Moose - Unethical Shot - Steve’s Outdoor Adventures

Uncle Fester · December 2018

Although I don’t expect it to happen, I dream of hunting and fishing in Alaska. Thus, when channel surfing, I’ll definitely stop to watch/record an Alaska show.

Issues:
1) When he set up to take the Moose, it was pretty much a head on shot. Had the Moose charged, I would have agreed with taking the shot. But, he never waited for the animal to give him a broadside. Is that normal, ethical behavior when hunting moose?

2) His Bergarra rifle (he made a big deal about the quality of his sponsor’s quality rifles) misfired twice. After he chambered a new round, the moose tried to run away. He then appeared to shoot it in the hind end with his 300WM. Is it ok to shoot a moose in the ...?

CHIRO1989 · December 2018

If he shot it in the rear with his first shot, then that was not an ethical shot, shoot the vitals, not the meat. I would take a hip or a shoulder shot if an animal was still on the move after I took my first shot.

earlyagain · December 2018

A head on through the chest shot is an excellent shot to take. Once a big animal is shot, keep shooting until they're down. That meat has to travel afterward. The bigger the animal the more serious that transport is.

JerryBobCo · December 2018

Shooting an animal running directly away from you is the so call "Texas heart shot". Hit is in the middle of the hindquarters right about the tail, and it should go down. I don't know if that's the shot the guy took, but I believe that shot to be ethical.

FWIW, I've shot several animals that were running directly away from me. In the instances I remember, I was trying to hit them in the neck, and did just that. They went down hard and fast, and were probably dead before they hit the ground.

bellcat · December 2018

Concur with Early and Jerry......another thing I’ve noticed on hunting shows is that the camera angle and shooter are often have different views.

snake284 · December 2018

My dad killed his first deer with that shot back in the 50s when I was about 10 year old. Killed it DRT and didn't mess up very much meat at all. He slipped a .30-06 150 grain bullet right up the ass and it came out his brisket.. Knocked it down right there. If he hadn't taken that shot he would never have taken that deer.

About 5 years back I took a nice sow with a similar shot. Shot that hog right up the poop shoot and it got most all his innards, heart, lungs, all. Killed it Grave Yard Dead on the spot. No meat loss. Again, if I hadn't taken the shot that presented itself I would have gone home meatless that day. What's unethical about that?

Jayhawker · December 2018

Too many things can go wrong with that shot resulting in a gut shot and a lingering death for the animal...

I just don't believe that you are so desperate for meat that you can't wait for an appropriate presentation for a quick, humane kill

As I recall, wasn't it you that told us about making a Texas heart shot on a deer with a muzzle loader and not recovering the animal?

snake284 · December 2018

Jayhawker said:

Too many things can go wrong with that shot resulting in a gut shot and a lingering death for the animal...

I just don't believe that you are so desperate for meat that you can't wait for an appropriate presentation for a quick, humane kill

As I recall, wasn't it you that told us about making a Texas heart shot on a deer with a muzzle loader and not recovering the animal?
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I took a long shot at a deer high on one side and was afraid I may have gut shot it because of hitting it too far back but we never saw blood or any sign that I hit it. I think I missed it clean. It was moving across the Sendero and it was barely legal shooting time, it was getting pretty dark for shooting without a scope. It was the last legal moments of the season and I probably shouldn't have shot. But it wasn't a heart shot. I say it was long, about 120 yards, long for a muzzle loader. I was afraid I hit it too far aft and that's why I was afraid it was a gut shot. I doubt I'd take a heart shot with my muzzle loader because it's open sights. But I don't see anymore problems with a shot like that than taking a shot over 300 yards. You gotta be on it in any case. And if you take a good shot at the tail at shorter range you're probably going to hit spine which will put the deer down fast. I personally have never taken a Texas Heart shot at a deer. My dad did but he was no big hunter. I only shot a hog with that shot. But down here if you see a hog they want you to shoot at it.

For that matter you could shoot a little low and miss all vitals causing the animal to run off and die that lingering death. There's people that shoot for the neck and just hit wind pipe and can cause a deer a lingering death. I saw one deer that had its nose shot off but the guy had time to shoot it again and killed it. There's no guarantees with any shot. The biggest problem I can see with a Texas Heart Shot is ruining meat by hitting guts, but if you clean it out fast it probably won't hurt it. By the way, when I shot that hog the bullet went in between the hams and came out the brisket. Hardly any guts were disturbed. The bullet went right along below the spine the full length of the hog. I was using a .30-06 with a 200 grain bullet.

I just thought of what you were thinking about. That shot wasn't a muzzle loader and it wasn't an intentional Texas heart shot. I was standing up in the blind and I saw a doe and shot it with my .257 Imp. and the deer was on an angle and I must have barely jerked and instead of shooting her behind the shoulder I hit it in the ham. We found that deer. It bled out because I hit a major artery in the rear leg. We found it within 30 minutes up in the tree mott. It didn't go 30 yards before bleeding out. There was blood all over the brush in that mott.

bisley · December 2018

Telling someone what shot they should or should not take is similar to telling someone they should, or should not spank their child. Nobody but the person involved knows the situation as well as the one who was 'on the spot,' and had to make the decision under the stress of the moment. In either situation, the person involved may have been impaired by emotions that he was feeling at the time, swayed by peer pressure, or influenced by a personal desire to achieve a certain outcome.

I have taken shots at game that, in hindsight, I wished I had not taken. In those cases, I believed that the animal probably suffered, unnecessarily at my hands, and that I had wasted its life, and spoiled my own personal feelings about that hunt. The results achieved by taking such a shot is the best arbiter of whether it was ethically acceptable.

Taking a risk that can have unfortunate consequences will always be measured by the final result. If it is successful, the poor judgement is usually overlooked. If it fails, it is usually not forgotten and colors the judgement of anybody who knows the facts.

Bottom line, for me, is that a hunter with ethics will respect nature and avoid disrupting it, unnecessarily. If he makes a mistake (and everyone will, if they go out into nature on a regular basis), he should regret it, and make adjustments to avoid it in the future. Nature is there for us to enjoy, and it is cruel enough, whether 'man' upsets it, or not. So, we should try not to make mistakes, and learn from the ones we do make.

shootbrownelk · January 2019

I don't know if Steve took an unethical shot or not, and Jimmy Crack Corn. But I never liked the guy or his show. Thinks he's an expert on every critter he hunts....always with a guide and usually on a private ranch. I like Randy Newberg or Steve Rinella or the Eastmans.

JerryBobCo · January 2019

I like Steve Rinella. I remember on one of his shows he mentioned that he once got trichinosis from eating bear meat that was not fully cooked. He said that "lots of worms" was one of the symptoms. I'm glad he left the description at that.

Linefinder · January 2019

Meat Eater is the only hunting show worth watching nowadays. Just my honest opinion.

Mike

snake284 · January 2019

Linefinder said:

Meat Eater is the only hunting show worth watching nowadays. Just my honest opinion.

Mike

I love Meat Eater, but I also watch Ted Nugent anytime I get a chance simply because of his politics. I could give less a crap about his past. It's his present I love.

Oh and I like Jim Shockey too and a few more like the Bucks of Tecamonte, not sure of spelling there. I also like to watch any outdoor show with Jeff Foxworthy.

But I get your drift, a lot of hunting shows are crap. Some are down right unethical and teach bad safety. Lots of kids watch those shows and they aren't aways learning good hunting techniques with proper ethics and safety. That's probably no big deal if they have a dad that stresses stuff like that and teaches them right, but some parents let the boob toob and the internet educate their kids. And they wonder why kids are shooting up schools?

Jayhawker · January 2019

If those hunting shows would do away with the head banging background music I would probably watch them....last one I watched, you couldn't hear he dialog because of the music...

snake284 · January 2019

Jayhawker said:

If those hunting shows would do away with the head banging background music I would probably watch them....last one I watched, you couldn't hear he dialog because of the music...

I agree with you 100% on that. I remember when I was in high school Bob Brister had a show on one of the Houston TV stations. He had a weekly column in the Houston Chronicle. I can remember it was an all business show. I don't remember any back ground music. He had lots of commentary and you learned a lot watching him.

snake284 · January 2019

Another guy was Jim Thomas and the Lone Star Sportsman and was sponsored by Lone Star Brewery. That was another first class show. I learned a lot watching those two shows.

Zee · January 2019

Linefinder said:

Meat Eater is the only hunting show worth watching nowadays. Just my honest opinion.

Mike

This.

Johnny reb · January 2019

I have not seen the show. I don’t see anything unethical about taking a frontal chest shot. I have shot several deer and a bear with that shot and they have all went down immediateley. As far as a Texas heart shot I wouldn’t do it on an unwounded animal but I have used it twice on a wounded animal. After that first round has hit its mark I shoot again until the animal is down.

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