.
I've shot
ducks
geese
pheasants
Huns
Chickens
gophers
grouse in the bush are tough but doable

[duceman]

drayton rifle rodeo, ponoka rifle rodeo. practice pays off, trust me

[markg]

I think you idea of rolling a tire down a hill and try to shoot it is brilliant. Great way to practice.

[bat119]

Originally Posted by markg

I think you idea of rolling a tire down a hill and try to shoot it is brilliant. Great way to practice.

We did a lot of tire rolling, when they hit a rock they bounce like mule deer.
I used to cheat a little with my M1 carbine and 30 rd. mag, oh those were the days.

[bb356]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

This is going to go off the rails quickly.

For myself, I wouldn't shoot at a running animal because I'm frankly not that good of a shot. I feel confident handling a walking animal at a relatively close range.

I also feel differently about such shots depending on whether it's a first shot or a follow up shot. I'd be much more comfortable shooting a follow up shot at a running animal if I felt certain I'd already hit the animal with my first shot. And of course all of this is just for my own actions. No judgement about what you would or should do.

+ 1 .... Just to add ... I already made my commitment to shoot this animal ... if they move after the shot ... keep slinging lead ... flame way

[BackPackHunter]

I grew up leading birds

Don’t shoot where the animal is , shoot where it’s goin to be .
Practice on yotes.

[tikka250]

I try to do a pile of practice on gophers not because I plan on shooting big game that way but because I like the challenge. Have shot a few running coyotes and the only ones that I have hit have been fairly close and pure instinctive. Whatever part of my brain controls shotgunning takes over and next thing I know the coyote is dead. Any time I have though about where to lead I have missed completely.

[270person]

Originally Posted by markg

Do you shoot at animals when they are moving? Have you practiced hitting moving targets? Do you do it by "feel" or do you have a scientific and exact approach to hitting a moving animal or target.

I will start things off by saying i dont shoot at moving animals because I dont have any practice doing so. I have hunted both varmints and big game with people that do and frankly there percentage of success is quite limited.

I don't think I've ever shot an animal that wasn't running. Maybe a rabbit or grouse.

Try waiting for them to stand still in Saskatchewan.

[Andrzej]

In Poland it was mandatory for new hunter to practice shooting running wild boar target.
I think 60 points out of 100 was passing Mark before you could get hunting permit.

Target was 50 M away run 10 M across in 2.5 seconds.
5 runs from right to left and 5 runs from left to right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4zwpr23YKU

He gets 95 points of 100 possible.

I've shot double Elk Cows on the run at Suffield. It was reduction hunt couple of years ago.

[270person]

Originally Posted by Andrzej

In Poland it was mandatory for new hunter to practice shooting running wild boar target.
I think 60 points out of 100 was passing Mark before you could get hunting permit.

Target was 50 M away run 10 M across in 2.5 seconds.
5 runs from right to left and 5 runs from left to right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4zwpr23YKU

He gets 95 points of 100 possible.

I've shot double Elk Cows on the run at Suffield. It was reduction hunt couple of years ago.

Check out the vid at the bottom of that page. Sheesh, what could go wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q4hDwYQqxU

[mgvande]

There is a guy practicing moving targets on HWY 40.

[EZM]

I would personally avoid firing a shot at anything running unless it's a coyote or varmint of some sort OR you need to make a follow up shot. Unless you have practice, and lot's of it, it doesn't work out well most of the time. No one wants to be tracking an animal for hour and hours while it circles in the bush and takes you mile and miles further away from the truck. Maybe my early experiences with "running shots" have made me overly cautious .......

About 25 years ago, I hunted with a guy, who was not a very good shot. We planned on antelope hunting.

We went to the range once prior to the scheduled outing, and he presented a 7mm rem mag in Browning BAR. A reasonable group, fired from this guy, off the bench was 8"-10" it seemed. I don't know if it was the rifle, or the guy, but I was a little surprised nevertheless. I wasn't an accomplished shooter, but I could manage everything, at the time, into a 2" group without too much difficulty.

We got down a few days after opening season. The prairie goats would take off immediately upon seeing any brake lights. They had probably been chased and shot at all week. The type of hunting common was to drive the roads, find something by glassing, and then try and get close and maybe make a stalk along a coulee or brush line or whatever - but we just couldn't get anything to stand still long enough to get a look to see what was out there.

Mid afternoon, we are having some lunch, parked along a gravel road, hedge row type thing and ditch and I look over to see so goats wandering over a soft ridge a couple hundred yards out. We waited until they disappear in a hump between us and them so they don't see the movement in the truck and hatched a plan.

So we quietly exit the vehicle, down the ditch up the other side and make our way to a little group of brush (in a depression below the line of sight) about 50-60 yards in front of where the goats seem to be moving. The plan was to wait there and set up as they come over. Wind is perfect and in our faces.

As we get closer to the bushy area in the hole, the guy keeps getting more and more excited and less and less cautious - so I've already decided that he seems to be "racing me" to get a shot off first (or get the best shooting position).

So - annoyed, yes, but no big deal I keep a few yards behind him and he scrambles up the side of the little slope and into the bush. That's where I figured, according to plan, we should stop and wait for a bit to see where they come out, best case - right in front of us at 60 yards, worse case, to the left and maybe 100 yards out - a perfect spot if we stay there. Unless these goats turn around and do a 180 - we are in business.

This guy, as time passes, is like a bull in heat, can't sit still. At some point, unannounced, he gets up and begins scrambling up the embankment in the wide open. I am thinking WTF?!?! so he comes up the rise which clearly puts him out in the open, cresting the hill, and about 120-130 yards right in front of the goats .

Sure as $#!t soon as he pops his big ugly stupid head over ...... these goats freeze, stop and within a hundredth of a second explode into a full run, at this point I'm thinking he blew it, and got far to horny and just couldn't contain himself. Game over.

But, ALAS, Low and behold, his BAR comes up, and pretty much within a half second of him shouldering the rifle BAM !!!! and then a second or two later BAM!!!!! (by this time these things have cleared another 50-75 yards and are just about to go over the top of the rise at a full run) BAM!!! one of the goats does a face plant and piles up like a cartoon character hitting a brick wall and right on the spot skidding into a pile of dust.

My jaw literally dropped. This guy, who could barely keep his bullets on a paper target at 100 yards from a bench, just dropped a goat at over 200 yards, on a full run, from the shoulder, with a shot right in the base of the neck just below the head.

WTF? a sniper was born. I could just see this ego building up inside of this guy. It didn't matter how much I reminded him of how difficult and lucky that shot was, and that you should attempt these shots, he was thoroughly convinced he was an expert marksman and was able to handle his weapon like Chuck Norris.

Later that day, I too harvested my goat, albeit, in a far more traditional manner, and we both went home somewhat happy.

Weeks later he invited me out to do some hunting. I was a bit hesitant, but did not have another willing partner, so I joined him.

The cliff notes version of the next story goes like this. He put some mulies on the run by rushing into a similar situation and started popping off shots like Rambo. His first two shots missed cleanly and his third, once again, hit.

Unfortunately it was one doe through the liver, and, on a second doe, like JFK's magic bullet, shattering and almost cleanly severed the front leg on a second mulie just as she was about to or just jumping the barbed wire fence.

I am Horrified ..... his gun is empty, I see the first doe get back up and dart away (shaking like her skin is on fire) into the bush and the second one, with the leg wound, which had crashed into the barbed wire fence, proving you need 4 good legs to jump a fence, and becomes terribly entangled in the fence.

So I dropped down, flicked off the safety on my rifle, and put the doe down that was in the fence ...........which was not easy as she was struggling, getting tangled worse, stopping to take a breath or two, then kicking and flailing again and had to make a careful shot as we were still a ways out from her - the whole time this guy is trying to reload like an idiot.

Needless to say, this caused us miles and miles of tracking ever further away from the truck and lots of work and lots of unneeded suffering.

I never went hunting with this guy again. I soon lost touch with him. I'm not saying his issue was taking a running shot, it was probably more to do with his "buck fever" and inability to handle his weapon ...... but it really made me shy of taking any shot that's less than perfect.

For the last 25 years, there has only been a few animals I've shot that didn't either crumble on the spot, or die after a very short run. I think it has a lot to do with what I saw on those two trips and I make sure my shot is very doable in conditions where I'm in control of the time I have to make the shot I need to make.

[Smokinyotes]

30 years ago i wasnt afraid to take running shots on game and once in awhile i would connect. At one time running coyotes were a lot of fun. Now, for me shooting running coyotes is usually a waste of about 3 bullets. As far as shooting running game i wont do it. I have saw guys blow legs off running deer and i think taking shots like this are unethical unless you are very proficient. Walking game is a different story. My problem is i rarely shoot freehand so im not very good at it. I shoot 1000's of rounds of center fire each year but the majority is off the bench and what isnt is off a bipod or shooting sticks.

[Pathfinder76]

There are so many variables.

I’ve shot game on the run. Quite successfully. Witnessed. Some previously hit,and some not. I’ve shot two white tails running that I knew a running shot was going to be the only option. But they were close. Real close. The last bull elk I shot was running. I shot at him three times and hit him in the chest every time. He started at 70 yds and ended at 100. I’ve shot numerous animals running as follow up shots. If they are moving on their feet and previously hit, I shoot.

[catnthehat]

The majority of moving/running kills I have made have been very close range.
I won't shoot at anything that I cannot kill with confidence be it running ,walking, standing or sleeping fir that matter!
Cat

[Pathfinder76]

Isn’t that the truth. My son and I watched a Mule Deer doe for over 30 minutes 50 yds away behind a screen of bushes on Saturday. He was only comfortable when she completely cleared the willows. I would have shot her a few times during that time but he and I have different hunting time and experience.

[CNP]

Many on the move kill shots taken with a bow. I confess to never having shot something on a full out run. The only follow up shots I've had to take were for animals that were spined and still moving.

[The Flint&Fly Guy]

I think I might take a running shot on a yote or deer, but only at a reasonable distance and only the slower smooth type of run. Not the crazy get out of here type

[Slash8]

About 9 years ago I hammered a doe on a dead run perfectly broadside at around 50 yards and to tell you truth it happened so fast I barely had time to think about what I was doing. I was hunting on a quarter section of barley stubble with with my son. The lay of the land was hilly. We spotted 9 does feeding and used the low valleys of the terrain to edge our way closer. When we were within 200 yards we made our way just high enough over the crest of the hill we were on for my son to aim and shoot one of the does. The other ones had no idea where the shot came from they just took off running sort of toward us. There was a point where we lost all sight of all of them in a dip and then all of the sudden there they were, practically on top of us. When they finally seen us they made a hard left turn and headed for the bush, I picked out the lead doe and rolled her. She was dead before she hit the ground. Right in the boiler room. My son thought it was the coolest thing he's ever seen. Defiantly one of the best shots I ever made. I often thought about that shot and wondered about what if I had made a bad shot but I didn't, that one worked out and I'm content with that. Would I do it again, maybe. Would I do it at 100 yards, no, defiantly not. I've let a pile of deer go for either being too far or moving too fast or both.

[HuntinGuy]

Choot first tink later


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[Newview01]

My first deer was shot at a dead run at 50 yards. Pump action 300 sav. Lucky first shot. Not likely to do it again.