Emergency food hunting. Head shots or body?

[vicdotcom]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about hunting for food in emergency situations. I have never hunted a deer or buck before. Never tracked an animal. With these conditions in mind, if a scenario came about where I had to shoot a deer/moose/elk to feed my family what would be the best place to land a shot.

A head shot is easier to miss but would drop a deer immediately correct? But with no experience with tracking, would this be better than aiming for a heart/lung shot?

Now I know I can always learn where to place a shot by reading articles,books and online. But learning to track needs experience. So what do you all think?

Rifle is a .308 if that matters.

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[~z]

True, a CNS shot will require very little tracking (3-5ft) but a good heart/ lung shot is not difficult to track, tracking skills are tried with poor shot placement.
~z

 

[DRYHUMOR]

Neck shots work well also.

 

[Zip7]

If you are confident with your accuracy, a neck shot would be the quickest deal. However, a deer shot through the heart or both lungs won't present much of a tracking challenge...

 

[vicdotcom]

Thanks all for the info. It seems like there is not much difference so far from what I am reading between a head shot vs well placed lung/heart shot. So best thing would be to go for the larger target if all else equal.

Thanks everyone.

 

[koja48]

The best, lethal shot presented under survival circumstances . . . range & state-of-hunger dependent. Can't eat it if you can't recover it.

 

[Griz44]

If I am presented with a shot under 50 yards, (not often) I will take a head shot. No lost skirt for fajitas that way. Longer shots are always broadside heart/lung. If you miss the heart and get both lungs, tracking is easy and they will not go far. I NEVER take a brisket or tail shot. I have not had to track for more than 20-30 yards in the last 25 years since adopting this policy. If the shot is not 98%+, it's a no-go. If I were starving or had to do it for my family, might be a different story. I pray I am never in that situation.

 

[Flyrodder]

Go for the lungs. Bigger target. There should be a hole on both sides of the deer. They can't live without oxygen. You can hit the lungs at a longer distance(bigger target) than you can the brain(small target). Flyrodder

 

[cerberus65]

One thought... Don't wait for the emergency situation - start practicing now. That way you'll be a lot more confident if you ever do have to go looking for emergency survival food.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The problem with head or neck shots is that you are shooting at a small target that you cannot see -- the spine, for example, is deep inside the soft neck, not at the top of the neck line. Similarly, the head contains a lot more than brain.

The best advice -- particularly in a survival situation -- is take the easy shot. The heart and lungs are a larger target, easy to find (front part of the body, below the mid-line). They are surrounded by other good targets -- shoulders and leg bones, spine, and so on, so that often a small miss will still bring down your game.

 

[skinewmexico]

Head shots are a lower percentage shot, and no easy thing.

 

[MCgunner]

I shoot for the shoulder, more often that not, DRT. I've had to track a few, but not very far. BREAK a shoulder and he'll go nowhere.

I like the .308, fine deer and hog caliber. Not a lot of meat damage, but plenty lethal.

 

[Geno]

Interesting thread you started here, friend!

It depends on your rig's quality and your skill. Myself, I would still take the body shot. I do not like needless risk. In all seriousness, it sounds like a good time for you to study up on tracking. It's simple, and actually fun. It's one skill that you hope never to have to use, but one that when you do have to, you're glad you have it. By the way, tracking is used before the shot too...i.e. to locate game.

Edit to add: the heart/lung shots that I have made on animals usually resulted in the animal continuing to run for a 100 to 200 yards. The spine shots always put them down...in their tracks. A shoulder shot too is very effective.

Best of luck.

Doc2005

 

[tblt]

A bad head shot would not drop a deer, you could blow the jaw off and you would never find it

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I agree. A shot in the front part of the body, below the centerline is your best bet.

 

[vicdotcom]

Well it looks like we pretty much have a consensus. I appreciate all the information everyone. It looks like heart/lung area is the way to go in this situation. Not being a hunter, I really didnt know what was the better scenario. I only know what I see on TV and in magazines.

But hopefully I will be able to go out and do some hunting in the next few years and get some hunts under my belt. Practice practice practice especially since I want to learn to clean the animal also
Thanks again all!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Go for the lungs. Bigger target. There should be a hole on both sides of the deer. They can't live without oxygen. You can hit the lungs at a longer distance(bigger target) than you can the brain(small target). Flyrodder

I agree. I shoot a single shot, and although I'm not hunting for survival, the scenario is if I miss I don't get a second chance at that deer, or any nearby. Lungs are very good, and if I get the heart, that's a bonus.

One thought... Don't wait for the emergency situation - start practicing now. That way you'll be a lot more confident if you ever do have to go looking for emergency survival food.

This is another excellent point. Sometimes I help out at a local historic site, from the F&I War, and sometimes I demonstrate firemaking with flint-n-steel. I get the fire going in a few seconds, because I have practiced it many times. You should practice harvesting deer (and rabbits and squirrel and ducks and geese), and also practice turning the dead game into meat for eating, and how to preserve the meat if you are cut off from electricity and can't freeze it.

LD

 

[4v50 Gary]

Head shots work if you put your bulet into the brain. Otherwise, go for a neck or lung shot.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Head shots work if you put your bulet into the brain.

Of course they do. But the brain is a small target -- the head alone is a small target, and the brain is only a fraction of the head. Also, the head is the part of the body most apt to move, even if the critter is standing still.

Otherwise, go for a neck or lung shot.

The neck (spine) is an even smaller target than the brain (longer, but not deep.) Most people can't tell you just where in the neck the spine is located.

 

[MCgunner]

Not being a hunter, I really didnt know what was the better scenario. I only know what I see on TV and in magazines.

Funny, I watch those hunting shows and a LOT of game run after being shot. This has not been my experience and I've killed dozens of deer and hog. Most of 'em are DRT. I've had 'em run wih the heart shot out of 'em, a couple, but most drop like a sack of taters. Like I say, break a shoulder and even if they still have life in 'em, they can't run. I've walked up to 'em and had to pop 'em in the head after breaking the shoulder, so I guess if they could have run, they would have. Use an adequate caliber and the shoulder is a viable target. More is better than marginal IMHO. Not that much meat to worry about on the shoulder and you want the deer to drop.

Also, shooting and cleaning the deer is not the only part of hunting. You have to find 'em before you can shoot 'em and there are lots of ways to hunt and lots of skills involved and, well, that's why they call it deer "hunting" and not deer "shooting". It really is the most important part and that's what really takes the woodsman skills IMHO. Shooting/marksmanship is an easy skill to practice. Cleaning, well, do it a few times and you have it. The hunting part, that's the OJT part that takes experience. I'm a life long hunter. I've gone a few years where I never got a shot at a deer. Deer hunting, unless you live in a state park, is a tough way to fill the freezer. Illegal methods like traps do exist if you're truly in a SHTF starvation situation. I practice trapping......on hogs, not deer. But, hell, hogs are better eatin', though I'm not sure I wanna jerk hog meat. They must be throughly cooked, parasites, ya know.

If I need to eat, though, the bay is just out my front door and I have fishing equipment, a boat, and a kayak.

 

[Art Eatman]

It's the usual deal that no one size fits all. Skill level and circumstance will vary among people.

No doubt that the heart/lung shot is the easiest. Darned effective. With experience and increased skill, the neck shot is no big deal. There again, though, such things as distance to target and field-rest expedients come into play.

Then there's the old Zen thing. Some days, I couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle if we were locked in a closet. Sometimes, standing and offhand, a neck shot at 200 yards is a piece of cake.

Go with what you know...

 

[ranger335v]

"The heart and lungs are a larger target, easy to find (front part of the body, below the mid-line)."

Ditto. I haven't taken a head shot since one moved just as I was pressing the trigger; a clean miss and no chance for a follow up. That deer was SCARED!

Many new guys, and a lot of old ones, seem to agonise about exactly where to aim from different body angles. It's easy. Assuming a scope, put the cross wire about a third of the way up from the brisket, put the vertical wire between the front legs. That will drill into the lungs, heart or liver every time and from any angle. IF an animal is directly broad side you may shoot just behind the front legs to reduce meat loss but I still go "between the legs", even though it may break both of them in the attempt.

I believe most poor hits are due to the shooter's mind going ape and shooting at hair instead of where they really want to hit. That can be fixed.

We can train our minds to aim at the right point on all that hair by forceing ourselves to look directly at that "between and one third up" spot every time we see a deer photo or movie, no gun is neccessary. If we train our mind to fix on that spot immedately until it becomes a conditioned reflex, it will be easy to do it quickly and without conscious thought when a real opportunity occors.

 

[buck460XVR]

I have a question about hunting for food in emergency situations. I have never hunted a deer or buck before. Never tracked an animal. With these conditions in mind, if a scenario came about where I had to shoot a deer/moose/elk to feed my family what would be the best place to land a shot.

Are we talkin' emergency as in "I lost my job and would like to have some meat to go with the free cheese and milk the county gave me" or as in "Our plane went down in the mountains of Alaska and we haven't eaten anything for 6 days......"

A hungry predator, two legged or four takes more chances at lower percentage kills than one with a full stomach. One reason house cats are so successful.

With time and enough ammo I'd wait for the perfect shot, but if my son or daughter was gonna die if they didn't get something to eat within a matter of hours I would take any shot that presented itself. A shot square in the hindquarters or braking both hind legs may mess up some meat and is not the most humane shot there is, but it will drop a deer in it's tracks or at most only allow them to pull themselves along slowly allowing for a quick finishing shot....and if I'm starving to death I don't really care. Ethics at that point are not an option. Savin' myself or my family comes first. I agree that a boiler room or CNS shot is still the best under ideal conditions, but most of the time "emergency situations" aren't under ideal conditions.......nor are we lucky enough to just happen to have our favorite .308 along with us. That's where knowing how to snare a rabbit or squirrel with your bootlace or how to make a stone trap for small tweety birds comes in handy. Hypothetical questions like this are fun, but one must be realistic.

 

[Grizfire]

the head is the part of the body most apt to move,

Bingo

I have taken game by head, neck, and lung shots. I suggest lung in an emergency, and most every other time as well.

The head shot I took was by accident, I thought the bullet would drop more, but I was shooting downhill. He dropped instantly.

The neck shot I took was on a rutting Muley, he walked right up to me while I was laying on my stomach, he was 20 yards away and facing me, I figured at such a close range it would be ok and I really don't want the round passing through the length of his body. He dropped instantly

A friend of mine took a longer range neck shot on a buck, and after the shot it rolled down the hill, got back up and ran several miles with its head hanging. We had to track him, but it was easy in the snow, after we found a big clot in the snow we found him dead a few hundred yards later.

 

[vicdotcom]

Are we talkin' emergency as in "I lost my job and would like to have some meat to go with the free cheese and milk the county gave me" or as in "Our plane went down in the mountains of Alaska and we haven't eaten anything for 6 days......"

Yea I think I used the wrong term when I stated "emergency situation". That means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. More of the scenario I was thinking about is being in an urban or rural area where we had to bunker down for an extended period of time. Food supplies and small game would do for the short term but long-term larger game. Not an "I have to eat now or die" situation. In that case, I would certainly eat up any worms,grubs, insects I can dig up.

Also the areas where I and thinking about have plenty of deer. Heck the deer come and eat veggies out of the backyard! They arent "trophy" size or anything by far. But enough meat to last a family a few weeks for sure.

So its more of a long-term survival situation.