Animals reactions to spotting shots, your experience?

[Dr. Vette]

It was 8:30 am. I was on the west edge of our 40 acre piece. No shooting to the east (where he came from) or the south (Dad was there).

2 shooters west of me, but that's where he was going and they had to be a few hundred yards away minimum as there is a large open area west of where I was sitting, and no one was there. Overall more "nearby" shooting than in previous years by our recollection but as noted above nothing that he ran from that morning unless he did a very large circle. He looked as calm as can be.

 

[bigngreen]

Thought I would add something for antelope I had happen this year that might be relevant in the future if you make it out west. I had two different scenarios play this year that resulted in a miss but I could have made a correction and dropped them because I had good feed back.
The one the goat knew full well I was there and had made visual contact and I had a doe always watching me but they were no where near alarm. The shot went just low but she was quartering in a way that she would have seen the dust with her off side eye, she immediately moved of, the rest moved of but had not idea what had happened , they had been shot at earlier that day but were not on high alert.
The second was not the same, the animals had no clue I was there, they were bedded down and I had to wait for them to get up and go to water, I picked a spot that they were stopping to take the shot, the shot went almost though the hair on her back and blew up a bunch of dirt, everyone stopped and spent about a minute trying to figure out what happened. She did not see the shot land and I fired from about 25yrds inside the timber, they knew they had to stop and think and look for me, I could have easily sent another one and been on target. They were wary as I had taken a buck out of the herd two hours earlier but I know they didn't know we were there till the shot.
Hope this adds to your info!!

 

[JUDD]

Don't mean to rain on your thread so I'll at least give a example of a deers reaction I had last year with a near miss. I had found a buck bedded at 1489 yards. We had about 8 inches of snow with a crust on top. I dialed in for the shot and after the first shot the deer didn't react at all. My spotters said they didn't see a hit. I re-checked my dope and range, I was good. I fired another round...nothing. Another round....nothing. The deer never got up nor did either of my spotters see the hit. One thought it appeared the bullet was dropping in a laurel bush about 10 feet below the deer. I dialed down to the bush, put the cross hair back on the deer and fired again. This time my shot went about 10 feet over the deer and must have hit a rock under the snow and the round exploded leaving a black hole. That definitely got the deers attention and he was out of there. I video tape all my hunts and after we got home and reviewed the video on the big screen I could see a very subtle lift in the snow about 6-8 inches in front of the deers chest on all 3 shots. The spotters had 25x and 32x optically but the camera was running a little over 100x optically and could capture the subtle impact that they couldn't see. The snow just swallowed the bullet up without making any disturbance a mear 6-8 inches right in front of a bedded buck.

SO DID YOU FIRE THOSE SPOTTERS??

 

[mike33]

I'm not positive on rules and regulations of many other states but here in PA taking a spotting shot would be considered shooting at random and would be deemed illegal here. I must agree with ss7mm, if the conditions are so bad or if your that unsure of your drop that you feel the need to take a sighter shot first you shouldn't be shooting. This game is all about knowing your equipment and proving how good of a marksmen you are, that's why we hunt long range.

Don't mean to rain on your thread so I'll at least give a example of a deers reaction I had last year with a near miss. I had found a buck bedded at 1489 yards. We had about 8 inches of snow with a crust on top. I dialed in for the shot and after the first shot the deer didn't react at all. My spotters said they didn't see a hit. I re-checked my dope and range, I was good. I fired another round...nothing. Another round....nothing. The deer never got up nor did either of my spotters see the hit. One thought it appeared the bullet was dropping in a laurel bush about 10 feet below the deer. I dialed down to the bush, put the cross hair back on the deer and fired again. This time my shot went about 10 feet over the deer and must have hit a rock under the snow and the round exploded leaving a black hole. That definitely got the deers attention and he was out of there. I video tape all my hunts and after we got home and reviewed the video on the big screen I could see a very subtle lift in the snow about 6-8 inches in front of the deers chest on all 3 shots. The spotters had 25x and 32x optically but the camera was running a little over 100x optically and could capture the subtle impact that they couldn't see. The snow just swallowed the bullet up without making any disturbance a mear 6-8 inches right in front of a bedded buck.

Thanks Kevin, im a pa hunter also and didnt even think of it that way. Hoping next week to put my new kowa highlanders and edge to use even if its tagging out on a doe.
mike