Running PigThe events of this past weekend got me thinking about the shot I took on that sow as she was trotting fast up the hill. What did I do right and what did I do wrong?  But I want to preface this entire post with a couple of caveats. 

First of all, running shots present one of the most difficult scenarios that might ever face a hunter… especially a hunter with a scoped rifle.  It’s what is usually referred to as a low-percentage shot, which means your odds of placing a clean hit are pretty low.  As hunters with the ethical responsibility to maximize our odds of making a clean, humane kill, that makes this kind of shot somewhat controversial.  With this in mind, running shots are not the best shot option and should probably be avoided when it’s possible. 

The second caveat is that I want to be clear that I do not condone or recommend running shots for everyone.  If you have never practiced shots at moving targets, a living animal is not the right place to start.  For bowhunters, I absolutely believe the only time you should take a shot at running or trotting game is when the animal is already wounded and you need to do whatever you can to stop it.  This basically transfers over to gun hunters as well, although I think that a gun hunter can become proficient enough to make ethical shots on running game.  And that’s the point… it takes practice and skill, but running shots can be done well.

With this conversation, I recognize there’s room for a huge ethical discussion.  Many people believe that you should never take a running shot, period.  Others (like me) think that, much like long-range shooting, it’s OK under certain conditions (a practiced marksman and a reasonable target presentation).  For now, this is about all I will dedicate to the ethical debate.  We’ll save that for the comments.

I am not an expert marksman, by any stretch of the imagination.  At the same time, I feel that I’m pretty proficient, in large part because I practically grew up with a gun in my hand.  I’ve done a lot of shooting, and a good part of that was on moving targets such as running rabbits and driven deer.  I don’t think I took a standing-still shot on a deer until I was in my mid-twenties.  For hunters with this kind of background, the moving shot is simply another opportunity.  It may not be the optimal choice, but it’s a valid one. 

“OK,” you say.  “That’s fine for you lifelong hunters.  What about the rest of us, or those who grew up in places where we couldn’t shoot whenever we felt like it? ” 

Holly really brought that home this weekend.  She, correctly, opted not to take a running shot because she didn’t feel like she could make it cleanly.  Despite the fact that she’s coming along pretty nicely as a wingshooter, there’s a huge difference between a shotgun and a scoped rifle.  Just because you can kill a bird with a shotgun doesn’t necessarily mean you’re equipped to shoot a running hog with a single projectile.  But the essentials are the same.

Just like wingshooting, you want to send the bullet to the place where the animal is going to be… not where it was. 

A lot of people think that, because a rifle bullet generally moves so much faster than a shotgun pellet, there’s no need to lead an animal with a rifle.  The truth is that even at speeds approaching 3000 fps, a trotting animal can cover a significant amount of ground before that bullet arrives. 

In the example of my hog from the weekend, I aimed a few inches ahead of the animal’s chest.  She was at a solid trot, but not a dead run.  The range was “guess-timated” at around 150 yards.  The bullet I’m shooting travels in the neighborhood of 2800 fps.  The bullet impacted about three quarters of the way down the sow’s body… almost three feet from where I’d aimed.  Even figuring for human error, that’s a big difference between point of aim and point of impact… and it was almost a foot from where I’d expected it to hit.  If I’d aimed at the heart/lung area, I would have missed the pig completely. 

In retrospect, I should have drawn my lead out to the pig’s nose, which would have given me a perfect hit behind the shoulder, but I just didn’t think she was moving that fast.  Underestimation is the marksman’s bane.  To be brutally honest, it was nothing short of luck that I got a quick kill on that hog… and luck is not something a hunter wants to rely on. 

So how do you prepare for this kind of shot? 

The time-honored, backwoods solution is the target-in-a-tire exercise.  You fix a target, usually a piece of cardboard or plywood inside of an old tire, then roll the tire down an incline and try to shoot the target (with a safe backdrop, of course).  You can choose to draw a circle or tack a store-bought target onto the board, but for general practice I think it’s just as good to have a plain backboard to shoot at.  Most big game animals don’t have a bullseye painted on their bodies, so it’s valuable to learn to pick a spot to shoot on a homogenous surface without lines or concentric circles. 

Anyway, this is a hard exercise to beat if you have the place to do it safely.  The rolling tire not only presents a variety of speeds over ground, but it will bound and bounce as well.  It’s tough, but when you learn to hit it consistently you’ll be entering into a whole new realm of marksmanship.  Not only that, but it’s just a ton of fun… like skeet shooting with your rifle.

A variation on this exercise, as any aspiring quarterback can attest, is the swinging tire.  Set up the tire and target the same way, but hang it from a tree with enough rope to swing widely (and again, with a safe backdrop).  Start it swinging, and take your best shots.  Of course, as any clays shooter knows, once you figure out the rhythm, it’s pretty easy to consistently make the shot.  Even so, it’s valuable practice.

I don’t know of many organized shooting ranges that have moving target setups, but if yours does, you’re at an advantage.  I have seen moving targets on law-enforcement ranges, but most civilian sites don’t allow it.  You can set up a rolling target with a wagon, pulleys, and ropes, but this is kind of cumbersome unless you have a place to leave it.  If you do, I highly recommend adding this to your target practice regimen.

In some European countries you actually have to demonstrate some proficiency at moving shots in order to qualify for your hunting license.    There’s even a competitive shooting event called the “Running Boar”, where a boar target is mounted on tracks, and drawn across the range at varying speeds.  The competition has spawned a heavy-barreled rifle,designed specifically for this kind of shooting… which leads to another topic, selecting a rifle for moving shots.

To start with, keep in mind that most modern hunting rifles are designed for precision shooting on stationary targets.  The weight distribution is centered or back, to facilitate steadiness and to absorb recoil, while the barrel is usually thin and lightweight to facilitate quick pointing.  Unfortunately, nothing about this design makes it easier to swing the rifle on moving shots.  In fact, the super-light rifles make swinging and following through somewhat tricky.  Guns designed for shooting at moving targets usually have the weight forward to provide momentum as the gun swings through the target (compare a skeet gun to a turkey gun). 

I guess that was a long way of saying that if you’re hunting with a modern hunting rifle, you’re already at a disadvantage when it comes to moving shots.  This emphasizes the need for practice with the rifle you’ll be using in the field.  If you plan to do a lot of fast action hunting, you may want to select a rifle that is designed more for that kind of work.

First of all, if moving shots will be your primary M.O., it might be a good idea to get rid of the scope.  Iron sights, either open or peep, will allow you to acquire the target quickly, and to use your off-side eye to help track the animal and its surroundings as it moves.  You’ll never raise an iron sighted rifle to find the magnification turned too high, or to find the glass smudged or fogged, because there is no magnification or glass to deal with… and when running shots are the norm, the less you have to deal with, the better.

The second best option to no scope, is a scope with long eye-relief and nominal magnification.  An example of this would be the “Scout” scopes, which are designed to be mounted forward of the action.  This arrangement enables the shooter to keep both eyes open while sighting, much as he can with a peep sight.  Low magnification also provides a wider field of view, which is critical when you’re trying to find a moving animal and keep it in sight.   

Several of the electronic sighting systems, such as the holographic and “red-dot” sights also offer quick acquisition and plenty of precision for running game.  I’m sure they work well, but I’m not a big fan of anything that requires batteries to function.  That’s one more open door for Murphy to slip through, and do we really want that?  But of course, that’s really my personal bias.  On the flip-side of that argument, of course, our military relies on those things for combat use…so maybe they’re not so bad.  You’d have to make that call for yourself. 

Now, past the optics, how do you select the rifle (we’re not talking about shotguns right now)?

A little while back I did a post about semi-automatic rifles for hog hunting.  As I mentioned then, I’m not crazy about semi-autos, but really, one place where they do shine is on moving targets.  It’s not unusual to miss the initial shot on a running animal, or to make a marginal hit.  The rapid, follow-up from a semi-auto certainly can be a benefit… although I’ve also seen where this ability encourages a “spray-and-pray” approach to marksmanship.  But in the right hands, it’s probably one of the best options for running shots.  (You won’t find many of them on the market any longer, but a pump-action rifle is another great choice for fast pointing and shooting.)

The double-rifle is also very well suited for fast action.  Many of them are designed for dangerous game, which as you might imagine, means you need to get on target fast, and have a quick follow-up as well.  If I had to choose between a double and a semi-auto, I’d take the double any time.  Unfortunately, even a cheap double rifle is likely to set you back four or five figures, which puts it out of the reach of many sport hunters. 

Back east, when I wasn’t using my shotgun for running deer, I often went to my Winchester .30-30 lever-action, or my Browning lever-gun.  Both of these rifles are configured with straight stocks instead of the pistol-grip design common to most rifles.  The straight stock allows a quicker mount, and is specifically designed for quick shooting.  The only time I ever doubled on deer was with that .30-30. 

Even with these choices, there’s no reason you can’t become proficient at running shots with a scoped, bolt-action rifle.  It just takes practice, knowledge of your limitations, and a rifle that is up to the task. 

Personally, any time I can, I’ll wait for a standing shot.  I prefer an unaware animal, peacefully relaxing over a meal or in repose.  I’m extremely confident in a shot like that.  The running/trotting shot isn’t one I would ever choose. But it is one I’ll take when it’s presented as it was on Monday morning. 

I’ve done a bit of second-guessing since that morning, and no matter how I slice it, I still would have taken that shot.  It didn’t work out perfectly, but it did work out.  Sometimes, no matter how hard we work to perfect our skills, that’s all we can ask for.

Related Posts