real bad luck video added

WhelanLad

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so i posted earlier about oen that almost got away- sambar stag at 25 meters, i aimed in the head-
what happened was-
bullet went in the nose, along roof of mouth, into the thick corner of the jaw bone, blew up and it lodged somewhere between the jaw bone and where the spine joins the skull--- i cant find any pieces of bullet yet so i will maggot the head an see what cleans up----

this is fkn cray to me.

i have it on footage too------

MV of 2550fps, it was a 180gr Hornady interlock BTSP version............

i still cant believe the deer did not get KTFO nor bleed out quicker thn when i found it alive 4 days later..........

ive got some autopsy footage il piece together also-


anyone had weird stuff like this happen with headshots?

i an normally morally an ethically far from head shooting Game, but in the moment at the time i wanted instant death @ 25m distance.

i learnt alot this week

 
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Crap 4 days for that stag...

And while I'm no fan of headshots, I can't say I wouldn't take one 'if'...

Cheers
Jay
P.S. Here's a pic of a black bear missing it's nose/front of it's face. Unknown if this was a failed headshot, birth defect or injury of some sorts, maybe a fight? Either way, we captured a pic of it again 2 years later & it was bigger, so animals are tough critters!

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All I can say is deer are gd tough animals. I've never heard of anything like that happening but in the cases I've heard of local guys taking head shots, not one of them ended up with the animal dropping right there. Like Jay said, a crap 4 days for that guy but better than 4 weeks or months. Lessons learned, things happen.

And Jay, those are some crazy pics for sure. I was born with a cleft pallette, those pics almost look like the bears version of it!
 
Impressive pic there Jay and look forward to more info from WL.
My buddy shot a calf elk at 50 yrds .
Tried for head shot but found later he shot it in the jaw/hinge area.
Blew it off and was hanging when they found the calf a further 50 yrds off.
Bled to death or drowned in its own blood.
He still took head shots after that though.
Rob
 
I shot an elk during a limited entry season. Elk went down( one rnd in the boiler room). Got over to him and found his lower jaw hanging on by skin and covered in maggots. I'm not shure how long it takes maggots to mature but probably a couple 3 or 4 days. I'm just glad we put him out of his misery. The only head shots I take are on gophers.
 
To date, I've never been tempted enough, or maybe it's fortunate enough, to take a head shot.

Maybe that day will come... But for now, I agree. No head shots.

This has been me, Ive ridiculed blokes for head shooting deer in the past also... somewhat in house thogh fyi-

but it happened to me , my video will give you guys the perspective that lacks from my original post... but yeah....

i still cant believe a 180gr travelled so little tbh.
 
I've never taken head shots on big game, due mostly to my father telling me a story about a cow moose he shot in the head when he was a teen. The .303 British took a two inch chunk of skull out. The moose looked at him for a second and then fled at high speed, never to be seen again.
 
I shot a doe one year with a 270 win with 160 gn round nose. Was last day of rifle season. She was 20 yards away and down hill looking straight at me. Only thing I could see was the head and upper neck area. I aimed on the neck below the head and fired. Bullet took the whole lower jaw off and put a hole about 2-3 inches out the back of her head. She dropped and didn't move. Thought I was aiming low enough to just get the neck. Didn't feel good about the results of the shot. Haven't taken a shot like it since.
 
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While I have shot 2 or 3 animals in the head when no other part was shown, and the shot was inside 50 meters,
I am very much against such shots, and have not taken one in decades now.
I will relate a poor choice I made about 30 years ago. [Ended up OK, but.....] I was hunting, had a nephew with me who
was there to help if we were successful.

It was about -35ÂşC out, and antlerless moose was the quarry. We were walking an old skid trail, and there, about 125
meters away was a big cow. She was behind a willow swale, so not an ideal shot presented. Then she moved ahead and
stuck her head and neck out from behind the willows. I reasoned that a neck shot should be OK, so took a steady rest
and sent a 180 Partition from my 308 Norma Magnum. She dropped like a stone.

Within 5 seconds, she was up and legging it out up the hill behind her. Fortunately, I had chambered another round, and
was able to put one through her lungs. She was angling away slightly as she ran. About 10 more paces, and she tipped over
for good. I was some relieved, and posted that to memory. Post mortem revealed that the first shot had hit neither spine
nor jugular, so who knows how long she may have suffered had I not managed to hit her that second time.

My reasoning is now this: Why take a low percentage shot when a High percentage one is way more likely to be effective.
I have seen a number of animals over the years with lower jaw hanging, and that is sad.

Very rarely does a heart/lung shot fail to kill quickly. Dave.
 
far out-- talk about Spoilt CGN.....

i did make it a bit pretty an ignore the end....... but here is the short and skinny of it ALL.

hope the viewing is good.

cheers


 
Thats a great video. Well done.
Good on you for toughing it out.

Said it before though, shoot enough bullets into enough animals, and you will see some weird #### happen. Be interesting to see what it looks like after the skull is cleaned up.
 
Thanks for posting the video! Lesson learned & hopefully others don't risk a headshot...

Did you notice any difference in the venison? I wonder about dehydration, infection, no eating etc...
 
Thanks for posting the video! Lesson learned & hopefully others don't risk a headshot...

Did you notice any difference in the venison? I wonder about dehydration, infection, no eating etc...

Jay , funny you say that.
the hide an particularly the white sinew with the meat, was the toughest ive ever tried to cut.. not sure if laying in the mud made it difficult or what-- knife wouldnt hold an edge.

this meat will be dog tucker, its not worth the risk in sharing this meat as the condition is down, plus the stress on those 4 days - i do have some back strap in the fridge though, i might sizzle a bit an see........ let ya know
 
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