re: #219 goddamnedfrank

We have the same line of thought.

- No point in going to a new caliber, learning it’s ballistics and having to buy a new stock of ammunition. (I went with .308.)

- I also live in the East, first Western Pennsylvania and now Virginia. And, like you most of my shots were (well) under 200 yards/meters. The risk of missing or wounding was too high.

- The last time I went deer hunting was about a decade ago. The
Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge has a severe problem with deer overpopulation. They sponsor hunts to reduce the population.

The deer literally ate everything clean from ground to about 6ft up. Because there are a lot of nearby farmhouses, I could only use shotgun slugs or buckshot. I passed up several shots because I was not certain of the backstop and that time went home without a deer.

But I had a great day in the woods, saw fox kits playing, a flock of turkeys, about 5 deer, called in a sixth (a buck) to within about 50 meters. (But he came in from behind me and there were farmhouses that way.)

Another set of hunters in the same tract did get a deer that day. At dawn, in swampy ground, with a blackpowder rifle. Which impressed the heck out of me. But then the two of them spent the rest of day trying to haul it out of the woods. I left around 5pm and they still had not made it back to their truck.

Wow! I have not seen a bow disassemble. Yet. Hopefully none of your uncles and friends were injured by flying debris. That must have been quite a surprise.

Most of the bow kills I have heard about have been through blood loss rather than critical hits. I never bow hunted because, as you point out, it requires a lot of skill and skill maintenance. Locally, crossbows seem to be a big thing these days.