Head Shots
- Thread starter bill c68
- Start date
I wouldn't take the chance of my shot being off 2or 3 inches under hunting conditions!
Not worth wounding a deer when a boiler room shot kills just as dead without the risk involved.
Nothing worse then seeing a wounded animal or knowing you wounded an animal and can't find it.
If that doesn't bother you, then you shouldn't hunt!
Camper
Not worth wounding a deer when a boiler room shot kills just as dead without the risk involved.
Nothing worse then seeing a wounded animal or knowing you wounded an animal and can't find it.
If that doesn't bother you, then you shouldn't hunt!
Camper
I don't take head shots because my shooting is NOT influenced by some of the action movies that I've watched. It isn't because my rifle or I are not capable, but animals have a bad habit of not standing still like a piece of plywood does. 
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
So we have covered the gamut from squirrels to elephants. Shooting a squirrel in the head is simply a matter of a miss doing no harm and a hit resulting in a kill. Big game is another issue entirely. Unless the range is very close, I don't know why anyone would choose a head shot. Even head on up close, an under the chin shot will be just as effective and still give you a margin of error if the animal moves at the shot. Shooting a charging dangerous animal might be the exception for some hunters, but this is a rare event in North America.
Frontal brain shots on elephants is the arena of the expert. A body shot is surer. To pull off the frontal brain shot, you must imagine a stick passing through the elephant's ears, and your shot must break the stick. This shot is commonly screwed up by even experienced hunters. A PH who posts regularly on Nitro Express says he puts his sight on the elephant's shoulder when the client is ready to shoot. If the client's shot is right the elephant instantly drops out of his sight picture. If the elephant remains in his sight picture he fires. I get the feeling he shoots often, and saves many clients who think of themselves as Stewie Grangers.
Edited to add -
The one large North Ameican game aniamal (although not everyone regards them as such) best taken with a head shot is a seal. Unless you turn out their lights, they are down the hole, and lost.
Frontal brain shots on elephants is the arena of the expert. A body shot is surer. To pull off the frontal brain shot, you must imagine a stick passing through the elephant's ears, and your shot must break the stick. This shot is commonly screwed up by even experienced hunters. A PH who posts regularly on Nitro Express says he puts his sight on the elephant's shoulder when the client is ready to shoot. If the client's shot is right the elephant instantly drops out of his sight picture. If the elephant remains in his sight picture he fires. I get the feeling he shoots often, and saves many clients who think of themselves as Stewie Grangers.
Edited to add -
The one large North Ameican game aniamal (although not everyone regards them as such) best taken with a head shot is a seal. Unless you turn out their lights, they are down the hole, and lost.
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Quote "So we have covered the gamut from squirrels to elephants."
Boomer,
Well at least we can't be accused of leaving anything out. It was close though, until you remembered seals.
The Africans seem to love compileing statistics when it comes to hunting. One I saw was that the chances of a first time hunter pulling off a frontal brain shot successfully is 1 in 4. A side brain shot is a lot easier and the heart shot is the way I'd go given the chance. I'm starting to spend waaaay too much time thinking about this.
Finding out that non-trophy bulls doesn't cost much more than buffalo hunting doesn't help.
I spent quite a bit of time with a elephant skull trying to learn the location of the earholes, they aren't where I expected them to be. The darn things aren't even in the ears. Basically they are the width of the cheekbone, above the cheekbone, at the back of the cheekbone at the leading edge of the ear. The heart shot is starting to look better all the time!
Here's video I found yesterday about a brainshot that worked. It might be a little more reality than some would prefer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zmSwJjzOE
Boomer,
Well at least we can't be accused of leaving anything out. It was close though, until you remembered seals.
The Africans seem to love compileing statistics when it comes to hunting. One I saw was that the chances of a first time hunter pulling off a frontal brain shot successfully is 1 in 4. A side brain shot is a lot easier and the heart shot is the way I'd go given the chance. I'm starting to spend waaaay too much time thinking about this.
Finding out that non-trophy bulls doesn't cost much more than buffalo hunting doesn't help. I spent quite a bit of time with a elephant skull trying to learn the location of the earholes, they aren't where I expected them to be. The darn things aren't even in the ears. Basically they are the width of the cheekbone, above the cheekbone, at the back of the cheekbone at the leading edge of the ear. The heart shot is starting to look better all the time!
Here's video I found yesterday about a brainshot that worked. It might be a little more reality than some would prefer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zmSwJjzOE
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Nice video. That is the more likely scenario than the head on assault. When we were in the Selous we counted 300 elephants, but none would of been shootable males with 4.5' of tusk out of the lip. It is amazing how well they hide, and how fast they can be. We were charged twice by a small bull - very exciting.
Quote "That is the more likely scenario than the head on assault. "
Well, a guy can still dream, right? After I get my buffalo and plains game hunts in RSA and Zim done this summer I'll be thinking very seriously about non-trophy bull elephant in the future. The ivory has to stay there, but the price is within reach. Besides, my wife has indicated that she doesn't want any full body mounts of elephants in the house. Wait til she finds out about the giraffe.......................................................
Well, a guy can still dream, right?
After I get my buffalo and plains game hunts in RSA and Zim done this summer I'll be thinking very seriously about non-trophy bull elephant in the future. The ivory has to stay there, but the price is within reach. Besides, my wife has indicated that she doesn't want any full body mounts of elephants in the house. Wait til she finds out about the giraffe.......................................................
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Dogleg said:Besides, my wife has indicated that she doesn't want any full body mounts of elephants in the house. Wait til she finds out about the giraffe.......................................................
Hope you have a high ceiling.
Boomer said:Hope you have a high ceiling.
It'll be higher after my wife finishes raising the roof
Actually I'm planning a 2 story addition to hang dead stuff. It'll be touch and go whether it is done before crates start showing up.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Dogleg said:It'll be higher after my wife finishes raising the roof
When do you expect your trophies from last summer, and who did you get to do them?
I got High Veldt Taxidermy to do everything, and hope to have last summers stuff home this summer. About a year seems to be normal. I toured the plant, apparently it is the biggest taxidermy outfit in the world.
One can practice to become a good shot at a stationary target.
I wonder how many animals run off to crawl away and die with their guts blown all to hell.
Head shots should be avoided but running shots are acceptable. Absoute genius.
I wonder how many animals run off to crawl away and die with their guts blown all to hell.
Head shots should be avoided but running shots are acceptable. Absoute genius.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
walksalot said:One can practice to become a good shot at a stationary target.
I wonder how many animals run off to crawl away and die with their guts blown all to hell.
Head shots should be avoided but running shots are acceptable. Absoute genius.
If you think about it, a shot at running game is easier. If the game is running directly away from or towards the hunter, the target acquisition is not much different than it is with a stationary animal. If the animal is bounding you must time you shot to meet the animal at any point in the bound. When an animal is running broadside it is moving in a predictable direction at a measured speed. In all of these scenerios the target size is a foot or more in diameter. An animal shot in the body leaves a trail most times, and will not travel far if hard hit.
To shoot an alert stationary animal in the head is far more difficult. First off, where in the head do you shoot them? Bears for example have a massive head, but the brain is narrow, about as wide as the snout, and low behind the eyes. At what range and from what angle is there a reasonable expectation of success? By the time you have all that figured out, I would be skinning.
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How far away, how fast is it moving, how much hold over, how much lead etc. Calculations easily made in a split second.
When an animal is gut shot the gut pushes against enterence hole and exit hole thus for all intents and purposes sealing them. The only time rumen will be excreted is when the holes match up. This can be very infrequently and only a few drops. The hunter concludes a miss but the animal crawls away to suffer a lingering death.
If we are going to voice our disproval of high risk to wound shots, voice disproval for them all.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
walksalot said:How far away, how fast is it moving, how much hold over, how much lead etc. Calculations easily made in a split second.
When an animal is gut shot the gut pushes against enterence hole and exit hole thus for all intents and purposes sealing them. The only time rumen will be excreted is when the holes match up. This can be very infrequently and only a few drops. The hunter concludes a miss but the animal crawls away to suffer a lingering death.
If we are going to voice our disproval of high risk to wound shots, voice disproval for them all.
Sounds like the voice of experience. Myself, I prefer not to gut shoot, and I seldom take a running shot - although I have done so successfully on a handful of occasions. The first time was a broadside fox at 125 yards, the last time at a quartering warthog running flat out at 60 yards. Both were bang flops, and no animal I have shot running has escaped me. If you are unable to make a competent chest shot, you have no place even thinking about a head shot.
I like heavy for caliber bullets which expand to over three quarters of an inch and penetrate through and through. When a chest shot is made with this type of bullet the game does not go far.
I for one do not understand the logic which would entice a hunter to try to hit a 2" target which may result in a horrible wound if the bullet is off by 2" when there is an 18" target which if hit anywhere within that triangle will result in a humane kill.
When I am seal hunting I take head shots because it seems this is the only shot which prevents the seal from getting back down his hole. Seals unlike any other big game animals are pretty much stationary, but even so I would prefer a body shot - it just doesn't seem to work for them.
Sounds to me like at some time in your life you made a poor shot and it has bothered you ever since. That is good, because the experience is driving you to ensure that it does not happen again - you just came to the wrong conclusion is all.
