Bang Flop: Lungs??

Longwalker said:
I have very very rarely seen broadside lung shot animals drop at the shot unless a shoulder or the spine was involved. Most that I have seen drop at the shot had little bits of stray bullet fragments or rib fragments that hit the spine. A very few were mysteries.

Based on my rather rudimentary understanding of physiology and anatomy, I have a little different theory than some previous posters about instant kills due to the "breathing" - it seems far more likely that if a bullet hits during the peak of systolic pressure of a heartbeat, there is more hydraulic pressure on the nervous system that may shock the brain. But you can't time a bullet strike to hit at the precise instant that is the peak of blood pressure, so it's kinda irrelevant.
I expect animals hit in the chest to stay on their feet until their brain is depleted of oxygen, about 5-10 seconds.
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I read an article in Outdoor Life a few years back about culling buffalo in Africa and this is what biologists determined was the cause of some animals dropping instantly and some wandering off even though they were all shot in similar locations on the body. The shock of the bullet hitting at the same time as the heart beating caused a massive amount of pressure to be placed on the brain causing a rupture of blood vessels.
 
Nope. Most of the deer I've shot through the ribs/lungs have simply put their head down and trotted off a bit. Never go far 40 maybe 50 yards before piling up. I like lung shots as no tissue damage to edible meat or associated lead issues in the meat. I shoot a 25-06 on deer.
 
noneck180 said:
Blah,,Blah..Blah

Do you think you would stand up for 5-10 seconds with a 7 Rem mag bullet,,entering thr right side of your body..blowing your lungs out..and 3 for ribs on the way out...and not drop immediately..I don't Fing think so.
Get all high tech you want..they go down because of pain aswell.......guess we will never know.
I am not saying they are dead when they hit the ground..but they hit the ground..and I mean now.
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I shot a 3 shot under 3 inch group on a scrawny and incredibly foul smelling 4 point whitetail buck once. He took a little hop at each shot and stopped, but haveing not read the script didn't fall over. I, thinking that there must have been a revision, kept shooting.
If he would have just ran, he probably would have dropped in the time it takes to say "Boom, Boom, ya gotta be kidding me, Boom."


I've come to the conclusion that if an animal has something to run with, he might. If he doesn't have anything to stand up with, he can't.
 
moose, two years ago marlin .308 165 gr hornady leverevolution. Dropprd him in his tracks(liver shot):D This year i wanted to take a dry doe with my bow, once again i dropped it in its tracks (liver shot) 100 grain G5 monetec.
 
waltman said:
I read an article in Outdoor Life a few years back about culling buffalo in Africa and this is what biologists determined was the cause of some animals dropping instantly and some wandering off even though they were all shot in similar locations on the body. The shock of the bullet hitting at the same time as the heart beating caused a massive amount of pressure to be placed on the brain causing a rupture of blood vessels.
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The famous Carmichel article. Never let it be said that Zimbabeans don't have a sense of humor.
 
In the last 30 yrs Ive had 2 deer that I can recall dropping in its tracks, most will still go for abit before dropping.

Most moose that Ive shot only go a few yards before falling over dead.

I hunt everything with a .280rem
 
The buck I got this year was a bang-flop. I hit him probably higher and farther back than I would have chosen too, though still inside the 'zone' on a broadside shot. Liver was chunks, as was the aft ends of the lungs, when I opened him up.

I got a buck a few years back that when hit, he literally arched over backwards and fell with hardly any kicking. He was a high ribs shot too. I was above him, shooting downhill, and the exit was midrib on the far side.

I think that the shock of the impact near the spine, rather than fragments hitting the spine, is probably to get much of the credit.

Now, I shot a Mulie buck under the chin, from the front, many years ago. That one dropped like all the gods hit him at the same time. Ever heard the term 'Poleaxed'? That was what this one looked like. No twitch, no try to run, nothing.

I spined a couple deer over the years, mis-estimating the range. No tracking required, but a bugger to clean up the backstrap! I like my rangefinder!

Cheers
Trev
 
I don't worry too much about 'bang flops' on big game. You typically know immediately whether you made a good shot or not, and it soon shows. Most double lung shots I've made resulted in the animal staggering (for the lack of a better term) a short distance before toppling. Heart shots typically produce the bang flop, or a short burst of running (like they were on fire) before hitting the wall.
 
The state of the animal can have an effect too. If it is unaware of you, it may die without knowing what hit it. If it is locked onto you with one foot lifted to start running the chances are it will if it can.

Individual animals vary a lot just like humans. If you took 3 men of equal size and sucker punched them, one might fall unconcious, one might start crying and the 3rd might look confused for a second before he kills you.:(
 
This october was the first time I experienced this type of shot with a game animal.
I was shooting down at a buck from a high ridge-top into a valley at about a 45 degree angle. The TSX from my .280AI severed the spine upon entering and then exited lower in the brisket taking out one lung. The shot was about 240 yards and the deers legs just instantly gave out. I glassed him for about five minutes before hiking down, and he wasn't doing much thrashing, must have been paralyzed.
This is the closest I have experienced to a "bang-flop", although I would like to describe it more as an anchoring shot.
 
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I think that majority of my hunting has been bang flops. I find if the animal is unaware that you are there, and the bullet is placed through the boiler room, then good chance it is going down.
 
x3 on the frontal shot.

A well placed round in the brisket has dropped a half dozen or so WTs in their tracks over the years. One doe I recall did a back flip and was dead before she hit the ground.

Most times a lung shot will have them run 5-100 yards before piling up in my experience.
 
If you have enjoyed the privilege of hunting for many years, and shooting a goodly number of Deer, Moose, Elk, etc, you see bang-flops fairly frequently, even on lung shots.
However, I do NOT expect that, and a shot through the lungs will shortly find the animal on the ground anyway. I cannot personally recollect any properly lung shot big game animal that made it past about 80 yards. In the vast majority of cases, 25 yards or less.
I once shot a startled Elk at about 75 yards that was running flat out, slightly angling away. The elk ran an additional 35 yards and died in mid stride. There was about 3" of snow on the ground, and when the Elk hit the snow, he slid about 15 feet, deader than a doornail. Shot through both lungs with a 160 Partition from a 7mm STW.
A similar shot on a smaller bull moose that was running broadside stopped him in his tracks. He died right there, double lung shot with my 308 Norma Mag/200 Partition.
I once shot a smallish muley doe with my 270. This deer was unaware of my presence, feeding in an alfalfa field. Shot was broadside at 110 yards, 130 Partition. At the shot, she took off like she had been stung by a bee, running straight for the barbed wire fence. She ran 58 long steps and hit that fence like she never saw it at all. She dropped and never even kicked.
How much further would she have run if the fence wasn't there? Who knows? But I'm guessing not very far....she was dead on her feet.
Bottom line? Shoot them in the proper place, they will be dead nearby, if not right there. Eagleye.
 
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