Shot Placement

[wayne1]

As I have enquiring mind for all sorts of stuff, I'd like to ask a question and perhaps disspel within my own mind any errors that may occur due to old age and/or infirment; that many years ago BG hunters in Africa and some India white hunters used to emphasis the placement of the first shot, particularly dangerous game, into the shoulder. This would "ANCHOR" the animal, giving the hunter time to reload his weapon and delivery THE killing shot.

A question for the PH's our other experienced bretheren, who haunt this forum, is there some truth in this mind set from the hunters old, or has ammunition evolved to the extent that lung and heart are the preferred areas?
Signed; I haven't got a clue.

 

[Diamondhitch]

My take is this, you can either aim for the nice big heart lung area or try and sift through all that muscle and bone to find the narrow little spine in an ocean of oops. I guided a guy to a 75yd shot at a giant Moose. He insisted on the high shoulder shot and managed to hit nothing more than muscle, gristle and a little bone. I am quite glad it wasnt a buffalo, at least Moose just run a way. IMO kill him with a heart/lung shot then if you have opportunity anchor him with whatever shot you deem necessary at the time.

 

[35bore]

I am not a PH nor have I hunted DG. I have spoken to those who have and read the same books as most on this site. If it can "kill me back" then i think it is very good practice to minimize your opponents chances by "anchoring" him. Works with Bear here in the states.

 

[Diamondhitch]

I will be interested when some PHs reply as well. My thought is hitting that spine is great and assures DRT. But it is still at best a 2" wide target and missing it by half an inch assures an angry animal that can grind, stomp, smash and generaly cause you to have a real bad day. The heart/lung shot is a much larger target with a smaller chance of DRT and may anger him just as much but at least his anger will be short lived and so will he. You can kill an animal realy quickly with a shot to the femoral artery but I think getting fancy, with more difficult lower percentage shots, is best reserved for follow up shots when no other alternative is available.

 

[wayne1]

As I have enquiring mind for all sorts of stuff, I'd like to ask a question and perhaps disspel within my own mind any errors that may occur due to old age and/or infirment; that many years ago BG hunters in Africa and some India white hunters used to emphasis the placement of the first shot, particularly dangerous game, into the shoulder. This would "ANCHOR" the animal, giving the hunter time to reload his weapon and delivery THE killing shot.

A question for the PH's our other experienced bretheren, who haunt this forum, is there some truth in this mind set from the hunters old, or has ammunition evolved to the extent that lung and heart are the preferred areas?
Signed; I haven't got a clue.

I suppose after reading Diamondhitch and 35 bore's comments, it would depend in what country your'e hunting in and the circumstance,conditions and the animal in question, faced at the time of taking the shot. Would you both agree?

 

[35bore]

I suppose after reading Diamondhitch and 35 bore's comments, it would depend in what country your'e hunting in and the circumstance,conditions and the animal in question, faced at the time of taking the shot. Would you both agree?

wayne, might be nice to see what the pro's in Africa say about it. I personally love shoulder shot's because of the bone fragments "passing through" with the bullet into the vitals. Those who have hunted with solids on DG may have a different point of view, or maybe they won't. Either way would be interesting to find out.

 

[wayne1]

Yes I agree, it would be good to get the PH's side of things.

 

[spike.t]

wayne if you havent had a look , go to the more box at the top of the page, click on it, and it has shot placement with a firearm for different african animals. it will give you an idea.

 

[wayne1]

Just after I posted this thread, I did have alook at those photo's spike.t. Thanks Mate.

 

[DOC-404]

Any ethical hunter's aim is to kill an animal as quickly and with the least suffering to said animal as possible. Brain shots, spinal/neck shots and heart/lung shots are the only way to achieve this. You also want your shot to produce as much blood as possible, causing the animal to loose blood pressure quickly but also making it easier to follow, should this be necessary. Caliber and bullet choice is very important but shot placement is critical..! Know your rifle, your ammo's trajectory and practice 'hunting' shots off the sticks.

 

[wayne1]

Well said DOCMAN!!! Bullets nowadays are far superior to the bullets of long ago. Patterson in his adventures through Africa describes in his book how the full metal jacket out of his .303 had poor perfomance on lion and other PG. He described how it took 6 shots to dispatch a lion. I don't know what part of the animals body he was aiming at, but it goes to show just how far we have come in the science of ballistics and bullet construction and animal physiology.

 

[BRICKBURN]

.... it would depend ..... the circumstance,conditions and the animal in question, faced at the time of taking the shot. Would you both agree?

Most of the PH's are out working their butts off right now. High season.... So, you may be waiting a while for some replies.

I doubt there are any PH's (sane) anywhere that are willing to have you do low percentage shots on DG on the first shot.
(Quartering, heavy brush, in the herd, etc.)
It is a very good way to have big problems.


FMJ bullets on thin skinned game just blow right on through like pencils, as evidenced by the repeat shots required. You need to hit a bone to be useful.

If you do a high heart lung shot that critter is not going far at all.
After the animal is hit with the first shot and does not go down, all gloves are off. Take any safe shot presented to cause a quick safe conclusion.

David Sutherland made a mistake once on an Elephant he thought was dead, "anchored with a brain shot". He did not do a second brain shot immediately on that Elephant.
He has not repeated that mistake.

I hope some PH's chime in when they get a break.

Shoot straight.

 

[wayne1]

Quite right BRICKBURN. I had a close encounter with a critter that I will never forget. Spine chilling close encounter. A Mate and myself were out spot-lighting foxes one night. We had shot about 6 by about 10 o'clock one night, we pick them up after they were shot and opened the back door and threw them in the back to skin later. It was winter at the time and bitterly cold with drizzle and fog being wisked around us by a westerly wind. Now in the back of the F40 Toyota troop carrier we had a styrofoam esky which carried sandwiches and a couple of thermos's of coffee. We were constantly enoyed the whole night with the constant squeeking of the esky rubbing on something in the back of the vehicle. Finally the mate stopped swearing under his breath, went around the back and opened the door. As he did so, I heard a scuffle in the back. Turning around, I heard a yell. There in the tail lights of the vehicle was a fox snarling at the mate. He then (the fox) took off out of the vehicle and passed the mate. The fox disappeared into the darkness with his tail in the air and the tail lights reflecting off his butt and tail. It could have turned out nasty; foxes have very sharp teeth and can deliver a nasty bite, but all I could do was laugh me arse off. The mate was not impressed stating that it was the fox I shot. I said "How can you tell?" He said, "I don't bloody well miss arsehole."

 

[BRICKBURN]

Amazing some of us are still alive after the dumb stuff we have done.

OK Wayne1, if your mate was pissed at you for "not getting the job done" on a fox imagine something that can really kill you.
Elephant toe jam!

 

[Diamondhitch]

LOL, reminds me of when I was a kid. Some guy pulled up to the arena in his welding truck. He had ran over a coyote and stuffed it into his toolbox to give to his brother. When he opened the toolbox the, not so dead as he thought, coyote snarled at him and he slammed the door back shut. His brother grabbed a pipewrench and got ready for the door to be re-opened. When it was the coyote holed up for a moment then sprang out and was promptly beaten to death with the pipewrench much to the dismay of some local women. LOL

 

[BryceM]

I had to kill a little Hungarian partridge last year three times. I felt horribly at the time and I still do. I shot it at a reasonable range with #6 birdshot and stuffed the dead, dog-retrieved bird into my vest. Later back at the truck I got a handful of excitement when it was time to empty the game bag. I whonked it's head good on the bumper a few times. About an hour later at home I found it wandering around the back of the truck very much alive. This time I was tempted to get the .416 Rigby out.

That's a silly little bird that weighs a few ounces. No way I'm taking anything but a boiler-room shot on a buff!

 

[wayne1]

I don't know who shot him BRICKBURN. There was some blood on his head, so I'd say that he had been knocked out when put into the back of the truck. We used to head shoot the foxes out to and include 200 meters when we spot lighted them. My Mate was a bit of a woos when it came to shoot anything bigger than a 222 remington. I used to take along my 300 win mag along when went pig shooting. I gave him s shot one day just after I bought it. I didn't hear then end of it and each and everytime I took it out with us, he used to stand about 40 meters behind me when I used it. But it did save his bacon when he wounded a large boar with his 222. After shooting in the head (bad idea) at a distance of 65 meters, the pig charged as he began to put another round up the spout. I standing next to him with the 300. The pig got to about 30 meters when I stopped him. By the way, the pig weight (after gutting) 220kg. That was worth $140 to us.

 

[wayne1]

Don't just hate it when animals don't do what you want them to do. That must have been hilarious to watch that going on.

 

[wayne1]

I just told my wife what happened to you mate. We both lost it.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I don't know who shot him BRICKBURN. There was some blood on his head, so I'd say that he had been knocked out when put into the back of the truck. We used to head shoot the foxes out to and include 200 meters when we spot lighted them. ...........

Probably you did the shot.
You grabbed the wrong gun for the fox. The 300WM shot over the foxes head, stunned by the shock wave from the bullet going over his head or he fell over laughing and went unconscious from lack of oxygen!