Anybody else get unnerved by animals that don't even flinch when shot?

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Northman999

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Okay, lets not be proud here. Does anybody else get a little unnerved by animals that don't even flinch when shot, even shot well?

This is the kind of think I'm talking about.

My first moose, (I'm hunting with a Win 70 in 338 win mag with 250gr Silvertips), shot in a small open area about 30 feet across. Had to ready the rifle, aim and shoot fast as you know a moose crosses 30 feet in the blink of an eye. I line up a boiler shot at 175 yards freehand, flinch off a shot, then bullwinkle just keeps strolling and dissapears in the buckbrush. No indication of being hit or concerned at all. I'm 17 and I'm convinced I missed and I'm kicking myself in the ass. I run up and find him 20 feet away from where I hit him, and later find it was a perfect heart shot with an exit wound about 3"x4". WTF I'm thinking, who doesn't even flinch with a blown up heart and an exit wound the size of a fist??

Almost twenty years later. I'm floating down a river with my dad looking for bullwinkle in the late evening when there he appears on the shoreline about 150 yards away. I'm once again hunting with the same rifle, but shooting 250gr Gamekings. I line up the beast (harder from a boat as you all know) and flinch one off. Mr moose just keeps on walking, totally unconcerned. I line up another and let fly, again. He's getting a bit nervous now and is starting to walk towards the thick bush only a few steps away from him. My dad starts yelling at me to actually shoot the moose or he will, and gets his rifle loaded. People get like that after a week of seeing nothing, I guess. So, wondering WTF, I get a little pissy and shoot him high in the back and he rears up like a show horse, falls on his side and dies right there. Upon butchering we find the two first shots right in the boiler, four inches apart. He never flinched at all. Hell, he didn't even blink.

Now I know we hear all the time to be confident in our shooting and all that, but am I the only one who, after many years of hunting, still gets nervous when something just doesn't have the decency to fall down and die already right when I shoot it?
 
We were talking about this in work today. Moose are the worst culprits for it, but deer do it sometimes too. I have only shot one moose, but he did"nt react at all to the shot, and then a couple of seconds later he started to wander towards me(don"t think he knew I was there), 2 more shots and he eventually fell with an exit on each side of the boiler and one round in the head
(308/180gr)
If I shot a moose now, I would"nt expect it to just fall over. You just have to have enough confidence in you rifle and ability that you know you hit it and where. The bullet will do it"s job. The first Red stag I ever shot did the same thing. I changed from a 243 to a 308, and they still reacted the same. With a boiler room shot(and there"s nothing wrong with that) big animals often show no sign of being hit at all.
 
go on youtube if you want to see other moose hunts , most of them do this.

some time they will not fall over. they will stay there standing up for more then 10 min! when shot. then the wind will blow them down.
 
Last years moose didn't want to go down. the .375 in the side of the head from 30 yards spun his head 90 degrees, and then he went down!
 
twice it happened to me with moose, close range with a 300 . just went through them like a laser.
 
Members of the Buffalo/Bison family are notorious for that reaction to a seemingly solid hit, then they take off, hopefully not in your direction.
 
Not that I am an expert by any means, but I have read that most herd animals instinctually show no weakness when injured.
Their survival depends upon not being the one of the group who looks weak to potential predators.

Might be off base, maybe it's a shock thing, but it does ring true to me.
 
I saw a bison shot with a 45-70 stand there like nothing happened.
Another with a .340 Weatherby, nothing.
Most bison hunts I've been on require a couple of shots to put them down.

My buddy shot a grizzly with a .300 across a river. Shook like a dog and walked real slow back into the trees. My buddy was glad the bear was dead 10 yards into the bush.:D
 
A somewhat morbid analogy, but a lot of WW1 accounts of warfare describe people doing that too. Mind you the proportions of bullet to human are a lot different, so many people just fell over dead, but a good number too just stopped in their tracks, or walked into the ground as it were. I'd say it's entirely possibly that the entire nervous system just ceases to function and the body just keeps on going until it runs out of steam, which in large predators and herbivores, is significantly longer than we're used to.
 
Animals that have hit in the past and seen hit in the past like you described have not "unerved" me till afterwards.
There was usually not time to get shaky or it was all over!
One Moose on a charge , dropped at 10 feet, and more than a few bears , one less than 5 feet - no time to worry, wonder, or surmise - on the bears, I always like the fact that I was using a SXS....
Cat
 
whew!

Shot my first moose this fall, this is reassuring. First shot, 50 yds, 30-06 220gr nosler, absolutely nothing. Second shot, all he did was turn and look at me. What the? He turned 180 degrees, third shot, he just started walking. Fourth shot was quartering entered just behind the last rib, through the lung area, and into the far shoulder, he then laid down.
I could cover the first three with my hand, right where they're supposed to be.
When we opened him up, the entire boiler room was just mush, and it took the bullet going into his shoulder to stop him. All were kill shots, but wow.
 
Took a small spike buck with a 243 years ago. I put 2 100 gr Rem's an inch apart right into the heart and lungs. After the first shot I thought I'd missed and after the second I was sure my scope was off. The deer just walked off the skid trail and into some thick stuff. It was at least a 150 yd shot and I looked at a big white rock where the deer was standing and walked over to it not 10 minutes later. Got to the rock, looked around, turned right and there was the deer laying dead not 10 ft away from me. I think he just figured he'd walked into a bee's nest or something.
 
Not quit the same, but ....

When I was young in grade school we had a loose horse get hit by a car just up the road. The car zippered the stomach spilling all the guts on the ground. The horse fell dead about 50 yards from the gut pile.

just goes to show you...


all my deer except one fell on the spot. but then again I am using slugs
 
s**t just remembered another story. I worked with a guy who practiced and took shots at game 300 yards plus regularly. One time while he was walking around a small lake he noticed a deer on the other side. He dropped to the prone position and took the 350 yard shot. NOTHING.... Took aim again and shoot. Nothing.... Took aim again and shot for the third time. All he saw was the head move a little. This was way to strange for him so he started to walk around the lake to where the deer was still standing. I took him about half an hour to get thru the bush and around the lake. When he finally got there he noticed that the deer was shot three times. Apparently it had just fallen against a huge snowdrift behind it which had kept it upright..
 
A few years ago I was rattling for whitetails when a small fork horn came in at 30 yards and stood there. I just kept rattling and within 5 minutes a good shooter came in, also at 30 yards. I was shooting my 30-30 and gave him one just behind the front shoulder, he never even flinched!! I couldn't believe it. He just looked at the smaller buck as if to say, what are you making all that rattling noise for you little puke? I waited about 60 seconds and then thought maybe I had better shoot him again. I aimed a bit higher this time and gave him the second 180 grn of lead. This time he took about two steps forward and fell over. One tough customer.
 
I know that many subscribe to the theory that you should keep shooting till the animal is down, and I am usually in agreement. However, the majestic Moose is one animal that I have learned to shoot and wait for him to fall. I have shot a lot of moose. Fully 50% of them have showed no sign of the hit whatsoever. If they are a bit further away [>200 yards] you can usually hear the solid "whock!" of the bullet striking flesh. but closer in you may not hear it. If you are confident of your shot, and the moose is not spooked, waiting a few seconds after the shot will generally give the desired result. I have had them just stand there for up to 45 or more seconds [seems like a ½ hour!] then go to take a step and just fall over, dead. sometimes they will move off, but seldom go more than 30 or 40 yards before piling up dead as a doornail. It does not matter what sort of cannon you are using, either. I was with a guy who hammered a smallish bull with a 378 Weatherby, twice, with no reaction other than the ears twitched a bit. 30 seconds later, the bull lifted one front leg and tipped over. This seldom happens with ELK, however. Regards, Eagleye.
 
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