Quote:
Not going to take a chance even slight of wounding one.
Doesn't the chance of making a less than perfect shot exist every time you pull the trigger? For that matter, what's the difference between wounding a prarie dog or wounding a coyote? Around here both are non-game animals and both are considered little more than pests. I personally know a guy who shot over 900 coyotes from the air last year. Do you think every one of those died on the spot? Is he unethical? This winter he has stacked them up like cord wood running an HCN line miles long. Is that ethical?
I wounded a coyote on New Year's day and then I emptied my rifle in a failed attempt to finish it off as it bit at it's side and spun like a top. My brother then shot the coyote dead as I fumbled around reloading my rifle. I shot low and a little far back at a very reasonable distance. Was I unethical taking the shot? The difference between an ethical hunter and a slob hunter is the ethical hunter will take reasonable precautions to prevent wounding animals and he/she will expend whatever resources it takes (within reason) to recover a wounded critter.
In my experience, discussions about distance, ethics, and so forth only inflame tempers and lead to locked threads. I have killed several coyotes past 500 yards and I didn't feel the shot was unethical. I had the distance pegged, I had all of the resources required to make the shot, the conditions were favorable, and the coyote died. I have also wounded coyotes at distances under 50 yards. Which is more unethical, a hasty shot at a loping coyote at 35 yards or a deliberate, well executed shot at 400 yards? Only the guy behind the trigger can answer that question.
