head on shots

[Matty]

I dont think his is going to be read, but here goes anyway.  I saw this post last night.  and was Kind of shocked by Pauls reaction.  However through typing...it's kind of hard to judge how people are really speaking.  In READING however, seemed that Pauls response could have been worded different. Heres My response:
would I?  NO... Have I?  YES.  I was 18 and I was a compound shooter. I shot a whitetail Head on.  I burried the shaft clear down the middle from a tree stand.  I can still play it over in my head 17 years later and I'm dumbfounded that I tracked that deer for over a mile through brush and corn, and NEVER FOUND HIM.  There was blood till the end, took work to find it.  But it was there.  Taught me a lesson, and I will never take that shot again.

[Blackhawk]

A few years ago I witnessed a broadside shot at about 25 yards. Just as the arrow was about to make contact, the deer turned to run with the arrow entering the lower neck area head on.  All our searching turned up nothing.

[8th Dwarf]

Wapiti792...

YOU, SIR, are a REAL bowhunter!  Ignore your friends, sleep well, and know that you did the RIGHT thing.

To those of you who missed my third response, read it...I did tone down my original post.  Sometimes I swallow most of my leg before I think things through.

Still...the frontal shot is SUCKOID and should not be taken.

Too F. Short

[Ray Hammond]

Shawn, with all due respect, I have to disagree with you

I've seen women driving their cars with their knees, putting on makeup. I've seen idiots ride a shopping cart down a ramp with rockets strapped on the side of it. We've all seen fools riding motorcycles with no helmets, or flip flops on their feet.
 
It doesn't depend-dumb is dumb- the "it's all good" argument doesn't cut it. An arrow kills by bleeding, or creating a pneumothorax to collapse the lungs of an animal, and the only way a bowhunter is connected to his quarry is through a blood trail.

Intentionally shooting an animal frontally is like saying " I don't really need a blood trail" because most of the time the arrow will not exit the animal...and it usually is sticking in the entrance hole, plugging ANY blood letting.

It's kind of like a long shot hand in poker- or playing the last ten bucks in your wallet on Tuesday on lottery tickets. Yeah, you might get lucky...but you are probably going to go hungry till Friday.

The only difference is, in this instance we are talking about an animal's life- and it depends on the choice we are making- take the shot/ don't take the shot. Respect for your quarry demands that you don't take a marginal shot.
If you take that shot, and it blows up in your face, you will relive that shot over and over in your nighmares,  believe me.

[DeerSpotter]

It is futile to resist !  Give up and be simulated !  Do not start to think for yourself, do not evaluate your situation, it is futile to resist.


Has somebody seen my box, I can't seem to find it.  I need to get back to it !    

Carl

[Brian Krebs]

the thing about judging deer you find dead in the woods - with perhaps an arrow in the head.. well it might not at all reflect the archer or the shot.
 This year I had a broadside shot at a whitetail doe at about 6 yards. I had a clean release; but the deer swung its head around so fast I hit it in the head. It took off running left and right and jumping and such; and I lost the blood trail; and lost the deer. Turns out it fell into the river and was downstream and out of sight of where I could legally trespass. I did NOT take a head on shot; I did NOT shoot at the head. It is where the arrow ended up; but it was NOT intentional.
 I was once in a treestand and shot at a buck 20 yards away. A broadside shot. That deer flipped when I shot and I hit it on the bottom of its belly and the arrow came out between the shoulder and the backbone; at the top of its back; and buried itself in the ground- the deer broke the broadhead and part of the shaft off in the ground when it took off.
  I did not shoot at the bottom of the belly of a deer from a treestand 20 feet up. I did not ever think I could hit a deer on the underside of its belly and have the arrow go through and bury itself in the ground- as it left the deer.
  I found that deer pretty close and very dead.
Timing- timing was the key. I did not totally account for timing. I don't know if I could have accounted for timing and the reaction of those two deer.
  too shorts description of the shot he took on the elk- sounds totally responsible and logical to me. It could though I guess be considered head on... but there were like SOOO many other things going on; like him recognizing the shot opprotunity and figuring in all the varibles ... and making the shot!
 
A double lung shot takes a deer down fast; but talk to bear hunters; and they will argue about the total ethics of the 'over the hip' shot - over a broadside shot.
                                                  NO- don't take head on shots; but don't take broadside shots at hyper alert deer; and don't take broadside shots at alert deer without allowing for the drop the animal- will or might- take if it drops to run. And don't take 'texas heart shots'unless.. or quarting away shots at the left side of elk...unless.
 
                                             
 Hey- best plan is to take the best shot you can and use a sharp broadhead and committ to finding the animal you hit.    

 I might perhaps take a head on shot- like Paul did -when asked about taking- a head on shot.     LOL

[Curtiss Cardinal]

OK I have decided to list all the conditions that would have to be met for me to consider taking the shot.
1) the deer is completely calm and unaware of my presence.
2) the deer is not looking at me it is either looking to one side or the other or back behind itself.
3) the distance is 15 yards or less
4) the cowlick in the coat is there to mark the spot to put the arrow.Most deer have it but not all.
5)I am shooting my usual mid 60s or heavier bow, a heavy arrow that has been perfectly tuned to the bow and a very sharp broadhead.
6) I feel confident in the shot.
You see I see no differance in taking this shot than taking the long shot and then saying, "I guess I wanted it."
Back when hunting was making meat, and by the way with me that pretty much is what it is now, hunter took shots that you thought police would be even more down on. When I was coming up in bowhunting an old timer told us young guys that the fermoral artery shot in the hip was his favourite shot to take with his longbow. He said it always left an easy to follow short blood trail. Would I take that shot? No because I never could quite figure out from his discription where to put my arrow but I now all three targets of the head on shot. I however only would take a shot at the one I discribed before.
And by the by, Since a deer can turn fast and make a broadside shot a head on shot or a belly up shot, is it not within the realm of possibility that a deer could turn and make a head on shot a perfect broadside.
I'll further say that my reasons for saying I'd take this shot are from personal experience. Of the three deer I have either shot or watched being shot in this way all died very quickly. One dropped dead right now, one took two steps and then just fell over and one reared backwards and fell, got up and made one jump and died. If those were the results any of you saw in your life would you feel differently?

[Shawn Leonard]

Ray, I was high enough to get an exit hole and I was shooting 65#s at the time. As I said disagree all you want. I have to live with it and could care less what others think. As I said I will be judged by no one. Shawn

[JC]

This thread has pretty much run it's course...

[vermontrad]

Well, It doesn't sound like Shawn really took a head on shot, he was up in the air a bit. C2's real experience has taught him the effectiveness of this shot, Too Short's was a front quartering shot not head on (I hope the puke cleaned up easily Paul) and that Ray Hammond, IMHO, nailed it with his first post.      Here's to happy hunting and short blood trails...

[vermonster13]

I agree with you JC. Pretty much everything about this one has been discussed and then some.