With the opening days of the eastern deer season just a few days away a lot of hunters are taking their favorite deer rifles and shotguns off the racks, dusting them off (inside and out) and getting ready to start harvesting some meat to see them through the winter. After wiping their weapons down they’ll (hopefully) select a box of their favorite ammunition and head to a safe place to sight their guns in. If they’re lucky, “Old Betsy” will be directing that rifle bullet or shotgun slug into an area the size of a pie plate at a range of 100 yards. If the gun isn’t achieving that kind of accuracy, some adjustments will need to be made by both the hunter and the gun in order to effectively take the venison home when the season opens.

Some hunters who tend to be perfectionists with their shooting will scoff at this “pie-plate” accuracy standard for deer hunters. That’s fine but considering what the size of the kill zone is on one of our relatively small whitetail deer actually is and remembering that most of our eastern deer are killed within a range of 50 yards or so, that standard is all you’d need to use as long as you stay within your personal limitations and the abilities of the gun and cartridge that you’re using.

Many books and leaflets are filled with very precise instructions on how to properly sight in a rifle or shotgun. Basically this sighting-in process is a cooperative effort between the shooter and the gun. If you need help in sighting-in a deer gun and leaning to use it with proficiency, I’d still refer you to a well-qualified instructor and a well-written book on the subject.

Many deer hunters can achieve the 50-yard, pie plate degree of accuracy from an offhand position. On the other hand there are a lot of deer hunters that could fall into the category of being “bean-field” shooters and this kind of deer hunting necessitates a great deal of practice on the part of the hunter as well as having a well sighted-in, flat shooting rifle. Accomplished bean-field deer hunters can consistently place their shots within that ten-inch kill zone at ranges of 6-700 yards. This type of shooting requires a lot of practice on the part of the hunter and requires a thorough familiarity with the rifle of his choice.

Only a very few hunters are lucky enough to be excellent shots without a lot of practice. Probably the most accomplished shooters that I’ve ever had the pleasure of observing at target shooting were the Olympic target shooters. Some of these sportsmen have trained for years with very refined guns and have spent unbelievable hours just perfecting their personal techniques to be among the top shooters in the entire world. Some of them train not only with their weapons. Their athletic abilities are finely tuned to match the abilities of their guns as well. Some of the Scandinavian shooters/athletes would cross country ski for hours, un-sling their rifles and fall into a prone shooting position in the snow to shoot at their targets.

Several new hunters have asked about the proper way to sight-in their guns before the season opens. If they’re really new at the sport of hunting or just target shooting, my answer to them is to find a very experienced hunter to be their mentor and let his (or her) experience guide them through the safety and sighting-in process. Better yet, go to one of the excellent hunter safety classes that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and their Hunter Safety Instructors conduct. After having successfully completed that, go to a good safe and secure spot to actually shoot your gun. Get to know the shotgun or rifle that you’ll actually be using in the field. Learn to shoot from several positions at several different ranges. Learn what you and your weapon are capable of and stay within the limitations of both capabilities.

If your hunting is to take place in thick, brushy country such as we find in a lot of eastern North Carolina it’s hard to beat that old lever action Winchester 30-30 with iron sights for a deer gun. With a cabinet full of long range, super flat shooting magnum rifles I still pick up the old Winchester when I’m hunting in the woods. It’s relatively light weight, carries very easily in one hand, comes to my shoulder quickly for a fast shot, doesn’t kick a lot and, within its limited effective range of about 150 yards, is as effective as one could want for our relatively small whitetail deer.

What we hunters do not need is a bunch of “yahoos” riding around on our public highways shooting up signs that we taxpayers pay for. Down south we seem to have an unwritten rule that we don’t “rat” on one of our fellow outdoorsmen but when the vandalism of the sort that’s illustrated in the above photos happens, it’s time to start turning the names of the “perps” over to the proper authorities. Incidents such as these are the epitome of a total disregard of shooting ethics and gun safety. We outdoor sportsmen need all the good PR we can get these days and if we can aid the law enforcement folks in bringing the idiots who go around shooting-up our highway signs to justice, so be it.

I’d far rather have someone mad at me for turning them in than to know about some adult or child spilling their blood on one of our public roadways or bike lanes because of low-life’s shooting guns where they shouldn’t be shooting. Maybe it’s time we went back to the old SPORT (Sportsmen Policing Our Ranks Together) programs.