Hunter_59

The shot was severly uphill with the buck walking on the knife edge! A miss high, low, frontward, or rearward and that bullet was gone. Even the pass through had to carry a long way since he was using a 7mm UM!

Howler

I'm with Spyro on this one. Many of you have never been to a remote area, where the only people there are you and who ever was on the same plane as you when you got there, or boat! I would've taken the shot, if it would've presented itself, while in AK. last fall. Heck, just getting to see 1 or 2 animals in a day was doing good, and we never saw another human, never heard another shot becaue there was no one else even remotely close to us. I know that it is one of the first rules of gun safety to "know what is beyond your target", BUT in AK. where I was hunting, I felt I knew that "beyond any given target" there was nothin' that I was worried about hitting accidently!

Hunter_59

Here's a hypothetical situation for you. Lets say you had taken the shot and missed, then backed it up with another and killed the game animal. You dressed the animal and pack it out and your back at camp or home and you hear on the news about this lady that was struck by a bullet and died a few miles from where you were hunting. Would you turn yourself in, or remain quiet and live with the remorse that you may have caused that womans death due to a negligent decision? Just wanted to throw that out to see what everyone would do.

James B

MY point is that there is nowhere on this earth where there could be no other person. I Have hunted the most remote areas in Canada and the U.S. If I am there, there could sure be someone else there as well. I don't have an answer for how far down the ridge is far enough or to far. The question was skyline shots, and thats a NO BRAINER You don't take skyline shots. It a damn poor habit to get into or to teach another maybe younger hunter. I don't by for one second that there is a circumstance brought on by lack of oppertunities or anything else that warratns skyline shots. If you try it and the rare case happens and you kill another hunter or bystander, you have ruined your life and lord knows how many others. Tell me, What would make that worth the doing? A trophy? A filled tag? A notch on your gun stock? I think nothing. There are just not a lot of things that just should never be done but this is one of them. I shudder to think that every hunter does not feel the same way.

Rebel Hog

Very good advice, James!

Howler

I don't wear a seat belt............heaven for bid if I'm killed in a car wreck, and to think.. there is a law that requires me to....BUT yet I ride a motorcylce...and it doesn't have seat belts... It's not like anyone is making a habit out of shooting critters that are sky lined. I haven't and don't and have yet to.............BUT I feel that while in AK. last fall, if the shot presented itself, I would've. If we are going to worry so much about a sky lined shot, why not worry about every miss and the possibility of a richochet and where that bullet is going to land? Heck, when I shoot prairie dogs, the pasture is flat as a pancake, the chances of a richochet are very high, so before every shot do I need to drive a mile or two beyond the prairie dog to check "beyond" the target to make sure no one else is there? Or since there is only one gate into the pasture, can I assume that know one else is out there but me? Apparently not, who knows, maybe someone crossed through the fence, is trespassing, looking for arrow heads! This situation is more apt to happen than in some of the remote areas of the great north!
I am not perfect. At least not as perfect as so many on computers are these days!![]

James B

I am not perfect either but I learned as a child that skyline shots are taboo. IMO. and thats all I have, only an idiot would blast away on a skyline shot. And again, thats was the question here. Nothing more nothing less. My worry is that a hunter who would take a skyline shot in AK. May be pretty apt to practice the same lousy habits in SD. Or MN or NE. Its just something to stay away from.

I don't wear seatbelts either. But then its just me that I might kill by that.

Virginia7

Skyline shot? Absolutely a NO-NO!!! Know your target, AND what's behind/beyond it.
Just fundamental gun safety, nothing more, nothing less.

handloader1

Dangerous!!

Howler

Here's how I look at it. We all drive, right. There is a speed limit every where we drive, for our safety and the safety of others, BUT yet how many of us speed.. say 5 miles per/hr. over or 10 over. I mean heck, don't you have some places in the roads you drive that the speed limit seems ridiculous. You can see for miles, no trees, no other trafic, nothing, so you go faster than the "posted speed limit" After all, your an adult and you've driven for years and you see no danger in doing so, to yourself or others, so you risk it.
Same thing with shooting. There are places that are so remote that the risk of hitting someone, something, beyond the target is less than the chance of getting struck by lightening, or winning the lotto. So, as an adult, you are able to weigh the risk factor. Heck, we are told that if we can here the thunder from a storm, we are to seek shelter because the storm is close enough that we could be struck by lightening, but yet how many of us don't run for shelter, or don't make the kids come inside. We've all heard of people getting struck by lightening when the storm was miles away!! And if you don't beleive that there are places so remote, I only wish everyone would have the chance to hunt in such a place, because there are places where it's just you and the critters. And for those of you that it is a black and white issue, more power to you. I also wonder, how many squirrel hunters wait and only shoot squirrels that are on the ground?