Could have, should have. What would you have done?

At my stand this morning for deer season opening, 10 min after legal hunting a 100lb boar comes within 10yds of my stand. I debated whether to shoot him or not w/my 41 mag pistol and decided not to, cause I didn't want to spook any deer in the area. Well I didn't see any deer and now think I should have shot him. By the way, on my way to the stand at 6:00 am I saw a 12 point buck run right in front of me on my atv. Darn....

Hard choice after seeing a 12 point on your way to the stand.

However have never shot a pig with a pistol so probably couldn't pass that up.

Hey, it's just opening day. Be glad you're seeing something.

I'd have shot the pig then waited for the deer to show....

What was the 12 point doing on your ATV?

Got in my blind and there was a 150lb boar eating all of the morning corn... he is no longer with us

Deer at my lease will not come around where the hogs are. I shoot the hogs and wait for the deer to show up. I might add that having a suppressor helps out a bunch on keeping the noise level down.

Seems kinda unfair, doesn't it.

I'd have shot the pig, especially with the opportunity to do it with a pistol. 41Mag is good medicine for them.

Had my 6.8 suppressed, but the bullet still makes noise.

We do not drive anything to our stands....walk walk walk. If the deer are accustomed to hearing the ATVs year around then it shouldn't be a problem but if not my experience says it will impact the deer you see.

You've got mighty fine eyesight if you can see and count the points on a buck at 6am while you're riding your ATV and a buck is running in the dark.

atv year round, hyw close and jfk airport traffic constantly

Let's see, doing 4-5mph w/high beams, deer jumps in front of me, I guess I would be 1/2 blind if I could't get a good estimate of his rack. My eyes must be 100x better than your's. in response to Deerhunter61 My atv does have high and low beams, your's must not.

your post said he was running not standing still...if he was moving slow I can definitely understand but if he's running and you're being jostled around on your atv it seems like it'd be hard to count each point.

I know what you mean.

I have a good sized boar (200lber) coming in regularly(almost daily) and he eats and eats and eats.

I am going to wait another month though before I pull the trigger on anything but a quality buck.

It's a fact that any deer with antlers that runs in front of your headlights has at least 12 points.
I've heard that claim many times in my many years of deer hunting, and even witnessed it first hand.

Your just giving yourself lower odds your buck will show up the longer you let that hog and other hogs feed there.

X 2

I'd probably have killed the pig.

I tend to be a lot more angry at pigs than deer though

I would have held off but it would have been hard with a nice pistol like that .

Way I see it. Whatever I’m hunting if I see hogs it becomes a hog hunt.

I shoot every pig I see. I hate them all!!!! It's your choice though.

Had two deer in my food plot yesterday afternoon and a boar walks out about 40 yards from deer and walks acrsos the food plot....I shot the boar and the deer didn't even run until he started squealing (I shoot suppressed). About 10 minutes later they came back. About an hour after that 3 more deer came out and walked within 5 yards of the hog and just stared at it.

Gun shots won't spook deer as much as people think they will.

Wouldn't have had a second thought shooting a hog, almost ditto for a coyote 9/10 times

^ this

Fewer hogs/coyotes = MORE deer. Not taking them out is the WRONG decision if you're wanting to see deer more.

Good looking revolver, it should do the job nicely. Hope you have hearing protection, I have ruined my hearing shooting deer with my short barreled 44 mag and more recently with my 300 WM with muzzle brake.

Couldn't have said it better myself. When I take my boy hunting, I let him sit there and pick off squirrels with his .22. We have a lot of squirrels, and it sometimes takes a few shots before he hits. Even with a barrage of .22 shots going on, we still see deer.

Shoot hogs on site and hopefully they will deter from your hunting site, at least while you are there.

Ditto!

Yep, my neighbors yesterday afternoon on two sides were shooting AR's all day....probably 300-400 rounds and the deer never even sweated it.

I've shot a hog before under a feeder 70 yards to my left and had deer under another feeder 150 yards to my right. They never moved.

Pic of that buck that ran in front of me that morning, buddy on the lease got him close to where he crossed.

Simple! You either set out to kill a buck or a pig. Hunt pigs away from your deer spot. Blastin with hand cannons dont jive with big bucky. You can kill a nasty azzz pig anytime. Why waist your season on junk.

I shoot hogs and coyotes 11 months out of the year on my place. I rarely risk a shot during my prime deer hunting time - occasionally I will shoot one with the little .17HMR I keep in the blind for that purpose if activity is slow. I consider them rats and don’t like to mess up a deer hunt messing around with rat shooting.

I walk everywhere as my deer are not used to vehicles.

Not a 12 point, but a really nice buck all the same, lol.

Lesson here from now on shoot any hog you see at any time. If your deer hunting, the longer you give hogs a pass at your set, the lower the odds you will see deer, especially mature bucks. Deer do not associate a gun shot with their potential demise. It's no different to them from lightning striking.

Congrats to your lease member, nice buck.

Shooting hogs is spitting into the fire. This is the only way to deal with them.