Kill Shot ~ The second shot

[Springer]

Lots of us have been faced with this after pulling the trigger and you were hoping for a one shot kill.
It does not always pan out that way. You Hit your animal and it goes down but does not die, May be even trying to get back up and you see it stressed and suffering in front of you.
If your a Meat hunter you want as little bloodshot meat as possible so you shoot it in the head or neck. Now if you have that Trophy of a lifetime you intend to mount you probably are not going for the neck shot.
I have watched the odd hunt show where they keep pounding lead until it goes down even if its a lethal shot but the animal is still standing.

How do you decide especially if its not holding still on the ground. Heart , lungs, just somewhere in the chest........

I was in on 2 Elk last year ,(plus my own) Both 1 shot into the neck. There sure was no wasted shoulder meat , It made me think ,you know on a closer ethical distance i just may start aiming there myself...

How about Y'all.

[elkhunter11]

I know of animals that were lost, because the hunter didn't keep shooting, because be didn't want to ruin any more meat. I have also cleaned moose in the water, instead of on dry land, because the hunter didn't keep shooting until it went down. And I have been on long tracking jobs when head/neck shots went bad, which they sometimes do.
My first priority is a quick clean kill, so I take the highest percentage shot for the vitals, and I shoot until the animal drops, or no follow up shot is possible. Anyone that respects the game that they hunt, should have the same priority, and should do what they can to make the kill as quick and clean as possible.

[Hoopi]

Hi: Although the bang/flop hit in the spine is nice to see (a relief really). I did this on a bull elk and he flopped over. I found the bullet lodged in the spine, deformed but not expanded. 30-06 165 grain Hornady boat tail.

I prefer to shoot just behind the shoulder into the lungs because it is a larger target area and margin of error. Yes, they run off and I need to do a little tracking. Yes they run into nasty cover and I have to drag them out of there. BUT, I feel more comfortable aiming for that off leg at various angles KNOWING it will be dead. The neck shot is a small target and elk are tough...if you slightly miss that spine/jugular they MAY get up and run off. The second shot is a very difficult running shot where you may not hit the vitals.

When my buddy and I went to Africa where we got to shoot a lot of really tough antelope in the shoulder, 300 WSM 180 grain branes triple shock. We initially had a bugger of time training ourselves to shoot there. They still RAN off. But a quick tracking job usually solved that issue...because they sprayed blood all over the place making it fairly easy to find. I did note we had a couple "bang flops" and the guide was on us to put in a follow-up shot...on the "run offs" he OFTEN said "hold your fire" he is dead! His experience meant something to us.

My two sense.

Hoopi

[58thecat]

one well placed shot initially, hit it, set up for quick follow up shot right away...no farting around hi fiving etc...be ready for second shot if needed you are ready and hit it again....walk up ready to finish the animal off...once its over unload and then get all hi fiveee!

[calgarychef]

Just like archery. Double lung, for me and quartering away is nice too.

I’m a softy though. I hate having to do the coup du grasse, a bullet high in the neck or the back of the head to finish things off. I hate even having to think about it though.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Neck shots are great until they don’t work out.. I had a 160” class white tail get up after a neck shot... after I drug the “dead” deer 15 yards and left to go get my knife.

Never a neck shot on a mobile animal... maybe as a dispatch shot.

LC

[EZM]

I have to say, even at a 75 yard broadside target standing still, the double lung boiler room bullet is the way to go. You just never know when that "perfect target" decides to take a step forward or something.

I hunted with a "only neck shots" guy, and usually it was effective ......... until it wasn't ........then it was a circus. So NO neck shots for me unless it's a varmint.

[astepanuk]

On my caribou hunt this year my initial shot was a bit back, the bull was laying in the tall willows unable to see other than his rack. When we got within 50 yards of him, the bull stood back up I remember thinking I don't want to wreck the cape and purposely shot and dropped him behind the shoulders.

[vcmm]

Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck

Neck shots are great until they don’t work out.. I had a 160” class white tail get up after a neck shot... after I drug the “dead” deer 15 yards and left to go get my knife.

Never a neck shot on a mobile animal... maybe as a dispatch shot.

LC

Exactly! Aim for heart lung shots.

[freeride]

I always aim boiler room. As stated there are a lot of things that can go wrong on a neck shot, and a lot more movement from the animal that can happen while your pulling the trigger. Even if it takes a step your still hitting it where it counts, if it snaps its head up your shot can be way off on a neck shot.

I have had an animal fold then jump up and run after, I did track it down, but as the OP stated it was a sickening feeling. Now if it gives me a chance I will put a second one in, even in archery.

I havent noticed a huge amount of meat loss putting in a second one, I try to hit the same lung/heart shot and usually the bullets go pretty close to each other.

[jef612]

I shot a moose last year standing broadside at 70 yards. I pumped all 5 shots I had into his chest and he didn't budge from shot 1 to 5. No flinch, no reaction - nothing. He tipped over maybe 10-12 seconds later, but he was dead on his feet. One through the bottom of the heart, one through the top and three through the lungs. Sometimes they are dead and just don't know it.

I would keep shooting until you are positive that it is not getting back up. Losing an animal when you "could have" shot again would trouble me.

If the animal is down and struggling - its your responsibility to finish what you started as quickly and humanely as you can.

With some hunting experience you will see the difference between an animal struggling to regain its footing and escape - and the thrashing due to nervous shock / blood loss of something dying. 2 different things - yet many don't know the difference.

[sns2]

My motto is shoot at brown until it is really down.

[Salavee]

Originally Posted by EZM

I have to say, even at a 75 yard broadside target standing still, the double lung boiler room bullet is the way to go. You just never know when that "perfect target" decides to take a step forward or something.

I hunted with a "only neck shots" guy, and usually it was effective ......... until it wasn't ........then it was a circus. So NO neck shots for me unless it's a varmint.

Many folks worry about saving meat and take some stupid shots for that purpose only. The neck shot is one.

There is nothing worse IMO that getting a package of meat back from the processor that is full of blood. To get good meat the animal should be bled out to the last drop possible. Head shots won't do that , nor will neck shots.
If you have to "break an animal down" do so, and follow up with a shot that will ensure most of the animals blood ends up on the ground, not in a package. That makes for good meat.

[Pathfinder76]

Watching meat run away is not saving any.

[Sooner]

Each situation varies. If I see that obvious view that their dead on their feet and going down play out in front of me, I will wait till they drop. Run up and put one at the base of the skull/neck to end any suffering.

Took a young bull moose in Nov once with my 8 yr old watching. Spine shot. He asked why we were running up, I said so it don't suffer any longer than it has to.

If my quarry is still standing and not doing the I'm going down dance, it will get another(and I have been know to do another after that too). At that point meat is secondary. Most times the shot area is still the lungs so another one placed there still misses most of the shoulder. If a shoulder shot means it don't run away to be lost, so be it. I'm not a fan of the neck shot.


Haven't had a trophy on the ground yet but I guess if a second shot is needed to end things, one to the heart/lungs would have to do.


Years ago my dad shot a mulie buck just before last light, I got to it first, dad was a minute back(old guy walking in snow vs me running). I couldn't finish it off, he had the tag, so I sat there listening to it struggle to breath for that minute till dad walked up and ended things. Not fun.

[fordtruckin]

It took 3 rounds to drop my elk this past fall. First shot would have killed the elk as it was a perfect vital shot. After loosing an elk a couple years back because I only shot once and waited for it to expire based on the volume of blood loss before the elk got enough energy to cross property lines and ran away, I kept shooting until it was on the ground. I did not notice any more meat loss due to the extra 2 rounds as they were all in the vitals.

[RayL42]

The last 3 deer I have shot I shot twice, all three times the first shot was a lethal shot. The amount of meat you loose with follow up shots is nothing compared to one lost animal.

[marky_mark]

Originally Posted by chuck

Watching meat run away is not saving any.

This

[roper1]

Seems like first shot kills are self explanatory, whether the critter drops immediately or dies on it's feet. Been a long time since I took a marginal shot, but might on the next one.

Heart/lung just such a bigger, more stable target. Stay away from neck shots unless you're 5 feet away.

[thumper]

Guides sure get tired of clients that take the shot, and then dismount their rifle to watch what happens ! Beside every guided hunter, there's a guide urging them - "Hit him again ..... now Hit'em again" right up until it's "OK, he's down - put your safety on"

[EZM]

I shot a Moose broadside, first shot was right in the boiler room, he shook like a wet dog and just stood there. Put and other 2 in him as he seemed to slowly walk toward the willows like he was going for a stroll, Put the last one and hit him right in the shoulder and finally took a noser going straight down. All 180gr pills, 150 yards, from a 30-06 like nothing happened ...... it amazes me to see how tough some animals can be. All 4 shots would have/should have, by themselves, finished the game ...... but it makes you wonder if I just stood there and admired my work what a crap show it would have been if he just kept on trucking into the bush. I say keep shooting until he goes down.

But that new "perspective" came as a lesson to me ....

All of us have made "a near perfect hit" - admiring our shot, expecting him to go down in a few yards, then worked our butts off hours into the night packing out an animal that went straight into the bush for a nice long walk through the thickest, most tangled bush in the world.

YUP ... There is no better lesson than packing out quarters in the deep snow to the truck, till midnight, cold, hungry, tired and ****ed off to teach you to keep shooting.

[TomP]

I always find it powerful how our hunting instincts seem to kick in when it counts...only had one animal that didn’t go down with the first shot. It was a brisket shot on a black bear that was sitting looking at me up a steep hill at about 125 yards. As soon as o hit him I knew it wasn’t the best shot based on body language. Managed to hit him in the spine as he went to climb a tree. I guess I also neck shot a buck my brother had liver shot...neck shot for dispatch seemed to work well.

[huntinstuff]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

I know of animals that were lost, because the hunter didn't keep shooting, because be didn't want to ruin any more meat. I have also cleaned moose in the water, instead of on dry land, because the hunter didn't keep shooting until it went down. And I have been on long tracking jobs when head/neck shots went bad, which they sometimes do.
My first priority is a quick clean kill, so I take the highest percentage shot for the vitals, and I shoot until the animal drops, or no follow up shot is possible. Anyone that respects the game that they hunt, should have the same priority, and should do what they can to make the kill as quick and clean as possible.

X2. I do the same.

[huntinstuff]

Originally Posted by thumper

Guides sure get tired of clients that take the shot, and then dismount their rifle to watch what happens ! Beside every guided hunter, there's a guide urging them - "Hit him again ..... now Hit'em again" right up until it's "OK, he's down - put your safety on"

You nailed it. I tell everyone "if you want to watch, use binoculars. If you are the shooter, you dont get to see the animal go down because you are shooting"

[Phil McCracken]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

I know of animals that were lost, because the hunter didn't keep shooting, because be didn't want to ruin any more meat. I have also cleaned moose in the water, instead of on dry land, because the hunter didn't keep shooting until it went down. And I have been on long tracking jobs when head/neck shots went bad, which they sometimes do.
My first priority is a quick clean kill, so I take the highest percentage shot for the vitals, and I shoot until the animal drops, or no follow up shot is possible. Anyone that respects the game that they hunt, should have the same priority, and should do what they can to make the kill as quick and clean as possible.

Yep...same here.

[Smoky buck]

We can all assume the first shot is good but until you make a recovery you are not 100%. For this reason if I believe I can make a follow up shot I will take it

I never want to be that hunter looking back going why didn’t I take that second shot when I could have

[wildwoods]

Originally Posted by marky_mark

This

x3

[Big Grey Wolf]

Guys mentioned this before, I do not like the "poke the animal in ribs" to confirm he is dead. He is not dead until you touch his eye with your gun barrel. You shoot him behind the ear if the eye blinks.

[marky_mark]

Second shots if needed
Should go in the same place as the first
Right through the lungs

[roper1]

Originally Posted by marky_mark

Second shots if needed
Should go in the same place as the first
Right through the lungs

Yessir!