Quote:
Originally Posted by udarrell  What state are you hunting?
Every state usually has areas where an appropriate caliber center fire rifle would be okay to use.
In my opinion in WI a 243-WIN is safer to use than a 300-ultra mag. Experience proves that with the proper bonded or core-lokt bullet & appropriate shots, the 243-WIN will kill a deer as quick & effectively as any caliber that exists.
They could put a bottom & top end on what caliber center-fire cartridge could be used.
I have never bought a muzzle loader or hunted with a bow.
With a bow, if you hit a shoulder or gut shoot, you will loose the deer. The realities are that bow hunting has its problems as a deer can duck while the arrow is in flight causing a miss or a shoulder hit, etc.
I had relatives that could shoot little gophers with a bow.
Every state would have less wounded deer if they had center fire deer seasons. Here in WI the statistics would demonstrate that we don't have wounded or shot humans due to a center-fire rifle being used. - udarrell |
Wow!,
I don't even know where to begin. I pretty much disagree with everything you wrote. I guess the only thing I agree with is the case you made for the .243 Win.
And I don't agree with that carte blanche. That .243 will indeed kill any deer that walks the Wisconsin woods as long as one keeps range in mind and never takes an iffy shot which in my experience many "hunters" will try. Putting that little 100 gr bullet through a ham on its way to the vitals at long range is a certain recipe for a crippled deer.
I can see the need for a "bottom end caliber for deer but what is your reasoning behind limiting the size at the "top end?"
Hitting a shoulder does not mean a lost deer when bowhunting. I have blown all the way through deer after hitting the shoulder with a broadhead tipped arrow. Very quick recovery with both lungs ventilated. A gut shot deer that may be lost is lost generally due to lazyness of the hunter. A deer shot in the gut will still die in a fairly short time if the hunter does not push the animal. Best to wait overnight as it is likely that the animal will lay down within 150 yards of the shot and expire.
The same can be said of a gut shot deer hit with a rifle bullet. To say that the blame of a lost deer is soley the result of shooting it with the wrong weapon is lunacy.
BTW the reason a deer ducks as you say is not to avoid an arrow. This is called jumping the string. It is in fact the deer beginning to run away. As the deer hears a loud noise, in order for the animal to run it drops to begin its flight to "load" the muscles for its first bound. The reason for this is that the archer
A) is shooting a noisy bow that he should have quieted during practice.
B) the archer is shooting at an already alert deer.
Finally to say that every state would have fewer wounded deer if they simply adopted the use of centerfire rifles.......Man, you are kidding right?
Just because someone is carrying a .30-06 instead of a 12 guage does nothing to make them a more ethical hunter. Which if we really examine the "lost deer" question is undoubtedly the biggest reason we have "lost" deer to begin with.
I'm not saying that sometimes there are variables that can lead to a poorly placed shot. What I am saying is that if rifle hunters got their rifles out of the cabinet more than a week a year and actually practiced shooting we would have fewer crippled up deer running around the deer woods.
There are ethical hunters in every genre of deer hunters and there are also meatheads in each. But I will say I've never seen a group of bowhunters standing around behind a truck flinging arrows at a running deer 700 yards away as it heads for parts unknown. I can't say the same regarding rifle hunters.
The reason people are shot during gun season has absolutely nothing to do with which weapon one carries into the woods. It is all about common sence and basic hunter safty.
I am also in Wisconsin are you actually saying we don't have any instance of hunters being shot??????
How many hunters were shot during the gun season in Wisconsin over the last ten years?
How many hunters were shot by bowhunters?