Two with one shot?

[Win73]

This morning I was deer hunting. There were five does feeding 75 yards out in front of my shooting house. At one point two of them were side by side, broadside to me. The bigger one was in front with a smaller one behind it. I was tempted to try to kill both of them with one shot.

I was shooting a 150 grain Remington Core-lokt out of a .30-06. My question is, should I have taken the two for one shot?

I didn't take the shot but I did kill the bigger doe a few minutes later when they moved apart.

[flintlock.50]

I've seen it happen to folks in my hunting party, but it was by accident. They didn't see the smaller deer behind the closer one. I'm not certain I'd take that shot unless I was very certain about the shot placement on the second deer.

[Ridgerunner665]

With a 150 grain bullet in a 30-06...I wouldn't try it, probably not even with a 180 grain bullet.

With a 405 grain bullet in a 45-70...blast away, might even get 3 if they line up.

[BigBadPigg]

i think you did the right thing. i wouldn't risk wounding the 2nd deer.

hogs are a different story:D

[ZeroJunk]

A couple of years ago my hunting partner killed two doe with one shot.

What was interesting about it was that it was with a bow.

[jimbob86]

I did it unintentionally as a kid ...... shot the doe through the chest and hit the fawn behind it....... I did not even see the fawn at all. When we were field dressing the doe, my younger brother went back to pace off the shot and saw it laying there, apparently stone dead. We did not have another tag, so G'pa told him to toss it in a nearby gully...... little brother grabbed it by a front leg and drug it to the edge of the gully, pushed it over the edge, and it sprang to life when it hit the bottom, running on 3 legs across the road and over the next hill.... G'pa later said he saw it checked in 2 days later at the check station/coffee shop in town- two local guys saw it limping along 1/2 mile from where we last saw it and bagged it.

[theyallhurt]

With all due respect, purposely trying to drop two deer with one shot borders on irresponsible. With that said, I myself have heard the lodge stories of that rare shot, so it certainly does happen, but in all cases the shooter was hardly trying for it. Just my two cents...

[30-30remchester]

While hunting deep in the bedding growns of elk I spooked up a cow, which I had a license for. Swinging ahead of her running away I took the shot. At the shot I saw the bullet strike an aspen tree that was half way between her and me. I checked the tracks and sure enough, a blood trail. Following it @100 yards away I found a dead cow elk, perfectly lung shot. However breathing its last next to the dead cow was her calf, also lung shot. I had never seen the calf. Caliber was a 338 Win Mag and 250 grain Nosler Partitions. A tree and 2 elk in one shot. I did on purpose shoot 2 south Texas does with one shot. These little deer are smaller than an average German Shepard. Again same gun and load. My best however was skeet shooting. While in front of the low house I called for a pair of birds. I broke both with one shot and also an unlucky dove hit the ground as well. The only person with a triple in our club.

[FrankenMauser]

Regardless of ethics...

That bullet would not have done it (in my experience).
They may have both died, but the second deer would have taken a while. It would have had painful, but not immediately fatal wounds. :(

[jimbob86]

Or it might have killed them both DRT. That's the thing: bullets may do all sorts of wierd things on/after impact. Add multiple impacts and the uncertainty multiplies. Not a good idea to chance it. Not by my ethical standards, anyhow. YMMV.

[Win73]

I didn't take the shot for fear of just wounding the second deer. If I had been shooting 180 grain bullets I might have been more tempted to take the shot. When I did shoot the larger doe, it was quartering away from me. I hit it in front of its right hind quarter. There was no exit hole. So I figure the bullet ended up in its frontal cavity or maybe its neck. I have now killed eight deer in eight shots with that rifle/cartridge combination. Six of them were broadside shots with entrance and exit holes. This is the second time that I took a quartering away shot. Both times I aimed in front of the hind quarter and had no exit hole. The first, a six point buck, and this doe both ran about 30 yards and went down.

I could have killed two this morning. When I killed the doe, two of the other four did not run off immediately. In fact one of them stayed around for about ten minutes.
By the way, it would have been legal. The limit here in Alabama is two a day.

[bshefa]

I killed two hogs with one shot from a .243 with a 100 grain Remington core-lokt a couple of years ago. They both weighed around 100 lbs. They both died side by side. I wasn't trying to do it.

I think it is definitely possible to kill two deer with one shot from an '06, but I wouldn't count on it for a clean kill on both animals. It seems to me there would be a high risk of injuring the second deer and not recovering it.

Just my 2c

[JKump]

Last year I got 2 turkeys with one shot. Never saw the second bird until I picked up the first one. What a surprise.:eek:

[Gbro]

Good thread Win73,
Its a great example of "Ethics", doing what is right when no-one else would know.
jimbob86 post,
Not by my ethical standards, anyhow. YMMV
He learned as a youngster how this could go wrong through an accidental shot and I am sure was troubled about the wounded fawn that ran off after a lesson in poor ethics by someone he and anyone else looked up to to learn from.
Just by his post its so obvious he rose above his traditional background.
And I would like to add My Mileage Doesn't Vary!
Thank you both.

[603Country]

Many years ago I did kill two 6 point bucks with one shot. It wasn't until I was in the process of squeezing the trigger that the second head popped up from behind deer number 1. One deer facing 180 degrees from the direction the other was facing, and the chest cavities were lined up. The rifle was a 30-06 and the distance was probably about 75 yards and the shot was offhand. I also killed two pigs with one shot, using my 270. That was also unplanned. I've recently tried to repeat the two-pig shot, since I have so many of the darn pigs on my place and can't shoot em as fast as they can reproduce, but I haven't been successful.

[Catfishman]

Good decision. I shot a buck and also hit a doe. The wounded doe survived and was killed the next season by my father.
It is certainly possible to kill 2 with one shot but it can't be depended on. Soft points often don't even exit a deer.

[xxxleafybugxxx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxMmMbf249k

[FrankenMauser]

xxxleafybugxxx, if you read the comments, you'll note that that was illegal. The shooter took 2 deer with a limit of 1. Turn your sound up. Even his friends in the box blind say that the shot was ignorant.

And... the load that the (ignorant) shooter was using, is never revealed. We have no idea if he was using Barnes TSXs, Winchester Power Points, cast lead, or 1/4" bolts.

[GM2]

didn't take the shot for fear of just wounding the second deer.

You did exactly what any good sportsman should do. Congratulations on the one you did take.

[cnimrod]

My Answer - A definite NO

even if you have the tags, as posted previously you don't know where that bullets going after passing through deer 1.

better challenge = team up with a buddy and try to take both at the same time

[shortwave]

Your 'right' decision is the one a responsible hunter will take every time. Kudo's to you.

In Ohio, intentionally shooting two with one shot is illegal. Don't care how many tags you possess.

Alas...Accidents happen.

Over 40+ yrs of hunting, I've been guilty of doing this twice.:o Both many years ago when most of my hunting was done by still hunting.
Once early m/l season shooting a doe that was on a hillside nibbling some honey-suckle. Her late season fawn was standing directly behind her....talk about feeling bad.

The second time was turkey hunting. Second bird directly behind first coming over a little knoll. I posted of this on a thread here on TFL(names changed to protect the innocent:D) not to long ago.

After that thread, I called ODNR and was talking to them about what to do if this happens as I just wouldn't (and didn't) feel comfortable leaving a game animal I shot in the field to rot.
Surprisingly this happens more than we think. DNR handles this on a case-by-case basis and if called when it happens, will usually write the shooter a permit to keep the second animal. Our county officer understands the 'ill-feeling' a hunter would have when forced to leavea game animal in the field to rot.
But, if you get caught dragging two animals out without both being tagged, good luck on getting the DNR to believe your 'accident' story.;)

Bottom-line, from the horses mouth, here in this county, ...if the accident happens, call ODNR prior to animal removal and more than likely, you'll get both animals.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I've seen two instances with 12ga slugs, both accidental, one resulting in an instant kill, the other in a wounded animal.

My father, in his younger years, was the best natural shooter I have ever seen. We were walking up a trail near deer camp when a large doe broke out of the edge of the woods on a dead run. My dad unshouldered his gun and shot before I even reacted. Two deer went head over heals. He shot the doe through the shoulder and her doe fawn on the other side through the head. We never saw the fawn until it was dead.

The other time, I had a small heard of doe and fawns in front of me. I thought I was being careful to not take a shot that might hit two deer. The intended target dropped where she stood and the rest ran away. When I went over I could immediately see a blood trail leading away (being snow on the ground). When followed it an jumped the deer about 100 yards away but she promptly went to posted land we can not enter. Obviously, we never found her. I still can not fathom how I could have hit that second deer.

I've seen videos of 2-1 shots with compounds bows, crossbows and rifles. I can foresee certain situations where I might be confident of a "2-fer" but I'd say the odds of that shot materializing that I would be comfortable taking are about like the Powerball Lottery odds.

[Keg]

I have done this before on hogs...308..150 grain corelocks....no accident.....These were smaller pigs tho....

[markj]

Got 3 quail one shot in flight once. Got 2 pheasants in flight once one shot. Cant duplicate them but they did happen and folks were with me :)

Got a limit on pheas one day without shooting one shot. :)

[xxxleafybugxxx]

FrankenMauser, Illegal or not, that wasn't the point of me posting the vid. The point was to show its very possible. Im not sure I would try it with anything smaller than a good 30 cal rifle

[homesick]

Some years ago while living in So. Dak. my wife and I were hunting the Missouri river breaks. We had sat for a while over looking some draws with no success. There was about a foot and a half of snow on the ground but we had to cross a picked corn field which had knee high snow. As were walking a 3X3 buck stands up about 150 yards from us so I told her to take him. When she shot the buck went straight down next thing we see is the buck back on its feet. I told her to to pop him again which she did, and down he went. When we got over to her buck there were two laying there, side by side they must have been brothers as they were idenitical. It wasn't a bad day as I had shot a nice muley on the Indian res. in the AM.

[Countertop]

if you read the comments, you'll note that that was illegal. The shooter took 2 deer with a limit of 1.

FrankenMauser,

First, where in the comments? I went back two years in the comments and didn't see anything regarding its legality, or that he took two deer with a limit of 1?

Why do you think the limit is 1? For all I could tell looking at the video it could be here in Virginia (where we have no daily limit for does). From the sound of it, they were certainly in the Southeastern US.

And I know of no law that says you can't take 2 with 1 shot. I've done it twice with a .280 Remington. Heck, its not deer, but the Ruffed Grouse Society actually has a special pin you can get if you have a witness to your taking two birds with a single shot. How is this any different?

[12GaugeShuggoth]

It's definitely not something I would intentionally try to pull off, but I've had hunting partners who've had it happen while shotgun hunting. Generally happens when hunting in thick cover with not much visibility.

I shot a doe at semi-close range with a slug once, didn't see the deer directly behind her until it took off after the shot. The slug exited the first deer and I never could determine if it hit the second one. Never found any blood and the deer wasn't limping or anything when it ran away, still had me worried though.

[MOshooter65202]

I think you made the right decision on waiting for an open clean shot on one animal,just too many variables with shot placement,bullet construction,and "hunting ethics" to chance such a unpredictable shot....jmo