Imho...
I've spent the last 25 years selling hunting equipment, so I've dealt with a lot of hunters. Not surprisingly, very few have ever actually admitted to a wounding loss with any sort of weapon, but from listening to all the talk about hunting and observing their purchases, I've got some pretty well-established conclusions.
I'd be willing to bet that the highest percentage of wounding losses come at the hands of rifle hunters. Here's why. It seems to me that when a hunter elects to hunt with a bow, muzzleloader, (or pistol, to a lesser degree), there is inherent in that decision an understanding that the weapon has performance limitations, and they have made a concious decision to work within those limitations. Bowhunters, in particular, seem to fully appreciate the fact that proficiency requires significant amounts of practice and intimate familiarity with their abilities. As for muzzloading hunters, I get considerably more questions from them regarding bullet design and performance than I get from rifle hunters. Handgunners also seem to be a bit more savvy about the limitations of their chosen arm, though a shockingly high percentage don't seem to understand the importance of bullet design for hunting big game with a pistol cartridge, and I get the feeling that many, possibly most, believe their effective range is greater than it really is.
Now, I've met an awful lot of very knowledgable and capable riflemen over the years; folks who have admirable abilities both as shooters and hunters. But there have been many more, especially in recent years, who suffer under the combined weight of misconception, inexperience, unpreparedness, and overconfidence. The hunter I'm talking about reveals these things to me in myriad ways, such as: he purchases a new rifle just days before hunting season; he asks if it will shoot 1 inch groups; his caliber selection is at one extreme or the other of those appropriate for the game - e.g. for whitetail, a .300 Rem. Ultra Mag (he wants to be able to shoot out to 500 yards) or .223 Rem. (that little high speed bullet blows up on impact and drops 'em in their tracks); his scope selection is both cheap junk and over-powered; he buys ammo loaded with hyper-expanding bullets originally designed for varmint hunting; he buys 1 box of ammo, or asks if he has to sight-in with the same ammo he's going to hunt with; he has me mount and boresight his scope, then asks what range it's boresighted for; he apparently believes that "practicing" means shooting half a box of ammo off a bench rest to make sure it's sighted in. So here we have a guy with a new moose rifle, with a BSA 4-12x50 scope on it and a box of 150 grain ballistic tip ammo, who's going to go to the range the Saturday before opening day and shoot 5-10 rounds off the bench to zero the sight. He had no idea that Ultra Mag his buddy recommended was going to beat his shoulder so bad, and by the time he's got the barrel hot he's got a pretty good flich started, plus he's pissed at the gun store guy 'cause the thing won't put two bullets next to each other. Come opening morning, he's going to get into a stand, and if we're unlucky, a deer is going to get shot at way over across that field over there. And if we're really unlucky, it's going to run off with a bullet through the paunch, but because it didn't fall over dead, our hunter is going to utter a curse about missing with this piece-of-sh*t new rifle, and go back to watching for the next deer.
Okay, like I said, I've known a lot of seriously capable riflemen over the years. Problem is, there's a whole lot of inexperienced new folks taking up hunting, and by far the majority of them are going to start off hunting with a rifle. All they read about in magazines is the hot new flat-shooting mega-mag calibers, and how fast and accurate they shoot off the bench. It has never occurred to them that the barrel should be broken in, or that they really have to practice field shooting with it; 150-200 rounds pre-season every year, minimum, at various ranges from every concievable position except sitting at a bench. As for the scope, well, bigger is always better, right? So what if the quality is cr*p, the extra magnification makes up for it. And of course nobody ever explained to them that a thin jacketed, polymer tipped bullet at 3000+ fps is likely to blow up if it strikes bone, or that a bullet disintegrating is actually a bad thing.
Jeff Cooper has been known to say, "All American males believe they were born with the ability to do three things very well; drive a car, make love to a woman, and shoot a rifle. Generally, they are wrong on all counts." There are too many hunters out there who believe they are far better prepared than they really are, and I'm confident in saying that most of them are carrying rifles, simply because they want the best chance for success, and they believe the rifle is not really all that difficult to use proficiently. With the decision to take up a bow or muzzleloader, comes a personal commitment to try something a little more challenging, and at least a bit of understanding that it's going to require more skill and knowledge.
There are slob hunters in all sectors. Let's all make an extra effort to help guide them in the right direction, okay? I'm.....
OutAtTheEdge
