Animal reaction to being shot...

[gspn]

Some comments in another thread made me think it might be interesting to hear from everyone about how their animals react to being shot. Sometimes things are surprising.

What shot placement do you use? And how do the animals react?

Do you study the wounds and recover bullets while processing the animal? i.e. do you learn everything you can from the shot?

Neck shots - I rarely take them but will on occasion if the situation is right. Everything I've shot in the neck has dropped in it's tracks.

However...I once saw an attempted neck shot that hit the throat, leaving a terribly wounded deer that hacked and coughed for more than an hour in a briar patch as it tried to survive.

Heart shots - it's not something I aim for but occasionally it gets hit. I once shot a buck at 7 yards with a 7 mag and it ran 150 yards before dying...hardly bleeding along the way. To this day I'm still surprised by that reaction. This was a fairly small southern whitetail...max 150 lbs on the hoof. The impact blew enough hair off him to make a blanket, but it left no blood for a long time.

Double lung shots - I use this on the vast majority of my shots. Most of the time whitetail run between 20 and 60 yards when I hit them double lung with my 7 mag (or with my .45-70, or my .50 cal muzzle loader. I used ballistic tips in my 7 mag for a long time...shot maybe 60 deer with them...and almost every time they fragment and turn the lungs to jelly.

One that surprised me was a buck I double lunged who dropped immediately. Upon closer inspection while cleaning him, I learned that part of my bullet broke off as it passed through him and headed straight up, breaking his back and making him drop instantly. It left a huge lump on his back where the vertebrae was broken.

Shoulder shots - I don't often take them as they ruin a lot of meat with my 7 mag, but they are effective when I use them.

The first deer I ever killed was a shoulder shot with a 12 gauge slug from about 7 or 8 yards. I was on the ground, and he was right in front of me feeding. I put it between his neck and shoulder and he hit the ground like a bag of hammers. It was the most instant and authoritative end to a hunt I've ever seen. Interestingly, there were 5 or 6 doe just 15 or 20 yards away and they simply froze...they didn't run until I pumped the action to eject my shell.

The one shoulder shot that surprised me was a bullet failure where a Hornady SST blew up on a deers shoulder and never penetrated the chest cavity. It was a 170 lb buck at 142 yards with a .243. The deer ran off leaving almost no blood trail. After several hours of tracking I found him 311 yards away. That one surprised me.

Head shots - I don't take them. But I have seen a deer with it's lower jaw blown off. It wasn't pretty.

Those are a few of mine. How do yours react? What surprises have you seen? What have you learned from studying the wounds and recovered bullets?

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I shot a huge buck at probably 10 yds, right in the lower chest right behind the front legs and it fell down straight away, jumped back up, jumped over a right of way, I shot him again as he jumped it and turned him in a half circle, he hit the ground again, jumped up and ran away.
I spent the next four hours trying to find a blood trail and never did.

Another time I shot one on dead run way down in the woods and he dropped like a rock and never moved.

Same rifle for both deer.

What can I say, that's deer hunting. I used a 30-30 back then so my shots were always pass through's. I never recovered any bullets.

 

[gspn]

I shot a huge buck at probably 10 yds, right in the lower chest right behind the front legs and it fell down straight away, jumped back up, jumped over a right of way, I shot him again as he jumped it and turned him in a half circle, he hit the ground again, jumped up and ran away.
I spent the next four hours trying to find a blood trail and never did.

WOW! I bet that was a crazy thing to experience.

 

[CaptTripps]

I shot a large buck, 9 point 200+ pounds, in the shoulder as he was quartering towards me, about 25 yards, .270 with 130 grain Core-Lokt. The bullet broke up on impact with the shoulder although it did its job, I was surprised that it failed to pass through.

 

[adcoch1]

Shot a little spike buck(black tail) at about 5 yds with a soft pt 44 mag from the my redhawk and he flipped over and landed all four feet straight up in the air. Dead as a stump. Best kill ever and the second deer I've shot mid air with that pistol.

 

[Ed4032]

Shot a deer from twenty yards with a Savage 99 sp 300. Blew out both lungs. The deer ran a hundred yard and dropped right there. There was a blood trail so I had no problems following.

 

[gspn]

Shot a little spike buck(black tail) at about 5 yds with a soft pt 44 mag from the my redhawk and he flipped over and landed all four feet straight up in the air. Dead as a stump. Best kill ever and the second deer I've shot mid air with that pistol.

Just like in the cartoons!

 

[caribou]

You definitly "know" each and every time you hit an animal.....they do all different things apon impact; "Thump", twich, fall over, stop, slowdown and fall to the back of a herd, etc, but any animal with a good hit (not a graze) is going to show it.

When I was rifle hunting, it was mostly head/neck shots, out to 200 or so yards, then I moved to the chest. Archery has brought me much closer, and its all chest shots for now.
Where I hunt (the Tundra) is wide open. Most meats I hunt are Caribou, who will be fairly still for the first shot, moving for all others. Ill shoot head/neck on still animals, move to the chest on moving animals, unless they are fairly close, running straight away and 'stiff (heads up trotting, watching) and like Bell and his 7mm on flying geese, Ill do a head/neck because the target is fairly still as its moving directly away..... On open snow and Tundra, a second follow up shot is not a problem to get to. I dont hunt in trees much, so my chances of losing any animals are almost zero. Blood on the snow is highly visible, as are the tracks and for about 10 miles, the animals themselfs....

Fur animals get a bullet, usually in the chest.


Reasons are #1 I could make the shots regularly, #2 I'm a meat hunter, unless its fur, so saving meats and not the head is standard.

Any rifle cartridge in the .308 + (.243w too) class of power is gonna do the job. I loved my 1894 Chattrault reciver'd , Sako barreled M-39 mosin for its placement and reliability qualitys.

Come Nov 27th, Ill be back at it.

 

[AKElroy]

I like shoulder shots because I hate chasing animals. We normally fill our tag, so any ruined meat is negligible in the context of a full freezer. If I were hunting for survival, I would take neck or boiler room shots to preserve the most useable meat.

 

[dh1633pm]

I shot a deer at 25 yards who was slowing walking towards my direction. He was hit with a 300 grain jacketed bullet from my 45-70 in the base of the neck. He dropped as though you took the legs out from under him. Found the jacket in a broken vertebrae in his lower neck. Found the lead near his tail. It has followed the spine all the way down. It looked like lead would look if you could squeeze it flat between you fingers. It was oval in shape and flat.

 

[MtnCreek]

Head shots - I don't take them. But I have seen a deer with it's lower jaw blown off. It wasn't pretty.

When I was a boy I did this. My rifle had those awful see-through rings (scope mounted high). I did not understand how POI changed from zero, to near zero and in. The deer stood there in shock and after a few seconds of me doing the same I followed up with a body shot. I have taken head shots since, but I know a little more now and I don't assume something's a given.

 

[Art Eatman]

Mostly DRT neck shots. No idea why, but body shots have always resulted in Bucky staying right where he was hit. .243; .30-'06, about half and half.

I did pop a doe in the heart/lung area with a .270 one time. She fell, got up, ran thirty yards and quit.

 

[3212]

My first choice is double lung.Second choice shoulder.Third choice brisket.As a watcher in the woods on a deer drive I took a shot at a broadside trotting buck.Lead him too much,creased the brisket.He turned toward me on a run.It was a dead on hold center chest about 50 yards.The second shot took him off his feet and pushed him backwards without falling.He ran past me into a tree and collapsed.The 100 grain .243 did not penetrate the diaphragm,it blew apart in the chest cavity.

 

[entropy]

As in that other thread mentioned, I shoot for the Aorta; aim small, miss small. And if I do miss it, I hit both lungs, like the doe I took with a .50 BP at 125; I hit just over the aorta, went through both lungs. She walked 25 yards, lied down, and bled out to where all she could do when I got over there with the 1100 was weakly pull her head up. I did miss the aorta on another doe at 35 with that same gun a year earlier; hit the brisket (barely); I tracked her until dark, then resumed the trail in the morning; she had lain down and must have clotted up to the point of being OK, there was no further blood trail, nor other signs of distress on the trail. I found out later I'd bent the front sight (a thin brass fin) to the left, causing the round to go about a foot to the right at 50 yards! (She was facing to the right) Only time I've ever wounded a deer and not recovered it.

I loved my 1894 Chattrault reciver'd , Sako barreled M-39 mosin for its placement and reliability qualitys.

I hunt with a Mosin also. I like on the show when Alice takes caribou with her M39.

 

[tomturkey]

Years ago I shot a fork horn buck in self defense at 20 feet that was running straight at me. I think it was going to jump right over the stump I was setting against. It through dirt all over me as it turned.

I could see as it turned that I had blown the lower jay off the deer. Luckily were able to push it to another hunter who killed him. If he had not it would have been a long slow death from starvation for the buck.

A couple of years ago my grandson was hunting with his uncle on a big rye field. He made a long sot across the field at what they thought was a doe in the fading light. The deer dropped like a rock.

The deer ended up being a 3 beamed buck with one of the main beams broken off. This is not the first odd horned deer I have seen in this field.

When we skinned the deer out later that night, he had hit the buck in the heavy bone in the front leg. I could not find any where that the bullet or fragment had entered the chest cavity. The deer was shot with my old Model 100 Winchester 308 loaded with 165 grain Speer boat tails. What made the deer drop like that is still a mystery.

 

[BigBore45]

seems to me they can do anything, depends on the animal. i have shot deer in identical spots to within 2" with the same gun-load-bullet some DRT and some will run 50 yards. Most heart shots seem like they arch there back before they take off, gut/liver area seem to jump first then take off, lungs/ heart lungs seem as though they lose there footing or drop down low for a second before they take off. and you always have the DRT hits.. YMMV.

worst one i have seen was a liver shot doe that kept going and going, 7 total rounds in that deer before it went down 5 .243 and 2 of my .308 win. it was crazy there were 2 neck shots ( last one took her down) 1 liver 2 back hip 1 gut 1 front shoulder. almost no bones left in her legs and yet she was running fairly fast for a dead animal. With hardly any meat left.

It was a sad thing to see, unfortunately it does happen.

 

[Kingcreek]

They're all different. 2 different animals shot in the same place might react much differently. I've shot more with arrows and slugs than bullets but holes in the right places all work. Anything spine puts them out of the race right away. Heart/lung vital area is always good.

 

[Ifishsum]

I've seen heart-shot mule deer rear up on their hind legs, one even flipped over (more fell over) backwards. I always shoot for double lungs if I can though.

Oddest one to me was a little whitetail buck I shot through both lungs perfectly @ 250 yds; he didn't flinch at the shot or move or otherwise show any sign of being hit. Stood pretty much stock still. But I had heard the bullet hit, and I watched him through the scope for what seemed like five minutes. I could even see blood on his ribcage through the scope...finally I had decided to shoot again and had just started tightening my trigger finger for the follow-up shot when he got stiff-legged and started swaying in place. When he fell I could see all four hoofs up in the air for a few seconds. Can still see the image in my mind.

 

[stringnut]

Heart shots almost always leave little blood trail. No pressure no spray. Usually jump straight up and sometimes run off humped up as if gut shot. Lung shots are drt to 100 yards and reactions vary. High lungs little but consistant blood trail. Center to lower are usually gushers. Straight on is generally a drt as it destroys several organs do to depth od penatration. Farthest I have had one go with staight on shot is about 10 yards.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

i shoot probably an average of 50 deer a year doing crop damage shooting so get to see how different bullets and bullet placement make deer react but the most dramatic shot ive seen was at camp on a 150 lb 8 pointer that was about 40 yards away. I shot it behind the shoulder quartering slightly toward me with a 117 sierra out of one of my 2506s. That deer spun two complete circles in its tracks spraying a mist of blood out of its mouth and dropped and didn't twitch again. When I processed it I found the bullet went in behind the shoulder and came apart. I took out the off side shoulder (turned it to jelly) the off side rib cage, a piece of the bullet traveled the hole length of one side of the back strap and destroyed that and another piece made it into the off side hind quarter and destroyed about half of that. the whole chest cavity was full of nothing but mush.

 

[gamestalker]

I always do some manner of wound inspection, I like to know what transpired as the bullet did it's job.

In game that the bullet didn't pass through and through, I always do a recovery, I like to see how the bullet held up.

I once shot a large mule deer at point blank range with a .270 win., 130 gr, Speer Hot Core. The bullet passed through and through the chest cavity, taking out the heart completely, along with a lot of lung tissue. That deer ran dead for about 100 yards and left a very large swath of blood.

I also once shot an antelope, 600 + yds., also .270 win. 130 gr. Speer Hot Core, through and through chest wound, took out the heart and large amount of lung tissue. That antelope ran dead for about 500 yds. before I shot him a second time through the neck, DRT.

Also shot a mule deer with a Sierra Game King, 7 mag., bullet struck bone and exploded. The deer went down right there, but the damage to meat was extensive, very disappointing.

Not all game kills go as well as we would like, but as long as we do our part and try to use good shot placement, the right weapon for the task, then we've done our part. What we might consider as a bad or unethical kill, doesn't even compare to how a game animal languishes when it's being killed by a common predator, which is almost always a case of being eaten while it's still alive.

GS

 

[matrem]

Haven't killed near as much big game with centerfire rifles as with broadheads, slugs, and ml bullets, but have enough to know it matters not.

Have never purposely taken a neck or head shot. (though did spine a nice buck several years ago. Lucky & fortunate)

With firearms, most, if not all are alarmed by the shot, then besides that they don't act much different than with broadheads.

Double lung usually means a 30- 100 yd dash, and if they fall at 50 or less, they're quite likely to jump up, stagger or run a couple seconds then down for the count.

One big difference I've noticed with regards to broadheads & fairly quiet bows: If they're calm when I shoot, penetrate both lungs, and the arrow completely exits without hitting bone, (ribs haven't seemed to matter) they often seem as if they don't recognize they've even been shot.

And that makes for the best possible outcome I can imagine.

 

[elkhunterCO]

I always try to shoot elk just behind and a little low from the shoulder. I shot one bull broadside at about 75 yards with a 30-06 fall immediately then get up and start jumping like a bronco. The second shot put him down.

I shot a bull at a little over 300 yards quartering away with a 300 wm that just stood there. I didn't see a flinch. I thought I completely missed. He put his head down to start grazing again. He was with a bunch of cows and I thought my gun must of really got knocked off zero so I didn't shoot again for fear of hitting a cow. I just watched him and about 20 or so seconds later he just fell over. Shot right through the heart.

Once I shot a bull with a 300 wm at about 250 yards and he circled around and made a charge to the trees, so I shot him again, and he circled around and ran the other way, and I shot him again, then he laid down, then he got up, and I shot him again, this time in the neck, it broke his spine and the lights went out. I lost most of a front quarter, he was the toughest elk I've ever shot. He was a fighter too, he was a good 6x6 and had a broken brow tine and big scratches in his hide.

I put two bullets in the bull I got this year before he made it to thick timber, I could tell I hit him I just couldn't tell how good because he was running just fine. I blood trailed him and found him about 100 yards in a blowdown.

 

[JohnKSa]

The impact blew enough hair off him to make a blanket, but it left no blood for a long time.

If the heart is really wrecked by the shot then the blood pressure essentially goes to zero almost immediately and that means that there won't be much bleeding.

I've killed small animals with heart shots and found no blood at all when they were retrieved.

 

[Snyper]

You definitly "know" each and every time you hit an animal.....they do all different things apon impact; "Thump", twich, fall over, stop, slowdown and fall to the back of a herd, etc, but any animal with a good hit (not a graze) is going to show it

I shot a buck standing broadside in an open field and looking in my direction just behind the shoulder from about 200 yds with a 7mm08 and he never even twitched his ears. I couldn't believe it, but chambered another round and fired again and still no reaction.

Before I could fire a third time, he made about 3 long jumps forward and entered the woods. I couldn't imagine how I could have missed such an easy shot, so I went to where he was standing and saw blood had sprayed out 10 feet on the off side, and there were bits of tissue also. I went to where he entered the woods and found him just inside the treeline.

When I skinned him, I found two entrance wounds less than 2" apart and a single exit wound about 4" in diameter, even though he gave no indication of being hit at all.

Most will react, but not all will