More than one hit?

[ScreaminEagle]

After watching many hundreds of head of game shot in front of me all over North America I can tell you that the amount of times I see instantanious kills is probably something like 20-30% of the time and 70% of the time the animals require more shots to kill them compleatly .

There are a few videos on youtube showing headshot deer still alive. If you watch those, you will never aim for the head again! My dad shot a buck one year that had a broadhead buried in its head, near the nasal passage. Please guys, don't do that to any animal. Unless you hit the brain or jugular, they can live for a long time.

 

[IdahoCTD]

Years ago I built a .308 Baer sporter. I loaded up some 165PT's @ 3350fps. The first (and last) elk I shot with it was a spike bull at 100-110yds. He was standing next to a big bush and at the first shot he walked behind the bush. He then walked back out and I shot him again. He walked behind the bush and a few minutes later he walked back out again. I shot him again. He walked behind the same bush again. He came back out and I gave him shot number 4. It felt like an arcade game. The first 3 shots were in the lungs and could be covered with a baseball. All of the first 3 bullets were under the hide on the far side. At the 4th shot he took a step and I hit him in the liver. It exited. Honestly I haven't used Partitions on game since and I never used that rifle for elk again. I knew I needed a bigger gun and built a .358STA, then a .375-.358STA, then a .416 rem :grin: . Only 1 elk since then, that I've shot with a centerfire, has required more than one shot and it was a bull I hit in the ankle on the first shot. I gave him 500yds of hold and hit him in the ankle. I had to chase him a good ways but got him with the second shot. Needless to say that was one of my worse pack outs ever.

I did have to shoot my cow moose twice with my .416 and 300gr X-bullets but moose are different critters. It was dead on the first shot but stood there long enough for me to jack another into her.

I've had to shoot about 4 of the dozen or so elk I've shot with a muzzleloader twice. But I keep shooting until they hit the ground and Powerbelt bullets aren't known for their shock.

 

[Thebear_78]

I agree that head shots are a big no-no. I have seen too many deer with damaged jaws and even one shot thru the eyes that was blind. I used to have a neighbor who fancies himself as a "crack shot" and used to take a lot of head shots on deer. I considered him more of a "crack pot" and on a couple of times I had to clean up his wounded deer.

I shoot until the animal is down, I rarely had to take a second shot back when I lived in michigan but did have to shoot one whitetail buck twice as the first shot was high kind of skipping along his back. He jumped up and I put a second and third into his ribcage as he tried to run away.

Since I have lived in alaska I have had to make many repeat shots on moose. Those damn things seem to soak up lead, especially when their spooked or all riled up looking for a fight. I've had to dress a moose in thigh deep water and to keep from having to do it again I always keep shooting until their down. Even with solid hits you just don't knock a moose off his feet. Ironically the quickest moose kill I have ever seen was with a 270 winchester shooting 150gr Partition, folded him up like he was struck by lightening. I've seen them soak up 270gr TSX from a 375 RUM and not even flinch, almost like it locked in place after that first shot.

One shot stops are great but ammo is cheap and I'll shoot till I'm out of ammo or they drop.

 

[DrMike]

I surely agree concerning moose. They are dead, and yet will take time to consider where the deepest beaver pond can be found or how to tumble over the steepest cliff or fall into the thickest willows around just to make life miserable. There are few miseries so fine and pleasant as gutting a moose in a beaver pond with the snow falling and ice forming. Ah, yes, moose hunting.

 

[IdahoCTD]

A guy that went with us up the Yukon moose hunting one year shot a bull that ran into a pond. With my chest waders on and on my tip toes I was barely able to reach him. We pulled him until he hit the bottom of the pond (about 14-16" of water) and then he wouldn't move. So we butchered him right there. The good thing is he was about 300yds from camp. It was a 63" bull too.

 

[Elkman]

IdahoCTD
Honestly I haven't used Partitions on game since and I never used that rifle for elk again. I

As you know I am an ardent user of the PT as are many others here. Was it a bullet problem you think? I have been around over 100 animals shot with a PT and have never experienced such a problem???>

 

[IdahoCTD]

I have friends that love PT's too but I'm a firm believer in exit wounds. I've seen quite a few of them not exit animals. I've also seen where there is very little reaction to the shot. I watched a friend shoot a bull elk twice like the bull I shot 4 times with very similar results. They kill animals there is no doubt but I like 2 holes, 1 in and 1 out.

 

[SJB358]

Great stories folks! Man, all this talk of elk and moose hunting is rough on me! Keep em coming!

 

[Elkman]

I will put up another!!! Just for fun. Early (sun was not up over the ridge to my east), one morning in the back end of a drainage in Idaho at about 7400 feet I was sneaking along a trail at the top end of the drainage. It was cold and clear with lots of frost on the ground. As I eased along I spied where a couple of elk had crossed the trail earlier in the morning. Their faint tracks were in the frost. Being the avid sportsman that I am, I deducted that because the frost was probably only a few hours old that the tracks were pretty fresh. I followed them up into the lodgepole moving at slowwwwwwwwww speed while concentrating on watching ahead and to the side. I am talking slow. As I sneaked along I noticed movement just ahead of me over a very slight rise in the terrain. As I froze and looked close I could see that it was an antler tip. It kept moving around as I sneaked forward, I then realized that it was a branched antlered bull feeding about 30 yards in front of me. I turned the scope to 2.5 got the rifle in ready position and moved forward. When I could see enough to shoot I could tell that he was slightly quartering away to my right. I pulled up the rifle kept both eyes open, held somewhere behind his near shoulder ( all I could see was hair) and pulled. As he broke into a run I chambered the second round. He ran about 30 yards and stopped to look back to see what I was, when I poped him again behind the same shoulder he then went down. As I was easing in on him and refilling the magazine I looked up the hill a ways and noticed another bull standing there watching me. With another tag in my pocket I wanted him also, but when the bolt closed he decided that it might not be healthy standing there and took off. My bull was a nice 6X6 about 4 or 5 years old.
I was over 3 miles back in but was able to get him out with my backpack and motorcycle.

 

[6mm Remington]

Elk are amazing animals. My dad and his step-brother shot an old 20 year old or more cow with two calves one morning. It took 3 or 4 shots to kill her. I don't recall exact number as it's been a few years ago. When we skinned and cut her up, there were 3 old bullets in her from YEARS earlier! She had one that looked it went in just back of the shoulder on a broadside shot, hit ribs going in and was under the hide with a nice mushroom on the other side. :?: Another was just under the skin on the side it entered the animal. The bullet had just enough poop left to barely break hide and lay there under the skin in the meat, where it stayed until it all healed up around it! There was ZERO mushroom on this bullet and it looked like it could have been loaded again and shot. Only marks on it were rifling. The third bullet was someplace in the back ribs but I don't recall now for sure where that one was.

My FWP buddy told me of a really big bull being killed over in his area near Phillipsburg. The bull had either a deformity, had broke his leg down low, or had been shot in the hoof area of one of his front feet. He said there was a growth and mass of bone and tissue that was the size of a soccer ball. The bull was in great shape and got around fine, except he was carrying a club on one foot!

 

[6mm Remington]

Mule Deer- average 3 or 4 point buck about 200 pounds. He was standing broadside at about 150 yards and I had a 40-50 mph crosswind (central Montana thank you very much), and I was either sitting or laying down for the shot. I was using my 30-06 with 165 gr. Nosler Solid Base Boattails. I held out in front of his neck to allow for the bullet drift and touched off. I held out just a bit too far and hit him squarely in the neck. If you took and measured from just in front of his shoulders to the point behind his ears and split that in half, that is where I hit him. Then factor in that the bullet went in the center from top to bottom also. The bullet missed the spine only just barely, missed the artery in his neck, and missed his windpipe.

He dropped like a rock, but while I was putting another round in and getting ready to shoot him again, he all of a sudden was up and running. He ran down across the draw and stopped to look back at me from about 250 yards away. I was already on him again and ready to shoot and was going to but my stupid buddy was telling me not to, that he was dead on his feet. I hesitated instead of listening to my gut (bad on me), and he ran over the hill. Thank goodness we were in some pretty open country near central Montana with coolies and a few junipers in some of the draws, but still mostly grass and sage.

We went to where he dropped, no snow of course, and there was only a very few drops of blood, and none over where he had been standing at the last we saw of him. We started tracking, but that became futile so we just started checking every single cooley on this ridge we were on. After we had checked about 3 draws, I happened to catch deer on a ridge a little over a mile away. The last deer going up the hill just walked, but something just didn't look right. When he got to the skyline, I could see it was a small buck. I just knew at that point that it was the same deer I had shot about an hour earlier.

We got the Jeep and drove over to where we last saw him and figured that by now he would not be far from where we saw him and would be laying down someplace. The second little brushy area we checked, I saw him laying under a cedar bush. Before I got out he stood up and started just walking, not running away. I put one more in him and he dropped. We looked where he had been laying for more than an hour, and again only a few drops of blood. He would have eventually died a slow death of s shock most likely. I was so lucky to have found him and to finish him so he would not suffer any longer.

There was a hole in his neck where I described it being that was about as big around as your thumb. You could literally see through his neck and yet he had gone that far. I never ever shoot an un-wounded animal in the neck or head now unless they are extremely close and are facing front on and I could make a good shot at the top of the front of the chest and into the lungs. It was a pretty humbling day. I also found that I would trust my gut instinct over someones advise when I knew what the right thing to do was.

 

[SJB358]

Great stories Bill and David!

 

[jmad_81]

My first buck in the Mountains took more than one hit, but the first would have done the job. It was a small forked horn buck at about 15 ft. He was facing me and I put a 150 PT Gold into his chest out of my 270. Took his heart out. But this being the first deer that I hat hit anyplace other than the head I got really excited when he didn't just drop....He took five more. I would be willing to bet a sub machine gun would have had a hard time heeping up as fast as that gun went empty. Learned a lot on that one.

My very first elk took two of those same 150 PT Golds. First one was quartering away, second was broadside. There was a miss or twon in ther as well. And again gun went empty. On both of these first two critters I was pretty young, 14 I think.

My biggest bull elk, took three 225 Abs out of my 338 WM. Something happened to my scope that year, I had a 200 yard zero when I left, and shot my bull at 425 and shot over him on the first two shots. Didn't take long to just aim at the walking, bugling bull and let him have it. I didn't compensate for the walking part. Hit him to far back. At this point I got pretty dang excited again and kept shooting until he quit moving.

The first elk Ishot with my 375R took two 260 ABs @ 242 yards. The first shot was a hard quarter (more than I thought), hit the right ham and travled up through the left front shoulder stopping under the hide. He turned broadside and I put another one through both front shoulders and the show was over.

Since then I have moved back home and get to shoot A LOOOOOT more. The only critter in the last five years that has taken more than one shot was the bear I shot last fall. It took three from the 280 AI and one from a 338 WM. She was 388 yards for the first shot and moving out on a wide open hill side. Not a full run by anymeans, but more than a walk. I was very comfetable with the distance, I just didn't get the lead right. I had a chance to put her down with a second shot, but I was really tring to get my buddy to shoot her (he's a bear freak). She was standing in some bushes facing us, I was on her and talking to him telling him to shoot her. I look up and he is reloading his rifle. I get back on her to just finish it and she takes off again. We ended up getting her in some close quarters (10 yrds) for the kill shot. Next time I'm going back to the "if it is still moving, keep shooting" theory.

 

[Guy Miner]

This is good stuff guys! It's reality. We all want that one-shot-kill, but despite our best efforts, sometimes it just doesn't happen.

 

[Songdog]

I've shot more twice..... than needed to be shot twice.... if that makes sense?

 

[SJB358]

Great story Jake. Same here, I shoot until they don't move. Bullets are cheap and I don't like to chase stuff!

 

[jmad_81]

Great story Jake. Same here, I shoot until they don't move. Bullets are cheap and I don't like to chase stuff!

I'm not worried about the cost of the extra bullets. You hunted in my area last year, packing things out any farther than a guy has to up there is not fun. Plus, I HATE LOSING GAME! It makes me sick for years.

 

[SJB358]

Great story Jake. Same here, I shoot until they don't move. Bullets are cheap and I don't like to chase stuff!

I'm not worried about the cost of the extra bullets. You hunted in my area last year, packing things out any farther than a guy has to up there is not fun. Plus, I HATE LOSING GAME! It makes me sick for years.

Yup, couldn't agree more. I don't mind packing dead animals, but I do hate the thought of them suffering any more than they have to.

 

[Elkman]

Jake

I also still get excited and do miss occasionally. I do count the rounds as they head down range. However i am more delibrerate than 20 or 30 years ago. I also believe in sending lead down range as long as their a target available. Now however I wait for them to pause, or hesitate so that the shot is a real counter. I also realized that the annoying leg twitch and shaking that I'd expierienced as a younger man, after the kill has been over for quite a few years now.

The sun is setting here now, Mt. Adams is shimmering in the twilight,good day here today. Fire season will be starting soon, and its , Only about 125 days to my first elk hunt.

 

[Oldtrader3]

My only Pronghorn that I have ever shot, facing me standing at about 200 yards some wind, half hour after sunup near Gillette WY. Shot the antelope through the lower white chest spot aiming for aortic arch. Winchester Model 70, .270 Win, 130 Partition (screw machine jacket with groove) at 3060 fps MV.

Bullet went into chest within an inch of aim-point, blew up part of aortic arch damaged both lungs with extensive hemorrhage in the connective tissue of both lungs, went through liver, paunch, blew up spleen/pancreas, penetrated intestines and through right hip. Bullet was expanded, under skin next to tail and perfectly mushroomed to Partition web (like catalog picture) after 3+ feet of pronghorn penetration. Buck fell straight down, got up and took off, passed a doe running flat out broadside to my left.

After another 100 yards of running, he slowed down a bit and I hit him again in left side, high lung shot, dropped him DOA, skidding in a cloud of dust. The second Partition went through both lungs, expanded perfectly, bled out in lungs and ended the drama. Buck (14-1/4 inch) Pronghorn weighed 135 pounds hog dressed (with skin).

Sometimes it is just not in the cue cards as to what they are going to do? I took every organ out and looked it over as I dressed this goat. I have never had more than 75 deer shot with same PT bullet go more than 30 feet after being shot with 130 Partition from this rifle from 30-400 yards, go figure?