Kill Shot ~ The second shot

[fordtruckin]

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"

Couple years back I watched 3 legal bulls come out in a group of several hundred cows. One outfitter got 3 clients on those bulls before any of the do it yourself hunters could. I counted 26 rounds to drop those 3 bulls. I was set up to cut the herd off but they never made it to me so I just watched. One hunter would take a shot, run up 20', take another shot, run up another 20', take a shot etc... eventually the guide coming up behind him handing him more ammo. Pathetic! Sad thing is this is quite common place with this particular outfitter. Had them screw my FIL out of a bull this past season when they shot 4 minutes early... Never saw the hunters but that one shot caused the elk to jump one draw over instead of running up to where we were. Can't fix stupid!

[Springer]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

Couple years back I watched 3 legal bulls come out in a group of several hundred cows. One outfitter got 3 clients on those bulls before any of the do it yourself hunters could. I counted 26 rounds to drop those 3 bulls. I was set up to cut the herd off but they never made it to me so I just watched. One hunter would take a shot, run up 20', take another shot, run up another 20', take a shot etc... eventually the guide coming up behind him handing him more ammo. Pathetic! Sad thing is this is quite common place with this particular outfitter. Had them screw my FIL out of a bull this past season when they shot 4 minutes early... Never saw the hunters but that one shot caused the elk to jump one draw over instead of running up to where we were. Can't fix stupid!

Those Crazy Hunts make for good stories in the end though. Ya i would be ****ed knowing they shot before legal light..

[BorealBucks]

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

do you poke animals in the eye after approaching them? A blink is an auto response and will happen if they are still alive.

[BorealBucks]

Originally Posted by 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.

It's literally that simple. It blows my mind that hunters do not do this and just poke the animal instead. This should be taught in hunters ed.

[bdub]

Learned two lessons when I was a young man. A bull moose that could have got me in a patch of thick alder. Dropped him with what I thought was a shot between the eyes. It was a struggle to fight through the alders and when I got up to him I set the gun aside and started to get my stuff out of to deal with the moose. I heard him start to get up and had just enough time to get my rifle loaded and put it against his forehead as he got to his knees and deliver the coup de grace. Got lucky that day. The original shot hit him below the horn base and missed the brain. I should have waited for a better shot, should have given him another through the vitals when I could and approached with much more caution.

[trooper]

Many years ago, I saw a 10 pt buck appear at 311 meters from my position in a makeshift blind on a cutline. I had a pair of home made shooting sticks made from a set of ski poles. I had a custom made 280 rem bolt action based on a parker hale action.
I took aim and fired I pulled my shot to the left and hit the buck in the spine behind its front legs. That buck went down, but attempted to get up and run. I hurried down to that animal and dispatched it with another shot to the base of its neck. Not the good clean kill that I aspired for, but at least the animal didn't need to be tracked through the bush in the failing light.

[trooper]

Another horrible incident haunts me to this day. I was prone on a hill 200 meters from a tree line and watched this buck come out of those trees. I got over confident and took a headshot. My .308 was zeroed with sierra 150 spitzer boat tails for two hundred meters. That buck moved his head just as the trigger broke. I ended putting that bullet through the top of that bucks muzzle and I watched it take off into the bush. I tracked it for 100 meters and found him laying in a small clearing. I could hear his breathing, it sounded bubbly and labored. The animal saw or heard me and took off again before I could take another shot. I waited about 10 minutes before I could track him again. I found him at the base of a hill and was able to administer the coup de grace. Never again will I get cocky and attempt such a stupid trick again. As I stated, it haunts me to this day and it happened east of Hastings Lake in 2007. I've had many successful one shot kills before that and since. A lesson learned.

[JULIUS]

A very experienced elk hunter was with me on my first Elk in about 1985. His name was Gavin Craig. I still remember three things in particular he said to me while we were were walking and calling elk. First. Noting can go very far if it can not breath. two, shoot till it hits the ground and three, if your partner can not stand still for at least 2 minutes without moving find a new hunting partner. I fired into that thing and did not quit until it was on the ground and yes they were all into the lungs.
I still follow all three of his rules.

[thumper]

Our PH in Africa carried a little 'zip' gun. It looked like one of those spring-loaded bear-bangers - steel pencil style. It was loaded with a single .22 cartridge. If game was down but still breathing, he'd dart in from behind, grab the left horn with his left hand, push the animal's head forward and down and with his right hand, place his 'zip gun' against right where the vertebra meets the base of the skull, and release the spring trigger. POP It looked dangerous - but it was very effective!

[32-40win]

Shoot at enough critters , something will screw up somewhere and a shot will go screwy on you. Had a few bush shots that went screwy because of something I didn't see. One was a doe that I will still swear was a clear shot, aimed at heart, hit in the front of the hind quarter. Few where I'd made what I thought was a screwup, turned out to be a good shot. Few where I tried to thread the needle, nope, didn't happen, it never got there. Bow shots that I aimed away from a tree, still hit the damned tree. Couple of moose that were on the edge of really ugly spots, just shot til it went down, both went down within 10 yds. 95% of my second shots were on spine shots, just walked up and finished it.

[Bruce71]

Interestingly it seems that there is an assumption that the first shot was a well placed shot.

I always keep shooting until the critter is down or out of sight. Even if you are shooting premium ammo, one or two more shots is the cheapest part of the hunt and the best insurance you can get from having to haul an animal further than when you first shot at it.

I have only had one animal run closer to me once the shooting started. A young bull moose actually ran about 50 yards closer from the first shot. I seem to remember firing three shots at him.

If they are still breathing when I get up to them, one shot right behind the ear will end it every time.

[Roamer]

Bad shots happen, and it sucks. I had my first one two years ago. Shot at a whitetail doe 35 yards away, must have hit a twig or some brush, bullet hit a little lower than I wanted. I was aiming boiler room, the bullet did take out the bottom 1/4 of one lung, shrapnel went into the heart and both front legs got broken. She fell immediately, I thought “job well done”. Then I heard flopping, I though “she’s just working it out”. Then more flopping, then more, getting further and further away. “Dang it, it wasn’t a good enough hit”, I said to myself. I threw my rifle down out of my tree stand (10 foot drop, had a soft moss landing), then I jumped down, picked up my rifle and chased the deer down. Caught up with her 30 yards from where I first hit her, missed the shot because I was huffing and puffing. Now she’s going really hard. Finally caught up with her again, another 70 yards later (this is all in thick new growth pine) and was able to put one in her neck. It was the worst experience I’ve had, I felt so bad for her.

I took two things away from this:
1. One small twig can really ruin your day.
2. The survival instincts of animals is plain unreal. This dear was missing 25% of a lung, had shrapnel in her heart, had no front legs and still made it 100 yards. I was amazed.

The real kickers were:
She was going downhill the whole time, I had a bit of a drag ahead of me!
My tree stand was a self climber. I now had to jump to grab the bottom of it and pull myself up to get my stand and pack down out of the tree. Thank goodness I didn’t go any higher, haha.

I wish I could have kept shooting when she originally hit the ground, but she fell out of view behind some brush.

[KegRiver]

First, I don't aim for bone, not in the shoulder or the neck. On anything but beaver and grouse.

Second, I always prepare for a backup shot, until I can check for reflexes.

Since I only hunt for meat I haven't killed a whole lot of big game animals, probably no more then thirty over the years.

Of those only a few have required back up shots, and only two have gone more then a few yards.

When I was learning to hunt the first lesson was to give the animal time to die.
Pushing them after the initial shot only makes them run further before they go down.
The second was to never let my guard down until I had checked for and found no sign of life.
The third was to never approach from the front, always approach from behind and stab a hind leg to check for reflex with the gun in one hand and the knife in the other.

The last was to aim for the heart/lungs. Bleed them out and they won't go far, unless you push them. Try to break them down and they'll run far and fast if you don't hit them perfect.

Last summer I help my BIL butcher a 1500 pound steer. After five shots from a 264 to the side of the head from a few feet that animal still wouldn't go down.

We had to cut it's throat to finish the job. A dismal effort. Not enough gun and poor shot placement. A lung shot would have done a far better job.
It takes some serious FP energy to bust through two inches of bone.

That's the thing about head and neck shots, the target is much smaller then many realize and it's protected by a lot of bone or muscle.

It's like trying to shoot a Squirrel hidden by leaves and branches. You may think you know where it is, but do you really, and do you know what is blocking the shot? Not likely.

[cowmanbob]

So your saying a 264 win mag would not penetrate the skull from a few feet away? Am I reading this right?