neck shot

[Herb]

Jim Bond wrote a little booklet, "The Rifleman in Alaska" in 1953. He told of shooting a bull moose in the neck with a .300 Weatherby Magnum and 180 grain bullet. Figured the moose was dead, so walked up on him. Moose jumped up and Jim reloaded and shot at the neck again. The moose nearly ran over him in its escape run. Jim and partner jumped aside and both fired, killing the moose at 20 feet. Jim wrote that they were scared out of their wits and that he would never again shoot a moose or bear in the neck. "You can't tell whether or not the shot has been fatal."

Old time gun writer Elmer Keith killed hundreds of head of big game with centerfire rifles and black powder rifles in North America and Africa and he wrote "You can have all my neck shots for the rest of my life and the next ten years."

 

[roundball]

The results of poor neck shots:

:grin:

 

[adkmountainken]

the results of well placed neck shots

 

[RC]

Just so you know that your not going crazy :youcrazy: You posted on this thread about head shots. :haha:
[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/214696/[/quote][/url]

:youcrazy:
:shake: I must be loosing it. :shake: Maybe I never had it.What is It
?
Whatever you do ,Don't tell RC....He'll think I'm a Nut and not talk to me any more. :haha:
"""He'll think???? ""there was a question?????? :shake: well it's probably "DHS"! :shocked2:

 

[Halftail]

I was just about to contact the moderators and ask/beg them to hide that post.... :redface: ...Now your gonna think I'm some kinda Nut. :youcrazy: :rotf:

 

[RC]

""" gonna think???????? """Tooo Late

 

[Bill Hall]

I have mixed feelings on head and neck shots. At one time my agrument was that you would either completely miss, or make an instant kill (especially with head shots). I have since changed my mind due to experience.
I can recall one head, and one neck shot, that I did completely miss, but three other head shots that proved fatal but were botched. There was the deer that I shot his antler off right where it connects to the skull. It took me a half hour to track him down and finish him off. Then there was the bull elk that I decided to shoot right between the eyes. I didn't realize that area of the head is solid bone and well below the brain. He hit the ground and flipped over twice and was right back on his feet. Had to hit him with a second load also. Last season I shot at a small buck's head and he went down like a rock, but I didn't hit his head, the ball went in right under his chin. Killed him instantly, but if I were off a little to one side, he may have run off and died slowly.
I may still take a head/neck shot in the future, but I will certainly take a second or two to think about whether it's the right thing to do. I figure I owe it to the animal. Bill

 

[Herb]

Hey, Roundball, neat!

 

[Runner]

I had seena big buck on the big farm. It was late in season, and right before dark I was sneaking around trying to bump that buck past my dad. He stood up out of his bed to see what he was hearing at about thirty yards. Cedars were covering where I wanted to shoot, so I shifted to the neck and put the hammer on him. Now, the whoile thing took about 5 seconds from sighting him to shot. I was in thick stuff! As the smoke was starting to clear, a big deer came ruinning thru it right at me and i was trying to quick draw the dragoon when I realized that deer did not have horns. I set my rifle agains ta bush and ran to where the buck had been standing. Hw was down in his bed in a small depression in the ground. His head was up already, and he was starting to get control of his back legs again. He spun around and lunged at me with his horns several times. I finally landed a kick that knocked him over on his side and I put a 250 grain REAL thru his lungs at about 4 feet. Let me tell ya, you don't want to jump in a small area with a 300 pound po'ed buck! Autopsy told the story. He saw standing broadside with his head turned to look at me. The ball went thru the neck at an angle and stopped under the hide on the off side. An arrow was used to measure the resulting wound channel. The ball poenetrated 18 inches of solid neck muscle and stopped under the hide. It hit a little sliver of one vertabra on it's way thru stunning the animal for a short time only.
That was 100 grains of P under a 490 roundball at 30 yards. A modern bullet breaks the spine and he is dead before he hits the ground. A hollow point conical and his spine is trashed and he is dead before he hits the ground. Nothing qwrong with a neck shot, but the roundball is absolutely the wrong bullet to use if that is your preffered shot. I quit using roundball for a number of years after that shot myself, opting for the Denver Bullet Company's 385 until they got hard to find. Then I used the Great Plains 385.
I returned to using roundball when I started to go to the gatherings and started to shoot roundball a lot for target use. Nothing wrong with roundball, but it has to be used for what it is. It is not a magnum destroy three squae inch wound channel bullet. It kills by blood loss, not shock or massive tissue destruction. The neck shot with roundball loads is not a high percentage shot in my opinion.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have taken very close head shots and the last one was "Reanimator" creepy and I decided a deer deserves more respect than that.

LMAO :haha:

That is another favorite shot. ripping a crator through the skull, Ugly sure but very humaine.
As long as you give thanks I feel the creator/mothernature will understand.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had died quickly. If you've ever read the book The Choirboys by Joseph Waubach you might remember the chapter "The Moaning Man". This poor doe was airspace from the bottom of the eye orbits up but was trying to bleat and get up. About as horrible a thing as I have ever caused. I'd rather track one 100 yards than stand beside that again. I don't think it was aware but the body was still working. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

I've given the coup d'merci to wounded deer, but where do you shoot a flailing deer that already only has half-a-head to kill it?

 

[roundball]

I have taken very close head shots and the last one was "Reanimator" creepy and I decided a deer deserves more respect than that.

LMAO :haha:

That is another favorite shot. ripping a crator through the skull, Ugly sure but very humaine.
As long as you give thanks I feel the creator/mothernature will understand.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had died quickly. If you've ever read the book The Choirboys by Joseph Waubach you might remember the chapter "The Moaning Man". This poor doe was airspace from the bottom of the eye orbits up but was trying to bleat and get up. About as horrible a thing as I have ever caused. I'd rather track one 100 yards than stand beside that again. I don't think it was aware but the body was still working. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

I've given the coup d'merci to wounded deer, but where do you shoot a flailing deer that already only has half-a-head to kill it?

Step on the head, pull out the 5" belt knife, plunge it down through the neck so it's behind the jugular, then slice it out the front

 

[Halftail]

I have taken very close head shots and the last one was "Reanimator" creepy and I decided a deer deserves more respect than that.

LMAO :haha:

That is another favorite shot. ripping a crator through the skull, Ugly sure but very humaine.
As long as you give thanks I feel the creator/mothernature will understand.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had died quickly. If you've ever read the book The Choirboys by Joseph Waubach you might remember the chapter "The Moaning Man". This poor doe was airspace from the bottom of the eye orbits up but was trying to bleat and get up. About as horrible a thing as I have ever caused. I'd rather track one 100 yards than stand beside that again. I don't think it was aware but the body was still working. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

I've given the coup d'merci to wounded deer, but where do you shoot a flailing deer that already only has half-a-head to kill it?

Step on the head, pull out the 5" belt knife, plunge it down through the neck so it's behind the jugular, then slice it out the front

I know a fella that approached a "Downed" deer with hunting knife in hand to "Finish" it off.3 Broken ribs later he figured it wasen't the thing to do.I'll deliver the "Coup de gras" with another hot load.

 

[Mountainman56]

Neck shot with a high velocity centre fire cartridge of large enough calibre for the game you are hunting.....definately.

Neck shot with a PRB? Never again for me. I've done it a couple times over the last five or six years years because that's all I had to shoot at. One was inside 50 yards and one was inside 30 yards and both needed re-shootin. Granted they dropped on the spot but were both a long ways from bein dead. Like has been said earlier, these creatures deserve better than that.

 

[RICKYD]

All good stories and opinions, but it don't matter if your aiming for the head or the *ss. There is always a chance things could go wrong. no matter who you are or how good you are and if you hunt long enough its going to happen, thats just the nature of hunting. :hatsoff:

 

[BrownBear]

There'll be a lot of you go hungry if you come to Kodiak Island and won't take neck shots on our Sitka blacktail deer. The grass and berry bushes are shoulder high and higher on the deer, and all you see is head and neck most of the time.

I totally agree that the shot has to be right, but that boils down to practice and having the huevos to pass up shots you can't make reliably. I pass up my share every year rather than take a bum shot, but I don't hesitate when the shot can be made cleanly. It's as easy a target as a snowshoe hare's head, and in fact usually easier. If you can make one, you can make the other.

As already said, you can make a bum shot anywhere you aim. It's our job not to take shots we can't make. Sure I prefer a lung shot. But I'm not going to pass up good neck shots so I can conform to dogma.

 

[B.Habermehl]

Having done the same thing with the same results, head and neck shots with muzzloaders or any other rifle are not something I would look foreward to. Even though logic tells you that if the deer's brain is gone then pain awareness is also, the headless chicken scene is just nasty. :barf: I would really prefer the center of the deer's boiler room for any future shots. OTOH I will take what ever shot the Creator chooses to bless me with. IFF feel I can cleanly and humanely harvest the animal.

 

[roundball]

IFF feel I can cleanly and humanely harvest the animal.

:hatsoff: and that's really the bottom line...I'd bet NONE of us NEED venison to survive so there's really no point to the "spray & pray" approach.

The deer gods have not been kind to me this year...have not had a shooter in my sights all[url] season...in[/url] early November there were two different occasions where a good buck came through the woods in full gallop right on the tail of a doe inside 50yds...started to raise the Flintlock but checked up...knew I wasn't good enough to get a guaranteed shot with all the dodging between trees at 25 mph...

 

[cptleo1]

I have taken very close head shots and the last one was "Reanimator" creepy and I decided a deer deserves more respect than that.

LMAO :haha:

That is another favorite shot. ripping a crator through the skull, Ugly sure but very humaine.
As long as you give thanks I feel the creator/mothernature will understand.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had died quickly. If you've ever read the book The Choirboys by Joseph Waubach you might remember the chapter "The Moaning Man". This poor doe was airspace from the bottom of the eye orbits up but was trying to bleat and get up. About as horrible a thing as I have ever caused. I'd rather track one 100 yards than stand beside that again. I don't think it was aware but the body was still working. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

I've given the coup d'merci to wounded deer, but where do you shoot a flailing deer that already only has half-a-head to kill it?

Step on the head, pull out the 5" belt knife, plunge it down through the neck so it's behind the jugular, then slice it out the front

Roundball I truly respect you and your knowledge of the BP sports.

BUT, attempting to cut a deers throat is IMHO the dumbest, most dangerous thing you can possibly do when deer hunting.

That wounded deer is faster, stronger and more freaked out than you will ever be.

You are putting your vital organs within 30" of some antlers that can ruin your day in a split second.

When you walk up on your animal and his eyes are closed - SHOOT EM AGIAN !

If you walk up on your animal and he moves - SHOOT EM AGIAN.

If you walk up on your animal and you even think he is alive -SHOOT EM AGIAN.

There is no shame in shooting an animal twice.

I don't doubt that you speak from experience, but I haven't met the live/wounded deer that will let you step on his head and saw away at his throat.

Just one mans opinion.

Leo

 

[roundball]

Step on the head, pull out the 5" belt knife, plunge it down through the neck so it's behind the jugular, then slice it out the front

[quote
"...attempting to cut a deers throat is IMHO the dumbest, most dangerous thing you can possibly do when deer hunting..."

Leo, that a pretty strong statement since there are so many dangerous things while deer hunting...and particularly so when you have no idea of the condition of the animal in the case(s) that I'm referring to.

In examples of brain or spinal column injuries where a deer is obviously laying there paralyzed from moving, there's not much risk for the 2-3 seconds it takes to do what I'm talking about.

I do agree that it seems you would not be comfortable doing it so I would also agree with you that you should not do it...you shouldn't do anything that you're not comfortable with.

 

[cptleo1]

Roundball,

First of all I must apologize for my choice of words.

You are a credit to our sport and I did not mean to offend.

What I should have done was offered my advice, which is:


NEVER, NEVER get close to a wounded animal, you have a rifle, USE IT and get on with it.

I can not imagine a situation where it would be better/safer to touch a wounded animal then to back up 5-10 feet and dispatch the animal quickly/safely.

Again I apologize for my choice of words - We are all entitled to our opinions.

Leo