.45 Auto One Shot One Kill

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If the cap fits...

cause i wanted to make a hat
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Oh good. I figured there must have been a good reason for shooting a skunk in the arse with a .45. At least it wasn't some pathetic attempt to boost a flaccid ego and become a big hero by slaughtering a harmless lil' critter.:)
 
A skunk is one animal I will never shoot... it might not kill me but it's smell hurts a lot more than a bullet would... I don't see the point in random animal killing... only killing pests or something trying to kill me... A skunk isn't really my idea of an immediate threat so it can do it's own thing as long as it lets me do mine.
 
I don't know if some of you have smelled a skunk doing its dirty work around your house, but "pest" is one word for it. I'd have shot the sucker too. I've shot skunks, possums, mink, muskrats, etc living out here in the country. When I was 8 or so I watched my dad shoot a massive owl that got trapped in our chicken coop. Muskrats are by far the most annoying because they make tunnels under the ground that surrounds our pond.

I've even shot a massive beaver that made its way into our pond. I've never seen a beaver before that day and still haven't. I don't know how that thing got so freakishly huge...I thought beavers were small! I thought he was a muskrat when his little head popped out of the water. After he floated to shore I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that big flat tail! All the animals I've mentioned so far, including the beaver, thrashed around and fought for their lives til the very end. I don't think many humans could survive as long as these animals did with the same number of wounds.
 
I've even shot a massive beaver that made its way into our pond. I've never seen a beaver before that day and still haven't. I don't know how that thing got so freakishly huge...I thought beavers were small! I thought he was a muskrat when his little head popped out of the water. After he floated to shore I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that big flat tail! All the animals I've mentioned so far, including the beaver, thrashed around and fought for their lives til the very end. I don't think many humans could survive as long as these animals did with the same number of wounds.
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I was under the same impression--I'd thought they were like a woodchuck with a funny tail. Nope! Turns out they never stop growing, so the longer they live.... Even better, there was a prehistoric beaver that was the size of a black bear.

I think the reason that animals die harder than people, in addition to their less sophisticated nervous systems, is that people are heavily trained by movies to be stopped when they are shot--my ultra-wonky pre-med friend, who knows nothing about what gunnies discuss, commented to me the other day on how people are so often "incapacitated" by wounds that shouldn't put them down, even to the point of being knocked down by projectiles that aren't physically knocking them down. Also, I think it's just so much easier to score an actual headshot on a human than on an animal, given how huge our brains are.

People might even tend to let physical pain constrain their behavior, even in a fight-or-flight scenario, to a much greater extent than animals. After all, we're not wild animals, so it's reasonable to think that most of us don't have the same intensity of "flight" response as does a wild animal. People seem to react like wild animals, though, when their adrenaline is already flowing--so much of the time, they don't even know they're shot, which wouldn't be the case if they'd been ambushed while eating a cheeseburger.
 
Anyone that thinks a skunk is a harmless critter has never been sprayed by one. Shooting them reduces their ability to reproduce, and that is a good thing. Fewer animals to polute the air, and tear up garbage cans and bags..........
 
I shot an Armadillo behind the right shoulder with a .223 FMJ....HE DIED INSTANTLY! Lol.:D
 
According to accounts I've read, the US Cavalry lost far more troopers to rabid skunk bites than the Indians ever managed. It mostly happened at night while they were sleeping on the ground. Skunks are apparently susceptible to becoming rabid more so than other animals.
 
Rabies is the issue with skunks, alright. Their only natural enemies have wheels. Everything else leaves them alone. Therefore their populations grow until reduced by disease....often rabies. One hanging near the homestead needs to be eliminated as it's a potential hazard. There's plenty of other places they can hang out without being a threat.

I'd have shot him, too, cyclops....and in the butt if that's all I could see.
Bob
 
And yet, untold numbers of cows are routinely killed instantly with a single .22lr to the forehead.
 
"And yet, untold numbers of cows are routinely killed instantly with a single .22lr to the forehead." :):)
They don't tell you about all the cows where the .22 bounces off the skull and they start "dancing" in the pen..........
 
When I worked in a small slaughtehouse/meat packing place, the only ones we had trouble with were big old bulls and big hogs. Most regular old moo cows dropped like a stone.
 
Hmm... Numerous times I've shot rabid Skunks and Racoons with 12ga #4 high-brass bird loads from 40 feet or so and they hit the ground like a sack of rocks, no movement, no follow shots required. I'll leave them lay for a bit while I go get a pitchfork and loader tractor, throw the carcass in the bucket, and dump it on top of one of my taller ever-present brush-burning-piles where no dogs can get to them. Seems to work every time for me...

Les
 
I once shot a rabbit with birdshot, put two .22 rounds into it's head to try and finish it. Finally figured it was dead, so skinned it, cleaned it. With no head, organs, or anything the carcass was still twitching and jerking around in my hands for a good 15 minutes.
 
When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I shot a Possum that was playing Possum point blank in the face with a 12 gauge. Went to church that morning, came home and went out to inspect my dirty deed. Much to my surprise that Possum was still alive and moving around. I got me a tree limb and beat it to death to get it out of his misery. I guess wild animals have a very strong will to live.
 
i trapp, mainly raccons cause theirs so many one day i got a possum in my trapp,now i trapp in town so i dont shoot them i beat em over the head with a lead pipe until they die it worked with the raccons so i beat this possum at least 15 times with the pipe over the head i looks dead so i take its foot out of the trap then the dumb thing stands up with one eyefaling out of the socket and its head deforemed and bites my boot good thing i had on my big thick rockys after it bit my i hit it a couple more times and drowend it in the swamp near by man those suckers are tough!
 
Thread Stresses the Importance of Hi-Cap Mags and Quality Ammo

Even though it was just a Skunk. It gives us the opportunity to re-think our approach to Life threating situations. If some Hyped up Meth Head and his Buddies invade your Home it may take more then one bullet to put down an individual.

My .45's all Hold 13 rds my .40's hold 16 rds and my 9mm's 18-20 rounds. I use nothing but the Latest LE Ammo. Mostly Winchester Bonded and Federal HST's. Now add in Shot Placement and The Fact that I am not going Down unless Mortally Wounded or out of Ammo.

The Best to All!

PS-High Quality Hollow Points Stop Much Better then FMJ.

Frank
 
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The world is full of stories about the failure of ball ammo, for those who care to look. "Handgun Stopping Power" has a few of them, including one guy who took six rounds of .45 230 ball to the chest and walked 22 blocks to the hospital. Hamilton Bowen talks of centering a gopher with a .50 caliber roundnose and then having to chase it down to administer the coup de grace. And of course we all know the story about the .38 RNL.

Add to all that the fact that many states disallow solids for big game hunting, and the picture is pretty clear: round nosed non-expanding bullets just aren't very good stoppers regardless of diameter. Clinging to the magic of .452" is silly, IMO.
 
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Shot a skunk once with a 12ga. He was coming by our house every night for a couple of months. I was worried about my small children and rabies. Called the Conservation Dept. and the local PD, but nobody wanted anything to do with it. After a single shot, there was no more head. Needless to say, he was DEAD. I put the body in a trash bag, sealed it, and put that in another trash bag, and put it on the driveway for the trash the next morning. That driveway stank for a month!
 
Curious, why did you HAVE to shoot it in the first place???

Sorry, I have just always questioned the mental makeup of someone that shoots animals for fun (if that is what you did).

And don't even get me started on safari 'vacations'.
 
Once when I was a kid of around 10, I took trash out back to burn (we did that then) and there was a possum out there. I was going to leave him alone but he hissed at me so I decided to get a good sized stick and kill him.
The first blow stunned him pretty good and I hit him again. He didn't die and I had to keep hitting him. By the time he died I was feeling sorry for him and sorry I'd hit him in the first place. Had to finish the job, though. Probably just as well since he might have been sick. Tough little critter.

Still don't want to kill something without a reason to do so.
 
"Sorry, I have just always questioned the mental makeup of someone that shoots animals for fun (if that is what you did)."

rightfully so

like the POSs that "wind down after a work day with shooting squirrels and birds"
 
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