You've been waiting hours, cold hungry and wet. The light is fading fast, as each second ticks by that big buck or stag seems safer and safer. You are now resigned to the fact he wont put in appearance, in fact you are already telling yourself how you like being out just as much as shooting the beast of your dreams when all of a sudden, that blob on the edge of the wood wasnt there before? must be a bush?? adrenaline starting to flow......slowly lift the binos.........THIS IS IT!!! here he is and hes slowly feeding towards me, occasionally lifting his head from his feed for a few seconds untill hunger draws him back to it. You know this to be an old annimal, one that you have put the hours in for, you know there wont be a second chance its now or never!

Safety catch is slid off with cold fingers, and after what seems like an eternity the gun has dound its way into your shoulder and there he is X8 in your scope! Putting the crosshairs on him as he turns broadside your finger begins to curl round the trigger, this is it this is it, BOOM! the guns gone off! hes still standing there looking in your direction frozen! quick work the bolt he needs another! DAmn hes gone, clearing the 30yds to the wood in what seems like miliseconds, you pray hell stop and look back but as you know in your heart an annimal like this dosent give second chances!
Now its all over, you race down from the stand, right start at the beggining!


We have all been in this situation, spent hours looking to the point of despair, sometimes its paid off, others it hasnt. The moment you take your shot tells you all you need to know about your quarry you have just shot at. An annimal hit with a high velocity projectile in any state will never remain motionless - it will leap jump or flinch at the shot. It may take off running flat out or it may run a short distance and stop, there is no rule as to this but an experienced hunter knows the sighns. There is often the THWACK! or a Dull thud at the shot, this immediately gives an indication due to the sound of where you have hit, a soft squelchy thud usually means guts or abit back and a loud THACK! meanns spine or plum centre of shoulder. Indeed if the annimal drops at the shot, you have either hit head, spine, legs or shoulder. If the annimals head then comes up and stays up for more than 1 minute you have a prob that may require a second shot to rectify. Dont try anything fancy, youll probably make matters worse, get as close as you can and finish the job!

So in the example at the top, it looks like a miss dosent it, no thud, annimal in exatly the same position and place as it was when the shot was taken, for the hell of it you have alook in the wood and there is the buck of your life lying dead from a perfect heart shot that completely destroyed the heart and exited without even touching a shoulder! Shock turns to jubilation! you thought youd missed and there he lies!

Moral of the story is, we might think we know what happened and with all our vast experience seem convinced! but we all know there's nothing like a suprise! maybe those safari grade rounds i was using hardly expanded and at the velocity they were travalling at zipped through like a FMJ! ah that it!!

I must be deaf or my long cannons are too loud! The only rounds that I have heard impact were on steel targets. I have shot animals that never flinched, jumped, hunched up or anything else yet they went down while I was in the "Golly! What went wrong" stage. I understand that Moose are like that. They must be a little 'slow' between the antlers or shock in a moose travels slower than the speed of sound.

I very clearly hear the "thump" of the round impacting the animal... from muzzleloader to rifle. Maybe I've just trained myself to listen for it but I usually know right off if its a good solid hit or not from the sound.

Regardless unless I see an animal physically collapse in view. I move to the point it was at when I shot and look for sign before beginning to track it. Bits of hair, meat, lung material, blood... different colors all are indicators of where you hit the critter.



-DallanC

DallanC wrote:

I very clearly hear the "thump" of the round impacting the animal... from muzzleloader to rifle. Maybe I've just trained myself to listen for it but I usually know right off if its a good solid hit or not from the sound. Regardless unless I see an animal physically collapse in view. I move to the point it was at when I shot and look for sign before beginning to track it. Bits of hair, meat, lung material, blood... different colors all are indicators of where you hit the critter. -DallanC

Like you Dallan, I have usually heard every hit. It is a very distinctive THUD sound, especially if using flat nose bullets. We had a term in the Army to describe the "sounds", CRACK...THUMP.

I also agree with your search technique. The logical place to start looking for your trophy/prize is where it was standing when you took the shot. There are a myriad of signs left behind by a shot animal and it behoves a hunter to take note of them and learn what they mean, for the sake of his quarry.
I am embarrased to admit though that I actually could not find a fox I shot late one afternoon even though I had a fairly reasonable trail to search. It was a fleeting shot and I just plain stuffed it up. But most importantly I continued searching until I ran out of light. I went back the next day to study and learn as much as I could from the sign left behind. Still didn't find the bugger though.

Vince

Vince

I have to agree with you fellows, I also almost always hear whether I have hit the animal or not. Sometimes you can even see in the scope when and where (except with my 45-70,too much recoil) the bullet hits. That said it can depend on the wind as well whether you hear the hit or not. Irregardless whether I hear the hit or not, any shot is worth following up to see if you hit or not even if the animal takes off.

1895ss wrote:

Sometimes you can even see in the scope when and where (except with my 45-70,too much recoil) the bullet hits

Now thats one thing I really dont believe I've ever been able to do with hunting rifles ... I dont know if I hold the guns to light or whatever but I have never been able to see an animal hit through the scope once I pull a trigger. I do keep a pretty soft grip on my rifles as I settle in and maybe thats why I get more jump in the scope than not (and maybe thats why I learned to listen for the hits as well too).

Side note: That was one thing I *LOVED* right off the bat about the 17HMR I bought... for the first time ever I was able to clearly see bullets striking the targets through the scope.


-DallanC

Howdy I guess I'm backwards I haven't ever heard the bullet Impact, Archery huntin sure but not with a rifle but I have seen the Impact through the scope on several occasions. I always look at the body language ( tail,ears) of the animal after the shot if it doesan't drop and more times than not (not always) give's a good indication of a hit or miss. I always look even if I'm sure I missed. Ive bin sure I missed before went to look for sign and found the deer . So every shot get's checked out.
Joe

I can sometimes and not always see where they have hit, right after the shot, when I'm shooting my 22-250, 6mm or 25-06 but not the rest of my calibers.

On ocasion I have heard the dull pop of my .30-30 hit if I'm close enough, but not to close...I think it may be the bullet hitting bone. That may be what some are hearing...'Course I'm old and deef...

I have to admit I've never heard that thump when shooting a deer. I do however hear it when I hit an groundhog. What the difference might be, I have no idea.
Don

The bullet going through and through and hitting the ground???

Bushmaster wrote:

On ocasion I have heard the dull pop of my .30-30 hit if I'm close enough, but not to close...I think it may be the bullet hitting bone. That may be what some are hearing...'Course I'm old and deef...

Hey Bushy, you sound like you have my problem.....deef in one ear and can't hear out t'other.

Cheers, Vince

Yup... And I'm gettin' where I can't see going to work either...

The only time i've ever heard a thump was at about 100 yards and with a 500 on a doe. But, i think it was hearing the bone because i popped both front shoulders......She stood there like nothing happened, then the front legs buckled, back legs locked and she expired with her back end still up in the air .

Then i also learned that anything in the 500 mag (even light bullets) will totally destroy a good coffee can sized amount of meat due to the trauma it causes .

I have heard the bullet hit the animal, I think it is just something you have to train you ear to hear, especially if you are bad to tense up when you shoot. If you do a lot of target shooting you can get to were you can here the bullet hit paper, boom-splat. I like to shoot 22 cal. rifles at the range, they don't hurt me and when I go to a big bore that kicks I don't start tensing up until about the 5th shot, and that's when its time for me to quit.
I'm usually so excited when I shoot at an animal especially a nice buck that I forget to listen for the bullet to hit, I have always tried to stay focused on the animal with my eyes though. But I guess if I were to quit getting excited when I shot an animal that I probably wouldn't want to hunt any more.

-farrier