Hunting Situation #1

[musketman]

You have your Hawken type rifle sighted in for 50 yards and can place 5 roundballs in a 2 inch ring with ease all summer long...

Deer season comes and you make a stand half way up a sloping hill 100 yards high in the heavy branches of a fallen tree, lots of sturdy barrel rest...

Directly below you at the bottom of the hill you spot a nice 8 point buck, the breeze is blowing in your face and the deer is casually standing at the bottom of the hill looking at the ground for food...

The deer is 50 yards away and you can hit a 2 inch circle at 50 yards, so you try for a head shot...

"KaBOOM"

You missed!!!

Why?

 

[Griz]

Heck, around where I hunt an 8 point is to nice for a head shot, may want to get it mounted :shocking:
1. Could it be the temperature/humidity in the summer has your rifle shootin at a different spot when the weather is coooold.
2. Buck Fever
3. Summer shootin was on the level at the range, the deer is a down hill shot, change the P.O.I.
4. Buck was actually a fake deer named "Officer Buck" posted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and your are about to meet a new friend. Just Jokin' (now I will get a P.M. from Gobblers knob.
I really don't know why things happen like this, all I know is that when you get it figured out, please let me know.

 

[Stumpkiller]

1.) 'Cause I'm in a tree and not thinking clearly; the effects of whatever I was drugged with to allow me to be dragged up the tree not having warn off yet.
2.) 'Cause I don't shoot well with my feet and I'm not lettin go of this here trunk until my feet are on the ground.
3.) 'Cause I'm shooting downhill and gravity only effects the course perpendicular to the earth's pull, not the longer hypotenuse of the triangle formed therby; and I pierced both ears instead 'o just makin a mess of the brains.
4.) 'Cause deer move their heads mighty quickly and it's a poor target much past 15 yards.
5.) 'Cause that 2" circle I can place 5 shots in is maybe four of five inches outside the 10X ring.
6.) 'Cause I've headshot a deer before and it "lived" on for thirty seconds making horrible noises with nothing above the base of the eye sockets and my subconscious was despirately trying to prevent that scene again and made my nose itch at the last moment so I could get to sleep that night.
7.) 'Cause I just don't realize that I only hit it through the nose and, even though it's bleeding profusely through the porus nasal bones and will likely die in two hours, the blood is being swallowed and it ran off giving the impression that I had missed.

Couldja tell I don't recommend head shots?

 

Deer downhill, bullet going downhill, gravity wrong for sights. You shot over the deer.

Learned that in Hunting 101; downhill shot, aim low.

 

[musketman]

Deer downhill, bullet going downhill, gravity wrong for sights. You shot over the deer.

Learned that in Hunting 101; downhill shot, aim low.

Exactly... :thumbsup:

 

[Stumpkiller]

3.) 'Cause I'm shooting downhill and gravity only effects the course perpendicular to the earth's pull, not the longer hypotenuse of the triangle formed therby; and I pierced both ears instead 'o just makin a mess of the brains.

'Swhat I said.

 

[more powder]

Stumpkiller i know what you mean about shooting something in the head and it not dieing we had 2goats that friend gave us. I hated those d--- goats thay were always on top of something.Came home after work fri. goat in chicken coop so i tied the goat up in corral got my 22 pistol shot goat 6times inhead he would not die i thought i was going to have reload it was looking at me makeing goat noises i never felt so bad about anything in my live lost sleep over it.Told wife i was going shoot the other one with my 338 she ended up gaving it away.

 

[roundball]

You shot over the deer...severe downhill AND UPHILL shots will shoot high due to less effects of gravity

 

[RussB]

I'm not so sure I buy off on the up hill / down hill thing at 50 yds as much as some seem to.
However, I do think that if my rifle barrel was touching a limb, I could expect this to happen.
I think if the rifle was touching anywhere, other than where I would normally rest it, I could expect these same results.
Gotta think about this some more..but "I think D is going to be my final answer."
Russ

 

THANKS FOR POSTING THIS, MUSKETMAN!!!!!!!
: First of all, I never, never, shoot a large game animal in the head with iron sights. The lungs makes for a much larger, more lethal target. Even a Moose's brain is only 2 3/4" high by 5 1/2" long. All the rest is bone or hollowed out sections. Too much that will finally kill him - but not for a month or so. The instant-kill target is extremely small. An unseen twig or branch, wind, hang-fire, flinch or the animal lunges as the hammer falls - too risky fo me.
: Even with this supposed head shot, I killed the deer because I know my ball is never more than 1 1/2" above the line of sight from the muzzle to 90yards, so I held approximately 1" low and put the ball right through the centre of his brain.
; As this shot was taken downhill (or uphill) the slant reduces the actual horizontal distance the ball travels, so gravity acted less upon it. The ball's trajectory would be the same as some range between 20 and 50 yards, or so depending on the actual angle of the hill. With my point blank sight,( I am sighted for 90 yards), the ball is no more than 1 1/2" above the line of sight at 50 yards. I know that at the range of this deer, my ball is going to be between 3/4" to 1 1/4" above the sights, not 1 1/2" as it would on the flat range of 50 yards. IT is an easy shot as I would have held for heart shot and taken the aorta off the top of his heart. The 480gr. ball, driven by 165gr.2F would have done it's job fairly well, don't you think?

 

[bob1961]

cause shooting down hill will make your shot raise.................................bob

 

[Keith]

I see several deer every year after they have been shot by 12 ga. shotguns in the head, they always look like a jig saw puzzle with a few pieces missing. Yuck!
I have also shot a few injured deer at close range with my service pistol. Aim low for an immediate death. I imagine a line from the ears to eye socket and try put the bullet just below that. That way you are shooting into the brain stem, which is what controls basic life support functions.

 

[tg]

Tha actual distance you will be useing for shot placment will be the horizontal distance from a point plumbed up or down from the deer, much like the span of rafters is different from the length, if the deer is 50yd away uphill or down the actual ballistic range will be less as your line of sight is the hypotenuse and the bottom leg of the triangle is the actual range.

 

[Huntinfool]

Exactly tg it's much more critical with a bow and arrow that's where I learned that lesson!
Chuck

 

[Randal Zartman]

MM,Who said I missed? Apparently we were not looking at the same deer. Time to get the knife out and get to work. :crackup: :crackup:
Zman

 

[JerryToth]

Thanks Musketman;

This should be fun...

You said you are sighted at 50 yards? Are you saying that you are dead-on at 50 yards?

All the other fellows correctly said that shooting up or down at a strong angle will cause the ball to impact high.

However, if you are sighted dead-on at 50, you would be hitting low by a few inches out at 100.

So the steep angle would cause your ball to impact a few inches high, while the extra distance would cause a few inches of drop...

It might be a "wash", it might not.

You said "you" missed. Let's correct that and say "you" missed!

I think that "you" missed because "you" just practiced all summer long, on the level ground, at 50 yards.

I think that "you" should have practiced at any and all various distances that "you" might have been willing to take a shot. You should have also practiced at different elevational angles. And finally, if you didn't KNOW exactly what was going to happen, "you" should have passed on the shot.

Now, I'm just joking around, so don't be mad! "Me", myself,... my wife always laughs at me when I keep coming home and telling her what I saw, and what was "wrong" with the situation that I didn't take the shot... She agitates me that I don't want to shoot deer... that I just want to walk in the woods! And you know what, she's usually right!

This is a great idea you have... now onto #2!

Again, just kidding about "you"!

Thanks,

Ironsights Jerry.