Lead particles in the wound channel!

A headshot with a clean kill is as deerlike as a shot in the boilerroom. No worries about that! :thumbsup:


Kirrmeister

Huntin Dawg said:

roundball said:

Guess we should all start taking head shots !!
:grin:

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:shake: Here we go again. Time for another head shot debate?

O.K. I'll begin...Head shots are not ethical IMO.

:v

HD

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What's wrong/unethical about head shots? You either hit or miss, and if you hit there is far less possibility that you won't have an immediate kill when compared to a body shot.

Apparently you've never seen a deer running around without a lower jaw like I have. :shake:

Swamp Rat said:

Apparently you've never seen a deer running around without a lower jaw like I have. :shake:

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Apparently not.

It's not a nice thing to see is it?

That's why I think head shots aren't ethical.

I knew this would start something... :haha:

HD

Yes, what they said...deer have a habit of making very sudden head movements...quick twitches, jerks, etc, based upon hearing or seeing something...at the moment you trip the sear they could react to a sound and jerk their head up, down, left, or right just a few inches and not always resulting in a clean miss

Don't get me wrong. I have never been one to take head shots, but I do know people who almost always take either head or neck shots. That is with centerfire rifles or shotguns though.

You're right.......I have never seen a deer running around without a lower jaw, but I have seen them running with a leg blown apart & on two different occaisions I have killed bucks that have been suffering from bad body shots by other hunters. If you hunt there is a possibility of shots not being placed perfectly, no matter where the shot is intended to hit. I don't think that makes one shot unethical while the other is ethical. The most ethical approach is just to do your best for the current situation to insure a swift/humane dispatch of the game. :v

Ole Andy Jackson walked this earth for 78 years carrying around so many lead balls that he was said to rattle like a bag of marbles! A couple pellets or some lead shavings in your venison ain't gonna kill you.

Huntin Dawg said:

I'd be more worried about chipping a tooth on a bullet fragment than getting poisoned by it.

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My sentiments exactly.

A deer with it's leg blown apart can heal. A deer with it's face shot off is doomed to die a long slow death by starvation.
The boiler room is a much bigger target that doesn't move nearly as much.

I have taken deer with shotgun slugs using a head shot.
A spike buck back when I was younger that was mostly a reflex shot. Looking back, I shouldn't have taken that shot but at the time it just felt right. Dropped him like a ton of bricks.
A doe that was twice gut-shot by another guy. I had tracked her over a quarter mile, knew she was gut shot, and when I caught up to her all I could see was her head.
And there was a button buck that 2 guys were shooting at. They had already shot it in the guts, shot 2 of it's legs out from under it, and missed several times. I heard all the shootin' and came up from the holler just in time to see one of the guys walking up to finish the deer off. He hit it in the guts again from about 15 feet. While he reloaded I walked over and shot that poor little deer in the head just so they would quit shootin' it everywhere else.

Headshots are certainly effective but I avoid them for two reasons. If you've ever read The Chior Boys by J. Waumbach the chapter "The Moaning Man" pretty much describes the scene. I would never have believed a deer gone from the bottom of the eye-sockets up could still sit up, moan and try and regain it's feet. I was near tears and put a second shot into the base of the skull at the neck. The deer was dead, but the body was not. Horrible. They deserve a better end than that.

The second reason is, with a flintlock, there is always that possibility of a "Klack . . . POW!" A deer, hearing the "Klack" and turning or moving may catch that ball anywhere on the nose, head, chin, God knows.

I like the big 'ol lungs that are center-of-gravity and less apt to snap around quickly, and even when they turn the vital target stays relatively large and easy to follow.

Stumpkiller said:

Headshots are certainly effective but I avoid them for two reasons. If you've ever read The Chior Boys by J. Waumbach the chapter "The Moaning Man" pretty much describes the scene. I would never have believed a deer gone from the bottom of the eye-sockets up could still sit up, moan and try and regain it's feet. I was near tears and put a second shot into the base of the skull at the neck. The deer was dead, but the body was not. Horrible. They deserve a better end than that.

The second reason is, with a flintlock, there is always that possibility of a "Klack . . . POW!" A deer, hearing the "Klack" and turning or moving may catch that ball anywhere on the nose, head, chin, God knows.

I like the big 'ol lungs that are center-of-gravity and less apt to snap around quickly, and even when they turn the vital target stays relatively large and easy to follow.

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Best explanation Ive read here yet! :hatsoff:

Several years ago while out to fill a doe or meat tag I poped a big old doe at about 50 yards in the head getting on towards dusk. I walked over the little rise and through some brush to where I SAW HER DROP on a little hump. No deer. I looked and looked in complete disbelief (I SAW HER FALL from a head shot with a 7mm Mag) No deer. I even went back the next day still in disbelef. Nope.
NOW I realize that at 50 yards I was shooting what 3" high with that gun. Probably creased her skull and "knocked her out" and I hope that that is all.
Two points in alomost 30 years of hunting and a tassle of deer latter I've only "lost' two deer; This was one of them. Percentage wise that dosnt look good. And as meny of the harvest's fade from my mind the two that were "lost" stay crystalized to this day. May it never happen again. :shake:

I know wayy off topic but I'm reminded of an incident my cousin went through. :surrender:

A very long time ago when we was young and hunting on my grandfathers property in Vermont, he had a 5 point walk down to him. He decided to head shoot it for some forgotten reason now...well he shoots it with his 30-30 and it drops like Mike Tyson hit it with an uppper cut. He walks over and checks it out, nice deer, his first buck actually. Realizes he has no drag rope and was within 200 yards of the camp, he decides to to walk back to camp and get some rope. He does that, walks back to his spot to find no deer laying there. A frantic search turned up nothing, no blood, nothing...

Four days later one of our uncles shoots a nice buck. Guts it out and grabs one of the antlers to drag the deer up to one of the logging roads and it snaps off in his hand....

The antler had been hit close to its base and a good chunk taken out of it. My cousin learned there never to take head shots after that one. :haha: