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Hunting & Fishing Hunting Head Shots

Re: Hunting Head Shots

Here is one of Chubbles holding a front tooth on a PD that I wasted in Wyoming last summer. 75 A-max@ 2800
summer2006x2.jpg

And this is whats left of the only mulie I ever atempted a head shot on. I got him alright, he was standing ass forward about 200 yds away head down, he was about to bolt, and right before he did, he lifted his head up and turned it to the side. I figured it was the only good shot I would get, so I took it.
The scary part was when I went to find him, he was DRT, but looked like a doe with a ditch in the top of her head, I thought that I had mixed up the doe and the buck.It was a bad feeling for about a minute, then I checked his beans, they were there, so after a few minutes of searching around in the bushes, we found my "trophy".
120gr speer BTSP@ 2900 from a 25-06

DSCF5082.jpg
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LeviSS</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KingKong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
osuma220mHStavi.jpg

220m remington 700 sps dm

This was the first one. Since i have take several whit hs but whit my varmint. </div></div>

Where's it legal to shoot ducks with a rifle?

Ooops...Finland, evidently. </div></div>

You could do it in Sweden too no issues.

/Chris
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Wind gusts a little, a tree branch deflects your shot just a little. You bumped your scope getting out of the truck and your zero is just a little off. Now you have an animal with no jaw who then starves to death. Just saying...
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lostangel</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wind gusts a little, a tree branch deflects your shot just a little. You bumped your scope getting out of the truck and your zero is just a little off. Now you have an animal with no jaw who then starves to death. Just saying... </div></div>

The same could be said in all hunting situations. Depending on the severity of the deflection/bump/wind and the distance, it could be the difference between a heart shot and a leg/gut/non-lethal neck shot. Then you have a hurt animal that will eventually die from infection or whatnot. I'm not defending one way or another, just saying.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

There is a degree of risk with any shot since not all factors can be controlled. That being said, I don't take head shots all that often, preferring the wider margin of error that a chest shot provides. No, not all head shots are instantly fatal, but most times they are either DRT or provide a stunning hit that disables the animal long enough for a second shot.

The latter was the case with this groundhog I thumped today @ 105 yards with the .22 LR.

0628101646.jpg


As you can see, the projectile (40g hollow point) entered and exited too far forward for a clean kill and would have meant a slow death if I had not been able to anchor the beast with a follow up shot to the chest a few seconds later.

In my opinion, there is a much lower risk of wounding an animal when taking a head-on or straight away head shot as opposed to a profile shot. In my experience, frontal head shots almost always mean a "Hero or Zero" moment. This attempt had a happy ending since it caught the groundhog right in his front teeth, but I know there's no such thing as a risk-free shot. ...
0626102046-1.jpg

But perhaps someone has already addressed this.

Keep posting...I'm enjoying the pics.

Btw, going to be experimenting later this week with using test shots (shooting @ a mark 10 yards or so away from the groundhog before attempting a kill shot...) on groundhogs @ long [for me] .22 LR ranges (100-150 yards). Hmmm...I have some daylight left...later dudes!

-The Kid.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

My .02:
I have taken a head shot. Buck (Bambi really), 50 yards, that was the shot I was presented with. I know my rifle, 30-06, 180 grn Nosler Partition, clean kill, no flopping around. Severed spine at the base of the skull. I had a stable rest and time enough to get my scope where I needed it.

Would I do it again? Only on perfect presentation with excellent rest. Otherwise, no. Will I bag on anyone for taking a HS? Never, unless the animal gets away with a blown off jaw and dies from starvation.

Take it for what its worth.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

grue·some (grsm)
adj.
Causing horror and repugnance; frightful and shocking: a gruesome murder. See Synonyms at ghastly.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Here is another one, from last years spike elk hunt. I've posted some of the pics before. The shot originated @ 560 yds, after putting him on the ground, I shot one more time between the horns, just to make sure he didn't get back up.(I wasn't entirely convinced that he had fully expired yet) His horns were now wobbly.
elkunt09014.jpg

After a good winter's "aging" I gave the horns a good yankin, they easily came free from the remainder of the skull.(thanks to the "aging" process) and you can see what actually happened.
DSCF5088.jpg

You can see his left eye socket there under there.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Hey, good stuff cbm!

Not overly dramatic, but here's one scruffy old 'chuck I whacked last week. CCI Velocitor @ close range.
0702101342.jpg


He even looks old and tired, poor 'lil bugger.

Keep it real.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Don't believe in head shots on game animals except maybe on an elephant. Besides, due to CWD's increasing prevalence, I wouldn't eat the meat from a brain shot elk or deer from most states in the US.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Here's my doe I shot this year... this is my buddy holding the head up.

40 yards, all I could see what base of neck to the head and she was facing away from me. Right behind the ear, out between the eyes! Would I do it again? Hell yeah, it was 40 yards and I had a 'clean'/clear shot. Would I do this on a buck or another doe at farther distances? Maybe/maybe not, all depends on the shot. If I have a chest shot, I'll take it... Either way I hear far less stories of people trying for a headshot and wounding/losing a deer than I do people trying for the 'other' vitals.

Headshot.jpg


Mike
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

One more from last weekend.... we were trying to bugle in a bull elk when this guy would NOT shut up.... he finally ran to a tree in front of me at 18 yards and stuck his head/shoulders around on my side of the tree trunk and started chattering at me again. I knocked my grouse arrow and put my 20 yd pin right on his head and WHACK! Gotta self-nominate this one for "Kill of the WEEK!"
wink.gif


DSCF0128.jpg

DSCF0129.jpg


Yep, skewered him right through the eyeball!
DSCF0130.jpg


And here's an "almost head shot" that I took an hour later... grouse was 20' up in the tree and all I could see what his head so I held just below it and THUNK! I took it in the base of the neck! Definitely made my day as I had had a 320" 6x6 at 23 yds that morning with no shot....

DSCF0133.jpg


Mike
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KingKong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
osuma220mHStavi.jpg

220m remington 700 sps dm

This was the first one. Since i have take several whit hs but whit my varmint. </div></div>

illegal?
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

If you would have looked at where the gentleman who posted that picture lives and read about it a little more you would have found it was perfectly legal where he lives
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

I'll play. I havent seen a badger yet. Got this one a few years back. AR with 60gr v-max. The hole is where the bullet impacted. Never went through.
104-0470_IMG.jpg

104-0469_IMG.jpg
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Results from a weekend of fun,

more then half of the rabbits in the game locker are headshots,

viltskp.jpg


Mine, taken at 130 meters in a full moon light against a backdrop of a limestone dirt road.

Yes the pic is from the next morning!

skallskott.jpg


And yes, shooting with a 6 mm TCU would just blow up the rabbit should anything then the head be hit.

/Chris
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

I'll do head shots on gr ouse with a 22LR - clean hit or clean miss.

I've done one on a moose after it stood back up with 2 45-70 rds in it.

But unless conditions are right I would not do it.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The_Hoff</div><div class="ubbcode-body">isn't it illegal to shoot songbirds in the states?</div></div>

Yup.....protection of Songbirds has gone waaaaaaay back. There are references to it being illegal as far back as 1941 on the Department of Interiors website.

Here's a little historic reading for ya:
http://www.fws.gov/news/historic/1941/19410606.pdf
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dhutch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The_Hoff</div><div class="ubbcode-body">isn't it illegal to shoot songbirds in the states?</div></div>

Yup.....protection of Songbirds has gone waaaaaaay back. There are references to it being illegal as far back as 1941 on the Department of Interiors website.

Here's a little historic reading for ya:
http://www.fws.gov/news/historic/1941/19410606.pdf </div></div>

I was thinking the same thing, but didn't want to speak up about something I wasn't sure about. But a jay birds song is to music like a countersniper is to a Zeiss. So is it really a songbird?
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: coldboremiracle</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dhutch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The_Hoff</div><div class="ubbcode-body">isn't it illegal to shoot songbirds in the states?</div></div>

Yup.....protection of Songbirds has gone waaaaaaay back. There are references to it being illegal as far back as 1941 on the Department of Interiors website.

Here's a little historic reading for ya:
http://www.fws.gov/news/historic/1941/19410606.pdf </div></div>

I was thinking the same thing, but didn't want to speak up about something I wasn't sure about. But a jay birds song is to music like a countersniper is to a Zeiss. So is it really a songbird?</div></div>

I think most federal stuff prohibits the killing of non-game birds and non-migratory birds.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

Made many a head shot over the years -- just never thought to take pics. Now I know why -- the pics are not very flattering for the game, even though they may be for the shooter. Guess that is the idea -- to showcase the shot, not the critter. Good shots!
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

I never have taken pics of a kill, don't know why. These are some fine shots, for sure. Some look familiar, like the deer with the top of her head gone. Wish I had a dollar for every time I have seen that! I shot my first deer like that as a teenager, and my cousins have been trying to kill them like that ever since. Makes for good tasting meat.
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bullshooter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'll play. I havent seen a badger yet. Got this one a few years back. AR with 60gr v-max. The hole is where the bullet impacted. Never went through.
104-0470_IMG.jpg

104-0469_IMG.jpg
</div></div>

I guess a few years... I haven't see a Bud Light can like that in a while... Nice shot
 
Re: Hunting Head Shots

CBM:
With a friend tracking this guy down in some very ugly alders after he had been hit previously. He put the first four from the 454 Casull in front chest and the last one right down the pipe. Very impressed with the shooter but not cartridge.
 
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