More on shot placement. Uh oh now what!

[H&Hhunter]

Ok so you've screwed up, that 400 class bull (buck, boar, ram whatever) was standing pretty as a picture. You took your time you estimated the range to be about 250 yards. A long shot but you are prepared and your shooting ole faithful.

Just as you break the trigger Mr. B&C lunges forward. You see the bull hunch up and kick his hind legs kick up. A moment later a soggy whump returns to you on the gentle wind current. The bull is gone into the shinery and headed down hill. A gut shot!!

You run like a madman to the ridge line and there he is trotting painfully away at about 150 yards. The only shot you've got is right up the ole tailpipe, he is straight away and he isn't turning. He's headed straight down hill. It's now or never, 20 more yards and he's over the next drop off and into the green abyss of tangled oak shinery and hellish blow downs in the canyon floor.

My question do you shoot and try to break him down with a hip shot? Or do you let him go and try to find him later?

I'll tell you my answer right now. I take the shot and try to anchor him with a busted pelvis. My reasoning is that I've already screwed up the bull is already wounded and I probably will not find him with a possibly non bleeding gut shot wound. I want to end this now.

I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. I'm just saying that would be inclination.

What would you do?

 

[TrapperReady]

In my opinion, once you shoot an animal, you owe a couple things to that animal. The first is that it should die as rapidly as possible with a minimum amount of suffering. The second is that it should be recovered and not be wasted.

With those things in mind, I think that taking the shot you describe stands the best chance of ensuring both of those conditions are met. If the animal gets away with an abdominal wound, it is possible there may not be much of a trail... and it's almost guaranteed a drawn-out, agonizing death.

 

[TaxPhd]

The alternative is letting him get away to suffer in agony? No question. Do everything you can to bring him down (the right answer). Texas heart shot with a premium bullet, case closed. The field dressing gets ugly, but that's the price you pay.




Scott

 

[JustsayMo]

There seems to be a mentality that taking two shots is a bad thing. My brother in law zipped a 300 mag through the vitals of an Elk that just stood there. I said "Hit him again!" and he said "no, he'd dead but he doesn't know it yet." I watched in horror for what seemed like an eternity, might have only been 15 seconds but just as I was going to grab my rifle and hit him again, he toppled. It turned out to be a perfect heart/lung shot. I was amazed the animal could absorb that. I saw the hit but for a moment questioned it. Had it been me, I'd have another one on the way pronto.

I'm very careful to make the best shot possible. I take more pride in stalking closer than sniping them from long range. I'm not too proud to shot until it's down but fortunately that hasn't been required. What trappeready said is right on. I do my very best to insure a quick and painless kill no matter what I'm shooting. That means lots of practice and aimed shots.

In my younger days I have a few shots that I shouldn't have taken on small game that haunt me still.

 

[KriegHund]

I'll tell you my answer right now. I take the shot and try to anchor him with a busted pelvis. My reasoning is that I've already screwed up the bull is already wounded and I probably will not find him with a possibly non bleeding gut shot wound. I want to end this now.

Ide agree there.

 

[MDHunter]

Shoot Again

Absolutely. You already know he's wounded, the worst that can happen is you miss and still have a long trailing effort ahead. The best that can happen is you finish him right there.

 

[capnrik]

Looks like we all agree. The scenario posed reminds me of two kills...one that I'm ashamed of, and another that I'm not.

The first was whitetail that bolted as I squeezed off the first shot. The bullet hit a foreleg. I bolted in another and fired again as he cleared a fence, and that shot went into the paunch. The third shot finally knocked him down, but didn't kill him. Shot four, from 15 feet was delivered to the neck while the deer held his head up and stared me in the eye.

It was rotten shooting, and a terrible feeling, but it would have been worse if he had escaped.

The other incident was one I've related here before...a client wounded a buck and we tracked him to where he was bedded down in a draw. The buck jumped and ran, and the client shot but missed clean.

We walked up the deer one more time, and when he ran we both fired. The client had a .240 Weatherby and I an old .30-06, loaded with 220 grain solids.

I shot the deer just starboard of his ????, and the bullet exited the chest.

It was instantly effective.

 

[41 Redhawk]

Absolutely, I'd shoot again! Once wounded, I would take whatever safe shot I could.

 

[Newt]

I'm in agreement with the rest of the folks here. He's aready wounded, what could it hurt? If you miss, you're no worse off than you were after the first shot. If you bust him again, like you said, maybe he's anchored right there.

In my opinion, once you shoot an animal, you owe a couple things to that animal. The first is that it should die as rapidly as possible with a minimum amount of suffering. The second is that it should be recovered and not be wasted.

--TrapperReady

What TrapperReady said X 2.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I think I've told this one before...

Hunting pronghorn with my cousin, on his place out by Limon. We drove within a decent buck out about 250 yards. I got out and was getting my bipod set for a good shooting position, when some yahoos from another party drove up, jumped out of their truck and started blazing away.

We watched the goats run away and when they stopped, my cousin got the binocs on them and discovered the buck had been hit in the jaw. We decided I would have to kill him because he wouldn't live the night otherwise. (Meanwhile, the yahoos disappeared.) I got within about 100 yards of him when he took off running away at a slight angle. I aimed for the rump and he tumbled.

Terry came over in the pickup and we went to pick him up. When we got close, he got up and ran off! He ran about 200 yards and then stopped and laid down. We drove up on him and when he raised his head I shot him in the head.

My first shot with my 25-06, loaded with Winchester factory 120 grain positive expanding point bullets, had traversed from the rump, through the vitals and exited the opposite front shoulder, of course ruining two quarters of meat. I don't think it broke any major bones on the way through though.

I wouldn't ordinarily take a rump shot on a pronghorn, but that day I had no choice, as it may have been my last shot on him.

 

[Art Eatman]

And another vote for take the shot. Seems to me that deader, quicker, is part of the ethics. If you don't take the shot, the odds jump way high that the animal gets away and dies slowly. Bummer.

For folks not familiar with the vast open areas in the western US, it's all too easy to underestimate distances. When I get newbies to come out to "play", I harp on this issue a bit. For all that I don't care for modern techno-gadgets, I see it as a good thing for hunters to use a range-finder. Anything that makes for fewer animals that are wounded and lost strikes me as a Good Thing.

I recall one time that I estimated a buck out at 400 yards. I finally figured out that he was closer to 550. I gotta give him credit for patience, since he just stood there with bullets buzzing around through eight shots. I finally gave up and quit. The buck then turned and wandered directly toward me for a bit, and then stopped and posed. He shouldn't have, because my mind's estimate of 400 yards and the bullet's trajectory then coincided. Heckuva way to get a "one shot kill".

Art

 

[H&Hhunter]

It really please me to read these responses. I've seen people do other than indicated on several ocasions with the excuse that they "didn't want to ruin anymore meat."

While it sickens me to see a game animal get all shot up as has been mentioned here. Sometimes it's the only way.

A few years back my brother and I were hunting in central NM. This was my brothers second ever time out. He hit a running antelope at like 200+ yards on a dead run. Tumbles the goat with a fine shot a little far back but a fine a shot. The goat goes down.

As we approach the goat he jumps up and starts running at full speed straight away. Both my brother and I shot at nearly the same time one of us hit the goat in the left hind quarter the other in the right completley ruining the goat.

I've never felt so bad. One I ruined the goat. Two I stole some of the thunder and confidence from a young man who needed to do this by himself.

In hind sight it was just a natural reaction when the goat jumped up. But I am very carefull nowdays to hold my fire on anothers game unless it is life threatening situation. There is a fine line between trigger happy and neccesary.

Of course in this case a shot was mandatory as you don't know how badly the goat was hit in the first place. But me playing big brother and savior of the world was extremely bad form as the runt can handle his own messes. I had no business shooting at that goat on that day.

Kind of the other side of the coin.

Larry's story reminded me of it.

 

[1911 guy]

Shoot, twice if you got time

Absolutely, take the shot. If it were an UNwounded animal and we were talking about trophy bragging, that's different and we'd let him go. But with a wounded animal, take any chance you have to put him away. Quicker kill, most important, less chance of losing him to a lost track, secondly.

 

[walking arsenal]

Two stories, neither which im terribly proud of, well, maybe the one, but only a little bit.

My sister and i had been hunting for a couple of years and my family kept setting her up in the choice spots. So of course for a couple of years i had been humiliated by here getting way bigger deer than I. She even made a sporting magazine with the story cant remember which, lots of ridicule, her being the girl and "better" hunter. Well she had just shot a really nice buck and the pride went right to my head so i hid in some tall grass to shoot a bigger buck she hadnt been able to reach earlier. I had just gotten into long range shooting, so my rifle was set up for 400+ yard shots. Long story shorter, i fall asleep in the grass and wake up to see this larger buck 25 yards away from me, i take aim, fire, he drops like a sack of bricks.........then to my horror, gets back up and starts running. I stand and promptly empty my win M70 ,06 , reload 3 rounds and empty those too. The buck slows then pauses, the last shot goes through the shoulder and again he drops like a sack of bricks and this time stays down. The result, 8 rounds of 180 grn 30-06 pointed soft points find their marks, i didnt miss with a single one, the first round went way high and broke his spine if i'd have waited a minute or so he wouldnt have gone far but instead the dressed carcas looked like it had been hit with a claymore mine, we made the whole thing into burger. Lots of lessons learned with that one.

Second one, a little proud of this one.

My best friend and i were hunting from the same stand. I had shot a doe at 500 yards that someone else had wounded earlier and we were on the last hour of the last day he could hunt. The pressure was on. Dusk comes and he stalks out to a heard of does that had been out of his reach. He shoots a nice doe but slips a little while sqeezing the shot off. He gut shoots it. The field is divided by a ten foot swath of grass and the deer lays down in it. We set off to find it and put it out of it's misery while we have some light left, it's too dark for the glass on our guns but we both carry sidearms. As we walk i pop the thumb catch of my holster, as i do the deer jumps up five feet away and starts running. Reflexivly my hand goes for leather and my 1911 lets out a burst like an uzi, the mag is empty before i know it. The deer drops, my pal finishes it with some shots to the head. The results would have been a really nice group had it been at a range and on paper rather than a grizzly live fire exercise.

We were young, we know better now.

 

[crackerjack]

Finish what you started, tailpipes are deadly stopping shots. We hunters have an obligation to finish the kill the most effective human way reguardless of the number of shots or meat damage to prevent loss of wounded game.
Good hunting

 

[TMM]

the way i see it, a rear-end shot is a fairly good shot. hits more internals. but i've never hunted yet, so what do i know.

hmm: if the animal's head is up enough, why not blast it in the skull? quickest death there is...

~TMM

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

the way i see it, a rear-end shot is a fairly good shot.

Pass 'em up unless you need to. Ruins a bunch of meat and makes the field dressing a stinky mess.

 

[killzone]

Its a sure thing

It's now or never, 20 more yards and he's over the next drop off

When ever that phrase is out I 'd pull the triger,