# What do you do!?



## KWaller (Oct 3, 2010)

What's your opinion on shooting small game around your tree stand when bow hunting? Do you shoot a squirrel, ****, opossum, ground hog, etc. for practice and make sure you are still on? Or do you like to watch it and let it be? I usually watch because I don't feel like wasting a broadhead and arrow and meat.


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## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

I just watch....unless a coyote  that hasn't happened yet 
I thought of a grouse I saw..... a couple hunts ago but just watched till it flew off....the yardage was a little far....deer OK.... but....the grouse....well no confidence


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## Agitation Free (Jul 11, 2010)

Only did it twice. One coyote and one grouse. Neither kill damaged the arrow or broadhead. That's luck because before I shot I fully expected those arrows and broadheads to be wasted.


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## leupy (Feb 12, 2007)

I have shot two fox and two squirrels usally I just watch, also one opossum but it was was late to take a shot on a deer anyway.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

No reason to kill something just for the fun of killing it.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

I kill squirrels, but it's not for fun or to see if I'm on. It's to eat them or because they made too much noise and got me thinking it was a deer and that too gets eaten  I always have one arrow with a judo tip on it and a spare judo in my pack, just in case the noisy one has a buddy.


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## Shad Rap (Nov 10, 2010)

I agree, I dont kill something just to kill it but if you wanted to just carry an old arrow with a field tip on it for that occasion.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

im always afraid about the time i shoot something that a deer was just getting ready to step out. so no i dont do anything to make any unessary noise. i stay quite and still except to look for deer and just watch the animals play.

i remember this one time i heard these ground squirrels raising cain. i look over and a weasel was chasing them. they ran up this old dead tree stunp about 12 or 14 ft high. the weasel would circle the tree then start to climb, it would get up about 6 or 8 ft then start slipping, then it would fall thump it would hit the ground. it did this 4 times before giving up and moving on. here are these little rats screaming at the top of there lungs and me laughing out loud. so i just packed it in for the morning hunt. but i have never forgot that morning.
sherman


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## monsterKAT11 (Jun 20, 2004)

Shad Rap said:


> I agree, I dont kill something just to kill it but if you wanted to just carry an old arrow with a field tip on it for that occasion.


using a field tip would be one of the cruelest things you could do. with no cutting edges, it basically pierces the animal and seals the hole with the arrow and will not let the animal bleed out. I'd imagine very slow painful way to go.


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## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

Bowhunters need to be careful to obey all the game laws. Taking furbearers without the proper permit is a very common error in judgement by bowhunters in my experience. My brother had a freind who thought he should kill anything within range while bowhunting....he took ****, fox, etc. and never had the proper licenses.

I always carry an arrow with a broadhead that flys true, but I deem a "target broadhead". Usually the arrow has a slight flaw, but flys accurate. I'll use this arrow on occasion to take a rabbit when my elderly friend Don tells me he wants one. 

I mostly watch everything except coyotes...I just recently killed another big male with my bow while on stand. That is the 3rd coyote I have killed this bow season and only hunted since the first weke in Nov...took 2 last year one from the ground and one from the stand. This last one was a big beauty....almost drug him out and took to taxi, but it was a long way back with 2 steep ridges so he's still there where he fell. Very nice coat and almost no smell (many I shoot stink bad enough I don't want to mess with them). Snapped a pitcure of this one at least...haven't even been doing that.


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## bdawg (Apr 14, 2009)

If it's the end of a morning hunt and I'm not seeing any deer and a squirrel or rabbit gets within 10-15yds, I'll take the shot. Good eating and no bb's to pick out. Got a nice fox squirrel earlier this year. Was walking out and it was in my path 10 yards ahead ignoring me! I wasn't even trying to be quiet either. No damage to arrow either. 

I'd probably shoot a coyote too, but I've never seen one while out hunting in my 20 years of hunting! I've seen 2 foxes and had my gun on both, but didn't pull the trigger. They looked too good to shoot and I don't have a fur taker's permit. 

Shot a groundhog once that was pretty stupid. It ran out into the field 20 yards away when we were walking back in during gun season. 6 shots later, I finally hit it! It was stupid enough to even allow me time to reload while it criss-crossed the field never more than 30 yards away! Darwin's theory in action.


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