agaucher

Thanks to all those who gave me tips/suggestions. To those who came to critisize no thanks. I dont expect to sit on my computer and become a better shot by any means, and no where did i say that. Comments such as "trying to be Mr. Macho shooting a gun that is kicking your ass and not having the ass to take the recoil" do not help, especially when I am shooting a gun that is very small (incase you did not know what a 7mm-08 is Swampbird?) anywhoo thanks for the help, but I will be careful when I ask for it again because apparently we should all know everything like some.

Skeeter:
Yeah our sask hunting does consisting of pushing a ton of bush and doing some driving. I can only afford to take a few days off work every year so I do not have enough time to do the due dilligence that I shold to make the hunt more interesting. As I am sure you can imagine, hunting sask in this style will provide me with few still shots. At home that is all I shoot at as I have time to put in and learn the life of the deer I am hunting. Like i said i dont have that luxury in Sask. thanks.

skeeter 7MM

I am sorry agaucher for ragging but how is it you come to my province and wing it but at home you put forth the effort? This doesn't sit well with me, would it with you if the roles where reversed?

Why bother than..I am sorry but is hunting all about pulling the trigger to you? If so you are really miss out.

Hey if you want to run them all over hell's acre at home than go right ahead but when you come to my area/prov. and do so I have the right to say something IMHO. Exact reason why I would love to see our DNR follow Alberta's lead in having a hunter host not a free frawl as we have now. Many implications to this style of hunting which I will not go into and would no doubt just be turned to mute anyway.

Where do you guys hunt? Where do you reside btw?

Have your self a jolly time but please be careful and respect others (landowners and hunters).

As to your question practice and like said get some help from a experienced shooter to help with pointers. If the shot is outside your abilities don't shoot and follow up on every shot you make even if you are sure you missed.

agaucher

We hunt in south west sask. And as I am sure the host hunter idea would cut down on numbers of out of province hunters it would not get rid of them all. I have hosts in both alberta and sak if I needed them, but i understand your point of view.
As for me, I reside in the Okanagan valley of british columbia, and me along with my hunting buddies would more than welcome you to come here and try to road hunt. I dont know where in Sask you hunt, but Ipromise you that you would more than likely go home empty handed. I have hunted a few places accress Canada, and not to make me or my area sound exceptional BC is still the hardest to hunt. IMO this is due to the heavy timber and abundance of mountains.

Finally I dont know if you are aware of this, but I am far from the only person that goes to Sask for a different type of hunting. I dont get the slightest taste of road hunting here in BC, so its something new, and frankyly much more exciting thatn ehre. Of course its exciting to hunt in my home area, but in Sask its more like duck hunting, where if you miss one opportunity that does not mean you wont have another for weeks. Personally I know at least 20 hunters who goto Sask every year for the same reasons as I do, they shoot for meat often, I pass up anything small as I dont see the point in driving 14 hours for a spiker. But considering those twenty ro so hunters all go with different friends/groups than I do, I would imagine that you already know your province is loved just for those reasons. The deer are much bigger there, and not only that, its a different hunting experience.

Thanks for the tips btw, but I hope that cleared things up.

skeeter 7MM

agaucher please don't think for a minute I do not welcome non resident hunters b/c that is not my point here. The hunter host idea would help in regulating sure but more importantly allow hunters from other areas to go with a person knowledgeable of the land and game it holds. This to me being an outsider would be more appealing. I regularily take friends and family on whitetail hunts that have moved away and understand the appeal it has. Some come just for a get together and others come strictly for the opportunity.

I live in Saskatoon and hunt all over it just depends on the game, season, etc. I hunt elk, moose and bear in the forest, so know a thing about rough terrain, poor access, lower density and finding animals without seeing them. I Bow and ML hunt wt and Mule deer close to Saskatoon in the farmland. When drawn I hunt the SW of the province for Lopers. Rifle season I hunt the forest fringe mainly where I have a cabin. None of these areas do I drive the roads, sorry it ain't fun to me. I don't push bush mainly because I hunt with a select group who hunt like me. I also am a trophy hunter for deer and while big deer can be lucked upon it is more productive, hard to judge size if the are fleeing and offer a second or two glimpse and rewarding to play on their turf IMO.

As you can tell I have a problem with road hunting, it does nothing for the game and other trying to match witts. I think it really shorts a hunter on experiencing some of the best parts of hunting, pursuing, learning, etc I also have had some close calls with errant, trigger happy hunter, once I lost a tail light and have had shots fired on a couple occasions in my direction. Being in a farm family I have found tracks across cropland, fences cut, gates left down, holes in bins, etc. I know not all are like this and wouldn't suggest you or your group are b/c I don't know you personally, but the excitment sometime superseeds the ability to think.

All the best on your hunt.

SC Swampbird

Well, at 60yrs old and having hunted longer than you have lived, I'm well aware of bullets being spewed all over the target is poor marksmanship and/or a gun kicking your butt. Apparently just 3 yrs. of missing hasn't taught you too much and with that chip on your shoulder, why ask for advice, if you can't take the answers that just may be helpful to you. Sorry I ruffled your feathers, but I'm not the one having the problems and thought you were intelligent enough to understand the meaning of my reply to your problem.
I hunt the big beanfields of SC, with a .270 and 300+yd. shots are normal for us who hunt them, so I'm experienced both in years as well as distance; difference being, I'm not the one missing the shot!
Since you took one part of the advice out of context, maybe you'll learn something from the other as well as this reply.
I have no further advice for you, but Luck with the misses....

stubblejumper

I too travel to Saskatchewan to hunt deer but I usually don't have to take running shots.I also practise a great deal every year and have made a few shots over 400 yards and many over 300 yards.The point is that since I am travelling 11 hours by highway to hunt ,I do put a lot of effort both into my shooting before I go,and into my hunting when I arrive in Saskatchewan.I have far too much respect for the game to just drive to Saskatchewan to shoot at deer and risk wounding them.To me ,if it is not worth my time to prepare,it is not worth going on a hunt.

agaucher

60 years old? i wont even get into it, but maybe you ought to do something better with your time than rag on people new to hunting. peolle like you definaly dont give a good name to the sport. thanks for everyone elses help though.

agaucher

Furthermore when: "SC has a NO-LIMIT on bucks and 16 either sex days with 2 deer limit. That is 32 does plus we can purchase 4 more doe tags for anyday harvest. Deer in SC are over-populated and the no-limit has no effect on the herd numbers. Like the local geese, they're a problem! " I would say you get a hellva lot more chances to screw up with misses than you do in BC where you are allowed to harvest 2 deer a year and 60% of hunters never fill one tag. Maybe just me, but IMO the more you shoot at game, the better you get at it.

stubblejumper

Would it not be true that if people shot more accurately and missed less,the success rate would increase?

GAmagman

First, I don't know why running shots are ever an option. Grunt, yell, whistle whatever, but make the deer stop. You might want to check how you are positioning your rifle when you go for a shot. Many times we forget the little things when we have a deer in the sites. Make sure that you are consistant in the way that you are holding your rifle.