The head on deer I see , is always moving. Shot one deer in the head walking away from me. I'll take the high percentage shot. Middle of the lungs. I've shot two pigs that had there bottom jaws blown off through low head shots.one was in a pond trying to soak up water. Not my head shots btw. And on being colorblind, I would not fix it if that was possible. I feel I try harder to overcome, I'm fine with that.
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Anchoring game. Why high shoulder over neck shots?
- Thread starter 180ls1
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Im a lung shooter ,but have shot for the shoulder on bears in the thick stuff.The muley I shot threw neck with a barns and a 325 wsm.He went vertical for 2500 vert and about 2 miles, dead center of neck at 50 yrds.THICK neck
Yeah finding the spine in the neck of a rutting buck can be a challenge, close shots would be better. Mom always went for neck shots but after putting 3 in the neck of a bull elk and the rifle jammed and it ran off for another hunter to finish off and tag, she started going for the body I think.
This years head shot at 270yds with 257wby was a mistake on my part but deer was dead in his bed with a glancing blow to the skull between the antlers. No hole in skull.
This years head shot at 270yds with 257wby was a mistake on my part but deer was dead in his bed with a glancing blow to the skull between the antlers. No hole in skull.
We had some sort of virus or sickness in our herd several years back that turned otherwise healthy deer into skeletons with a hide And so weak they couldn't stand. It's terrible to see no matter what the cause. We ended up putting several of them out of their misery.
DDB TX
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Many years ago I decided to try a 45-70 on Texas whitetail. Lung shot a "decent sized" 8 point hill country buck with a 405 soft point at about 75 yards, and it took off like a scalded cat. I thought I had missed, but finally found a blood trail and eventually, about 200 yards later, found the buck. Through and through, looked like almost zero expansion. I went back to my 30-06. They don't get far when hit by a 165 grain cor lokt load in the lungs.
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
Did you burn the carcasses? That sounds a hell of a lot like chronic wasting disease. A most horrible affliction, and contagious. Decimates populations, and a truly awful way to die. Getting eaten alive by wolves or bears is a terrifying thought and no doubt unspeakably painful. But it's still all over in MUCH less than a day. Suffering horribly, losing your mind a little more each day, and wasting away slowly sounds worse overall.
I will say if you are having to shoot deer again after a high shoulder shot you were too high On the first shot. 7-8 inches under the top works just fine. Just a hair over midline is all it takes. Done right they go stiff legged, fall over and never twitch.
I lost the biggest buck I have ever shot to a neck shot. He stood up in green soybeans and that was all I could see. I went a touch high, just over the spine and it touch a chunk out of the offside. He took off like a dragster. He survived as he was seen much later again.
I lost the biggest buck I have ever shot to a neck shot. He stood up in green soybeans and that was all I could see. I went a touch high, just over the spine and it touch a chunk out of the offside. He took off like a dragster. He survived as he was seen much later again.
Yes we did but the biologists didn't think it was CWD. It happened over a very short period in a small area and then cleared up. Haven't seen it in several years now
Years ago I shot a running buck at 4 yards right in the crease with a 3.5" load, 18 pellets of 00 Buckshot. 1.5" in 1.5" out. He skidded 10 feet and tried to get up And made it to his feet. My lab always stayed with me during dog drives and she caught him like a bull dog but it was over in seconds. The white pellet buffering was strung the entire way through the wound channel. Testosterone and adrenaline can make them a lot tougher than you would think.
memtb
Well-Known Member
You're fortunate……it's alive, well, and spreading here in Wyoming! And it's also infecting some of our other herbivores as well!
memtbCalvin45
Well-Known Member
Good for you! A lot of people might not have even thought anything of it or seen the need to destroy the bodies. Also good on you for putting suffering animals out of their trouble. Human suffering is different, humans are different: but there is absolutely nothing even possibly redemptive about animal suffering. It's just sad. Best to make it stop if you can.
I had to put my cat down the other day…he was terrified of the vet, I took him out to a quiet place, gave him some of his favourite wet cat food to munch on, and shot him in the back of the head while he was eating. He had been suddenly losing weight, losing fur in big clumps, acting miserable all day every day, and had what appeared to be some kind of tumour on his face. He was 3. It was the right thing to do.
Someone i know who is an animal lover (but the anti-hunter anti-farmer type who would subject some poor old suffering critter to surgeries and other interventions out of the misguided idea that it's always cruel to kill something) found out that I had taken care of this myself asked me in horror
"How do you sleep at night?"
More than a little annoyed and still personally sad about having had to do what needed doing, i dryly replied
"With my eyes closed."
I broke 4 vertebrae in a tree stand accident. 9 operations and 4 years later I walked again. I have suffered, and I never want to cause anything to suffer. There are some things much worse than death.
Calvin45
Well-Known Member
That sounds horrible. I've never had anything truly awful happen to me but have bore witness to a lot (my mother is amputee above the knee, has had about a dozen operations on that stupid leg - or used to be leg). Used to be a minister, did a lot of hospital visitation for those on their deathbeds. I have indeed seen that under certain circumstances death is gentle, merciful. It's also hard to watch suffering and not be able to take it away or do anything…a real challenge to my own faith, whatever that is (I admit I'm not nearly as certain about most things as I was a decade ago) … on the one hand, if there is a God and you see just how much misery goes on under the sun both in nature and humanity it's a real challenge to maintain belief in His goodness…on the other hand I have seen men and women who love Him and believe themselves to be loved overcome some the most horrific things imaginable, things I know nothing about (yet) solely by virtue of their faith in that same goodness and I've been very humbled in the presence of that.
But I realize this is officially a complete rabbit trail now, it happened again!
. All the best in your continued recovery and rehabilitation, I've known people who have suffered broken backs and understand that's a lifelong journey. May God be with you. I'll leave it at that.
Well I may need to clarify and contribute to the woes of a misplaced neck shot, I've lost three deer I shot in the neck and spent hours tracking them. About fifteen years ago I was in a 12 foot lean to stand near a large bedding area, light rain in December in Arkansas, Bradley County. I'm quietly looking at the woodline along an old logging road when I spot this very short snout stick out of the brush. He looks around and then steps out into the middle of the about fifty yards away. One of the largest bucks I've seen in Arkansas. I thought "how could I miss?" so I shot him in the neck with my 280 Remington and he went down. I relaxed for a few minutes, took a breath and looked up to find him crawling into the brush on my side of the road, he rolled over and his feet were sticking up (never seen that before) and not moving. I began to gather my gear, tied my rifle to the rope to lower it and about halfway down he crawled back out into the road with his tongue hanging out and before I could pull my rifle back into the stand and load a round he was gone. There was very little blood on the road and as I began to track I found blood on some leaves but the rain was washing it away. A very experienced friend who was in the area came to help, we tracked for two hours (until dark) and never found any more blood or the deer. I can only surmise the my shot went between the spine and esophagus, missed the carotid and other than the initial shock he survived. We checked for buzzards and continued to check the area for several days and found nothing. A humbling experience for sure and I was angry at myself for not following my own rules on waiting and being ready for one to recover from the initial shock of being shot.
