I agree you have to know what your limitations are i will shoot a running deer if i know i can make the shot and i have taken a number of deer this way but it all comes back to what your comfortable with i dont think anybody can say to me its wrong or you shouldnt do that its all up to myself to make that decision so in conclusion theres no rite or wrong answer.

This question has been asked and answered many times before here but I think that it should be discussed every so often because it's an important issue. It really is about you and your expectations and abilities with a rifle. If you know that you can kill a running deer than obviously taking a running shot is acceptable for you. If you start to fling lead and hope and pray while you're doing it than you should reconsider,honestly, your ability to executing a humane shot. I don't shoot at running deer simply because I know that I have a very good chance of wounding one and not being able to recover. That to me is unacceptable. My brother, slightly younger and not as handsome as me, can hit and kill deer with easy while they are on the move so for him taking the running shot makes good sense. Know your own honest limitations and you be o.k. Killing one out of every four running animals that you fire at and thinking that your doing well is not evaluating your ability with any degree of intellect. Being fair with yourself and respectful of the animals that you hunt will lead you to the proper decision. Good hunting to you.

i agree that a novice hunter or a poor marksman should not take shots at running animals. I however, consider myself a good marksman and am completely confident in my ability to take a deer that is running...if i know i can hit it. If i doubt the shot or feel that i might miss, i don't shoot.
i think it's kind of silly to generalize and say "don't shoot at a running deer." there are dozens of scenarios in which shooting at a running deer would be ethically sound. A lot hinges upon your shooting abilities.

There is a time and place for it. I have shot and killed quite a few running deer, up to 300 yards I might add. All of these shots where in open fields that had rolling hills. The deer would run along the tree lines. With the rolling hills, I knew my backstop and that my bullets would not put anyone in danager. Also with the deer in fields, it made it easier to connect since I did not have to worry about threading the needle through trees and brush.

If you are not confident in your shooting abilites I would not attempt the shot.

shooting running deer is something that happens all the time around here i would shoot

Rehash of the rehash but here is you answer Sir

There is a time and place for everything.

When the deer is running and you take your shot, ask yourself this question, what’s my backstop and is it really safe to take that shot?

Can I effectively hit that deer or am I just spraying lead with the possibility of wounding the deer and never finding it?

first, Safety of the shot and second, your ability to affectively place the shot is the two key issues here!

I wish I had a nickel for every runing deer I passed up!

Is confidence in your ability defined as shooting at the deer multiple times and eventually killing it, or is it one shot dead? If it isn't the latter and you have confidence in your ability, then you're an idiot and you need to stop taking running shots.

Say I can make a kill shot on a moving deer target 9/10 times. I should be confident in my ability, right? Can I also be confident that there will be no sticks in the way and that the deer will maintain course and speed?

The deer darting or stopping and getting wounded or jaw shot are not "BS", they are realities that happen every season when people that are "confident in their abilities" take running shots.

Letting the lead fly and foul hitting deer just isn't acceptable. Unless you are killing them with good shots in the vitals, you need to not be taking running shots. Hitting a deer in the leg then the paunch then finally killing it isn't something you should be confident about. You should be ashamed if this is the case.

I'm not saying no one should ever take running shots. I'm saying doing it all the time is bad practice, and might point to a need to work on hunting skills. I'll take a running shot if I need to and if I feel like the shot is an "easy one" as running shots go, as in not too many obstructions, good backstop, deer isn't going full tilt.

The difference is obvious - bird or rabbit hunting ranges are short - under 40 yards, even under 30 yards with some shots at 10-20. When shooting at these short ranges you have a wide pattern of multiple projectiles. If a few of these hit in the right places, the small, fragile, and easy to kill animal is dead.

With deer you are shooting a small single projectile at a specific area at generally longer ranges. You have to hit those vitals the first time with that one little bullet to kill it humanely.

If you can't see those differences, then I'm not confident in your abilities as a shooter.

From a hunter safety course standpoint, they say not to shoot at a running deer because in most cases it breaks a couple of the 10 rules of hunter safety: "Clearly identify your target and what is beyond it" and "Make a clean and ethical shot through the vitals." I'm not saying that taking a shot at a running deer is wrong, but it is definitely not a preferred shot from a safety and ethics standpoint.

no i will not shoot a ruuning deer to much time spent focusing on a moving target and not enought time focusing on whats beyond your target to make a safe shoot to insure not to hit another hunter or bystander and when rushing to fire a round down range at 200 yards or more is not a very responable frame of mind the damm deers not worth hurting some one

I'm not that one sided - hence this...

"I'm not saying no one should ever take running shots. I'm saying doing it all the time is bad practice, and might point to a need to work on hunting skills. I'll take a running shot if I need to and if I feel like the shot is an "easy one" as running shots go, as in not too many obstructions, good backstop, deer isn't going full tilt."

Also I'm not directing my first comment at you at all, although I was responding to you on the difference between birds and rabbits and deer.

I'm not even saying it's that hard, nor am I jealous of anyone's ability. For all you know, I could be the running shot champion of the world, but I can still choose to avoid running shots while deer hunting when possible if I want.

I'm just very emphatic about making clean kills 100% of the time, and that comes from being very careful and controlling as many variables as possible. Running shots have a lot of variables and are the most likely to go badly, so I avoid them most of the time.

Also I've seen the confident in the shooting abilities argument a million times, but when it comes down to it I see wounded deer and pictures of guys with deer with lots of holes. I've agreed to go on drives with guys that say they're great at running shots and they do it all the time, but then I see the lead fly and not so many deer die. That's their idea of deer hunting. They're OK with having to shoot deer multiple times and making bad shots. They say hey, it's just a deer and now it's dead, so what? I'm not saying anyone here is like that. I'm just going by my experiences, and they tell me that running shots are not the best idea when there are alternatives.

One shot one kill. Otherwise you just look bad, and it makes hunters in general look really bad. Shooting multiple times and hitting outside of the vitals but still eventually killing it doesn't count as being good at running shots. If one is taking running shots they better be doing it cleanly and quickly every time, or they need to stop the practice.

i was also told in hunter safety dont shoot at running deer