RedAllison

My beef with reaper wasn't that he did any single one of the violations by themselves but that as a whole, he made several bad decisions and made them on film that he STILL posted on a public forum.

For those that didn't see the video I'll try my best to "recreate" the scene.

The cameraman was behind reaper as they snuck through some brush at the bottom of a clear hillside. The first thing that came to mind was reaper said it was a WY mulie hunt, in WY you are required to wear orange. Reaper had on a FULL camo suit including headnet/facemask and NO orange anywhere in sight. (Strike 1)
The camera then zoomed up the hill too the very peak of it were two muley bucks were standing, right on the crest of the hilltop. The leftmost buck was the one reaper wanted (both looked to be 1.5 yr olds) and as he set up for the shot (he had a Caldwell type collapsable stock on the gun) the buck bedded down facing the camera/shooter with about a 1/8th turn left from head-on. Reaper paused and then shot (Strike 2, under the best of conditions that is a VERY tough shot. Almost impossible with both the shooter and the target on the ground, particularly with the target well above the shooter. BAD angle! And more importantly, what is behind that hill?)
At the 1st shot the buck SPRANG straight up into the air about 5ft and came too a broadside standstill. Again, he was still standing on the crest of the hill, nothing but the clear blue WY sky in the background. Another shot rang out. Because the camera was zoomed well on the animal you could see the bullet strike about 6" below the spine and DEADCENTER into the guts. The animal hunched up and turned too a basic 1/4away position, but still on top of the ridge. Reaper put another shot into him that looked to rake the top 1/4 of the lungs out on the quartering away animal. BUT the animal didn't even flinch. He then began walking and walked on over the hill out of sight. (Strike umpteen by now? The first shot was TERRIBLE and had the animal simply bolted and taken off he would've been more trouble to find without the 2nd hole later put into him. Again the shots were taken while the animal was SEVERELY backlighted as he stood atop a clear hilltop.)
Once the bucks walked over the hill the camera returns too reaper who then turns and looks back into the camera with a HUGE smile and excitement in the eyes. No concern or fear for the bad shooting or poor choices. Only the happiness that he had "Hit the buck" without concern as too where or under what circumstances.

Now that that footage was obviously shot last fall, yet reaper is so un-concerned with his poor shooting and poor decisions that he STILL felt it ok to put this film out for public viewing? [:'(]

THAT is why I flew off the handle over it! Those kind of actions, decisions and outcomes are what make some hunts much worse than others. BUT when you make such a quandry visible too the public then you are just doing the sport a dis-service.

That's just my .01/2c,
RA

ps
Reaper I truly know you have learned ALOT from this and I am glad you have. One other point I want to make sure you learn is that the shots you took (besides being wrong for obvious reasons) were very poorly chosen with reference too your aiming spots. You hit the animals very high each time. The animal was standing WELL above you, those bullets were going in and actually traveling "upward" so that even if you had hit above the lungs they would've continued traveling upward and not even touched any vitals. A lower hold would've been necessary had you been able to properly hit that animal (that is why you missed the first, or bedded shot). That goes back too my recommendation of practicing at long ranges before you try them in the field. Just because you have a superboomer magnum doesn't mean you can just pull the trigger and split hairs at 350 with it! I've said my peace and you've learned your lesson so I'll drop it now...

rather_be_huntin

These types of situations have always been hard for me. I haven't seen the video but it seems to me there is a hunting progression, or a hunting maturity process in everyone.

I know I was taught to hunt by someone who wasyoungin the hunting process. My stepfather was the type of guy who was lucky to fill his tag and could care less whether he did or not. A bad shot to him was just a little bad luck and as long as the animal ended up on the ground he was happy. After all the point is to harvest it right? That was his take on it and growing up that was how I felt about it. If you hit a leg or a gut shot it it wasn't a big deal as long as it was on the ground in the end. I never did see him injure one that got away however I did see him miss on several occasions and it was nothing more than a good laugh back at camp.

When I got older I started hunting with others and absorbing myself in hunting. Books, forums, videos, you name it I was exposing myself to all types of hunting media. I was shocked to learn that my stepdad's view was considered unethical in the eye's of serious hunters. I'd never heard of passing up a shot because the situation wasn't right. This was foreign to me.

Now I share thestandards of what I feel is considered ethical hunting and ethical shot situations while hunting. Now it seems like common sense but if I had never been exposed to ethical hunting by others I may never have come as far as I did.

My point is I can see why some may not completely understand why they are being critisized for their actions and I do what I can to critique with that understanding. Whether we realize it or not to be able to pass up a shot because it doesn't seem optimal takes a lot of experience and hunting maturity. It should be the standard we all live by but it does take some time to get there.

Hopefully you'll learn from this experience, take what others have had to say in a learning and progressive manner and maybe next time you'll try to get in closer or wait till the animal stands with an optimal shot at a range you're sure of and have practiced enough that you know right where that bullet would go. Congrats on your deer! It's always a great feeling to be successful.

Posted

Actually Red I learned some stuff too just watching on the sidelines here. I think a lot of people feel the same way as you and I. Not much of a muley hunter, we shoot them whitetails here in Kansas where the shots are much closer usually, but even I could tell that just wasn't a good situation...

turkeyreaper

Thanks for all the good info guy's. For the record, I was not the shooter, the gun was a 308, the 3rd shot was a good shot (vitals looked like pudding as was the guts too[:'(])and the deer was dead in 10 feet of the last shot. I (behind the camera) was wearing orange, my buddy did not think it was an issue because of the size of ranch we were hunting and we were the only ones around for miles....Not that it matters.
Anyway gentleman, it was a good debate....Thanks for pointing out mine and my Buddy's flaws.

Shoot Strait,
Bill (A.K.A) TurkeyReaper