I agree with everything Matt said, except for the DRT part. I shoot a Savage .300 win mag with hornady 165 gr. SST bullets, and 95% of my deer drop in their tracks, and i'm not shooting them in the spine, i have shot them in the neck, but for the most part i'm shooting behind the front shoulders. I've only had one that hit the ground and get back up, and it hit it in the spine and it crawled off, had to shoot it again. I have one every now and then that runs off, without hitting the ground, but most of them are heart shot deer. They've never went more than 50 yards. Maybe its because i'm shooting a larger caliber than most, i don't know, but thats my experience over the last 15 years with this gun.

Matt is right in that as a whole we as hunters don't shoot enough. I know that I don't. I think it would benefit everyone to shoot more. I mean hell, what is the worst that could happen? That you go blow $20-40 bucks in a hour while you get to hear things go bang and not go postal on everyone? All while you become a better shot.

There is one member on here that I won't name that shot a rifle more leading up to this season and during the season than most hunters shoot off a a bench in 10 years. And that same individual killed everything that he clicked the safety off on all year...on some pretty lengthy shots, given that he wasn't on a bench. He also made some very difficult shots that happened fast and without a conventional shooting rest.

Why? Because he shot close to 100 rounds thought his rifle in the last 3 months. To quote him, "it is all about mechanics". In my opinion, he is correct.[/quote]

^^^^THIS

We used to have a lot of deer that were not DRT on our club. We built range at the club house that has targets from 25 yards to 350 yards.

New members must show that they can hit a skeet target at 200 yards with 3-5 shots. Only after they prove they are capable of making a kill shot at a normal distance for most of our fields are they allowed to join.

All children of members are must make shot at 100 yards before being able to hunt alone. Many of the kids will shoot boxes of shells practicing.

Our range seat is a shooting house that has no walls on it. This way the shooter can practice picking up gun from the corner, getting it out the window quietly. This has helped immensely.

One of the things the kids enjoy (as much as we can afford) is to shoot penny targets at different distances with a .22

Several of them can consistently hit the penny at 100 yards with a scoped .22 rifle.

The more they shoot the more muscle memory they develop. It becomes natural.

People also need to listen closely after the shot. If a deer runs you can hear where it went and when it drops and starts kicking. Even if he doesn't drop you will have a good idea where to look.

I've dropped deer that I shot in the lungs and heart too, but generally they run.

One thing that's a 100% guarantee is that a lung shot deer is dead, and fast. A deer shot high shoulder is dead too, as long as the CNS is severed. If it's only shocked that deer can and will get up and leave without damage to the vitals(heart and lungs). I'd rather know he's dead by double lunging him than think I killed him and he get up and run off.

That's a helluva .22 rifle setup that will hit a penny at 100 yds!!! What the X power on your scope...

Grown men running around the woods that don't know enough about the domain they are in or the game they are playing. But Point Blank...Woodsmanship is why they get recovered the next day. Everybody here 0ver about 45 years old grew up walking around still hunting, coming in and out of the woods without light etc. Shooting deer offhand. No shooting house. No climbers. No ground blinds. NO TRACKING DOGS... Tracking him down if he wasn't DRT. This may go over like a turd in a punch bowl right here but the vast majority of adult folks that call themselves deer hunters just can't shoot...kids either for that matter. I have several shotguns. One is an 870 given to me when I was 9. I have lugged it around and shot it so much there is no checkering left on the stock or the forearm.
And I don't believe sitting in a shooting house on a greenfield and shooting big bucks qualifies anybody as a good hunter.
The bottom of the punch bowl should be full now!!
Woodsmanship....it's why the unqualified folks can't kill a turkey either.
Rant over!!!

they also need to remember to keep their eyes open when they shot .

Agree completely...Trailing a lung shot deer 50 yards never hurt me. High shoulder shots are fine at the right distance and with the right calibers, but there is no arguing that more can go wrong with a shot directly into thick muscle and bone than rib cage.

Whenever I've shot a shoulder I guess I've never done a "high" shoulder. I've always shot for the shoulder joint I guess.

This^^^^