"hump" shot - urban legend... anyone have knowledge?

The first moose I ever shot was in the hump with a 300 WM. Not by design though. Buck fever. It dropped straight down but we gave it a few minutes or so to do what it was gonna do before we went after it again.

It had gotten up again and took off. Didn't go far though and it was in roughed up condition so I finished it.

Guess it don't always kill them.
 
NO H4831, think of it this way. The hump only offers so many square inches of opportunity, the vitals (hearth and lungs) offer much larger target. Should the target get away from me following one of these shots and pertaining the right opportunity, maybe I'll take a hump shot. Hey, it's all perspective here, I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, just saying that it wouldn't be my first choice. Why anchor a moose when you can kill him dead in it's tracks. I
ve shot at a bull on the edge of a lake, quickly reloaded and prepared for a follow up shot just in case. I just feel that a 'hump" shot may not be the best first alternative, perhaps a good follow up shot. But, hey that's just me, and I've been proven wrong before. :)
 
Joel said:
The first moose I ever shot was in the hump with a 300 WM. Not by design though. Buck fever. It dropped straight down but we gave it a few minutes or so to do what it was gonna do before we went after it again.

It had gotten up again and took off. Didn't go far though and it was in roughed up condition so I finished it.

Guess it don't always kill them.
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Joel, what you said about the moose not going far....cool man, but remember that a moose doesn't have to go far to make it a hard day's work as compared to an easy load up. :)
 
I have shot a cow at around 300 yds. She was hit just above the lungs and dropped like a sack of potatoes. After flailing on the ground for a while she finally expired. I can honestly say that I would have preferred to have taken out at least one of her vitals but the hump shot certainly put her down.
In my case it was an effective shot although I did not intend to hit her there(poor shot). None the less I went home with moose meat. I guess it is the same as head shots or neck shots. They are both lethal but not necessarily the best choice.
 
Just for the record, as some people seem to think that I am asking if a hump shot is a good idea....

I simply wondered about it, as some guys were sitting around discussing it.

It's even more interesting in terms of grizzly bears... if I were hunting one of those, it might be a good option to make sure it doesn't eat me before it dies.
 
GITRDUN said - But, hey that's just me, and I've been proven wrong before.

No, you haven't been wrong, these are just our opinions we give. Sometimes it turns out like it should, other times it doesn't, but this is where the fun is. Would be a dull world if we all thought and acted the same!
 
H4831 said:
GITRDUN said - But, hey that's just me, and I've been proven wrong before.

No, you haven't been wrong, these are just our opinions we give. Sometimes it turns out like it should, other times it doesn't, but this is where the fun is. Would be a dull world if we all thought and acted the same!
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You're very much right H4831, but it's the business of us 'ol farts to pass on the best we can to the young bucks. For better or worse, I tell them tall tales but always strive to set them on the straight and narrow before the fire burns out....;)
 
gitrdone said:
Joel, what you said about the moose not going far....cool man, but remember that a moose doesn't have to go far to make it a hard day's work as compared to an easy load up.
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Hah! Good point there, man. They can be work alright. Even as it was, that one came out of the bush like Johnny Cash's caddillac. One piece at a time.
 
gitrdun said:
You're very much right H4831, but it's the business of us 'ol farts to pass on the best we can to the young bucks. For better or worse, I tell them tall tales but always strive to set them on the straight and narrow before the fire burns out....;)
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Just how old are you grey beard?
 
A friend that has shot a lot of moose said that when you first see a moose he is usually standing in a good and easy to get at place to recover. He likes the base of head and neck and I have used this many times when the moose is close enough. The spine/hump works as good and I have shot moose with a arrow in the spine dropping them but that was not where I wanted the arrow to hit. I like the bigger lung /heart shot that leaves a better trail to follow when the bullet goes where I was not aiming?
 
gitrdun said:
Well, I've seen a picture of you and I know that I'm definetely older than you are :( PS> that's not grey in my beard OK, it's CHROME.
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Okay, I'll play. :)

For the record my first big game season was 1976. So that was 32 years ago, up in the French R country above Powassan Ontario. I still remember Warren Doole shot a nice 4x4 whitetail with a bolt action .30-30, of some kind.

I did not begin hunting big game seriously until 1980 though and pretty ,much all of that time has been spent wandering about the Swan Hills of the central Alberta foothills.


Back to topic; I still think anybody hunting moose should avoid attempting the fabled hump shot and stick their bullets into the heart lung area. If you have time to shoot it high in the shoulders then you have time to put one in the engine room, where the vitals are.
 
Here's a visual, found this on the internet, a moose skeleton.

Mooseskeleton.jpg
 
mmm...chicken said:
I dropped a moose in his tracks with a hump shot. When we dressed him out, we found the bullet had entered on his right side, gone dead center through the spine-angling downward to his lungs where it 'blowed 'em up good), knicked a rib on his right side and travelled down under his hide, and ended up just on his right hind rump. When I made the shot, I was a total newbie in the woods with a rifle, and the old guys in the camp told me to go for the hump shot when I first got up there. Secondly, the moose was 11yds away from me. I certainly wouldn't try that shot on a running or long range shot. Consequently, for the past several years I have gotten my deer with spinal shots, with the same 30.06 Sako I used on the moose. It wasn't intentional, but some how when those critters run, bad things happen to their spines. Again not intentional.
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Do you hunt with a Carcano?
 
bcsteve that's a pretty cool pic.

It's pretty clear when you look at that, that a shot into the top of the vertabra would not have to be exact for it to knock a moose down, but it is also clear that the hear/lung area is 2-3 times as big a target and unlike the famous "hump" shot, is almost always fatal.

The only time a bullet might fail, on a heart/lung shot is if it's a poorly constructed bullet, at too high impact velocity. But any bullet that would fail on that, would likely also fail if shot into the top of the shoulders. Hmmmm...



Shoot the bastards in the lungs. :sniper:
 
It's certainly interesting to see the varied opinions regarding "how, when, when, etc" The fact is, many have had success with certain shots [insert your favorite here] and therefore defend their method. I have shot a lot of moose, and my personal preference is a shot in the heart-lung area. Most often, a moose so shot will either stand there for 20 seconds and fall over, or once in a while, take a few steps and then tip over. I have never had to chase a moose shot in the lungs with a decent bullet from any centerfire rifle, and suspect I never will. My personal experience leads me to conclude that Elk will usually travel further than a moose will after a good hit in the vitals. That being said, the farthest any elk has travelled on me after a good heart-lung shot was 85 yards. That area is quite generous in size, and no animal can travel if they cannot breathe, or blood pressure drops out the bottom. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Although instant kills can be made with other shots,I prefer to use the heart lung shot. That shot works on bears too,never had one run too far after taking out both lungs.
As Eagleye stated moose will sometimes stand there and then just topple over when their blood pressure falls.
Most of the moose I have shot fell after the first shot and then one to the back of the head to be sure.
 
Some excellent info and great pic of the skeleton there bcsteve...

So, obviously there is "some" truth to the hump shot - it is possible to paralyze an animal with a shot there - but also seems clear that the better percentage shot will always be in the vitals.

Now, big bear hunting may be another story, as many may prefer to anchor a grizzly through the shoulders first.
 
popcan said:
Some excellent info and great pic of the skeleton there bcsteve...

So, obviously there is "some" truth to the hump shot - it is possible to paralyze an animal with a shot there - but also seems clear that the better percentage shot will always be in the vitals.

Now, big bear hunting may be another story, as many may prefer to anchor a grizzly through the shoulders first.
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Absolutely but the angle must be through the shoulders into the lungs.

On a big bear or dangerous game, when the animal is facing toward you on an angle, the ideal shot is to hit the point of the shoulder in such a line that your bullet travels through it, in a straight line to take out the heart/lungs.

If it is facing away on an angle, then you aim on a line to have your bullet hit the far shoulder. So you are always aiming at the shoulder.

Those are in the ideal, perfect position with the animal stationary.

If the animal is moving then you gotta adapt your aim and things get way harder... :eek:

There's too many variables then to give any definite answer except to shoot until the critter is down.
 
I process a few moose each year--been doing it since 1972. I have seen moose shot in every single place a moose can be shot and I get to hear every detail about every kill. I have processed a lot of moose shot in the hump--not very many of them shot there on purpose--but most of them dropped like a rock. Amazingly there doesn't seem to be as much meat loss as you would think. Now take one thru the ball joint on both front shoulders and you got a barrel full of wasted meat.
Here's another thing I have noticed--if there is more than one guy shooting at a bull--there will generally be a few holes in the rack. You can eat up a lot of ammunition trying to kill one by shootin 'em in the antlers.
 
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