Horrible Moment In A Brilliant Night's Shooting. Has This Happened To You?

[secretagentmole 1,701]

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for excellent and thoughtful answers. It was the fact that I saw its body rise and fall as if it was breathing, as it finally slowed down and stopped bucking and rolling over, despite three very decisive hits to its head that caused me concern. Only the fourth one put an end to the extreme thrashing I saw it make.

 

I'll break the neck and have it over finished with next time.

 

All the best.

Simon

 

The brain had gone into overdrive as mentioned in an earlier post, sending out random messages all over the place, it was dead, hence why 3 further shots made little or no difference, you can't kill something again when it is already dead!

 

Which is why if you break the neck and sever the communication lines between brain and body, it will stop!

 

 

Indeed , but in the technicalities of this thread it is already dead, so you are not killing it again.

 

Lord knows how/why but I have shot, killed, cleaned, skinned, head and boots off rabbits before, totally ready for the pot and in a couple of instances they have still twitched! Some muscle spasms, nobody can suggest they are still alive though!

 

Some vegetarian will claim it has rolled the sugarbeet from the entrance to the warren and risen from the dead.

 

They can try and claim that but as far as I know, no bunny has ever made it back from the casserole!

[secretagentmole 1,701]

And while we're on the subject, what about pigeons?

I've read about and tried neck twizzles, follow up shots, even skull crushing. But what works best?

After many years I've decided that the quickest and most humane way to finish a wounded bird is simply to pull the head off. Sounds a bit gruesome but it's a damn sight quicker than anything else.

Grab bird by head, move hand containing bird head like you are bowling a cricket ball.

Edited April 30, 2015 by secretagentmole

[mark williams 7,563]

Good points from all corners, fact is, we are all painting different pictures in our minds eye.

Nothing will ever detract my way of thinking - shot in the head perfectly,- "DEAD" in any calibre. HW 77 in .22 at just 23 yds was it ? it was dead ! "full stop" !

Respect to the follow up scenarios as anyone would be concerned.

Clear conscience Simon but we all hear/ respect each others thoughts (i hope).

 

 

Edited April 30, 2015 by mark williams

[pianoman 3,589]

Thanks again everyone.

 

To make this post a bit more understandable. I hit the rabbit clean into the left side of its head between eye and ear lobe at 23 yards with a 5.52mm .22 Air Arms Diablo Field pellet from my HW77. The same rifle and pellet combination had just taken down two rabbits at over 60 metres range. I know my trajectory from years of training myself and experience with this rifle, pellet type and scope. Six other rabbits were humanely killed with this rifle on this particular evening.

 

Every shot from this rifle to hit this spot in the head is a guarenteed killer. No question. I have shot and killed tens of thousands of rabbits in my 50 year shooting lifetime. I know exactly what's with all the jumping and backflips and kicking about. No worry.

 

But this one rabbit showed more signs of conscious agony as well as all the usual writhing and rolling. For a moment it even looked as though it was trying to make it back to the hedge from where it came. Maybe this was just how it looked as it went into death spasm? I don't honestly know for certain when I look back on this incident. It also showed signs of gasping for air with its chest rising and falling. Not just the usual random bucking and kicking we are more used to seeing.

 

That;'s what prompted the second shot. A brief moment when it's head fell still, just long enough to aim on and shoot. and so it was with the third; and the fourth which put it out for good.

 

From all the replies here, I think there is a truth in inflicting a mortal wound if the shot does not hit the brain. A hit to the head is one thing. A decisive brain-destroying shot is another. Even though this HW77 has taken hundreds of rabbits out with precise headshots that have always proved instantly fatal.

 

But then again, it wasn't screaming as a live, badly wounded rabbit might. So, it could be dead with an abnormally violent spasm of it's nervous system shutting down.

 

I did what I thought was the right thing to do and put an instant killing shot into it's head. What I should have done. and WILL DO IN FUTURE is wring its neck and finish it off without further a-do.

 

I am not going to stick soly to target shooting thank you Mr Rob67 With great respect sir, I am a hunter and for all I know,I may well have been hunting with a rifle for more years than you may have had life.. But, forgive me my sense of compassion for what others might see as a pest to be simply destroyed out of hand.

 

I was brought up from birth to shoot like a Gentleman and never show callous disrespect for the animal or bird that is going to be killed for my day's sport.

 

That's why I can also understand the feelings of others here where shooting several shots into an already dead rabbit is also abhorrent. It is to me too.

 

Perhaps I should have just let it carry on alone til it fell still. Or wrung its neck, or pumped another couple of rounds into its head..Or, or, or?

 

But in the circumstances, I only tried to do what was apparently the right thing at the time and kill it as humanely swift and fast as possible with a follow-up shot.. A clean, painless headshot is the goal with every shot I take. If wounding occurs, that is an unfortunate and unwanted risk we, who hunt with a rifle, have to take. I practice my shooting with an obsession for precision accuracy. I don't know of any other way to keep on top of the game. But it seems to me, in retrospect of this, you cannot accomodate for every single shooting scenario where an animal's life is concerned.

 

 

Yours in sport.

 

Simon/Pianoman

Edited May 1, 2015 by pianoman

[RemyBolt 420]

Stomach turning is the way I describe that feeling.

 

I've got the habit now of simply putting a heart and lung shot for a convulsing rabbit. If it's not a clean kill, heart and lung is a larger target, so I put it through there. I've ran over before and put a pellet through a head of a rabbit once that I accidentally pulled the trigger on. I was used to a 2 stage trigger, but was using a friend's gun. I was on the rabbit, just moving the crosshairs up the rabbit, and getting to the first stage of the trigger pull and suddenly it shot, nearly straight away. I was getting the crosshairs still and ready, and it wasn't quite spot on. Felt like absolute crap for that. Ran over to the rabbit and put a pellet straight through it's head at near point blank.

 

The only animal I don't feel quite as guilty about is rats, and that's nothing to do with any sadist tendencies. I don't feel bad about a shot that'll make a rat bleed out because I figure them bleeding out over a minute or 2 is more humane than bleeding out from poison over a 2 week period.

[tomburras 2,730]

 

Indeed , but in the technicalities of this thread it is already dead, so you are not killing it again.

 

Lord knows how/why but I have shot, killed, cleaned, skinned, head and boots off rabbits before, totally ready for the pot and in a couple of instances they have still twitched! Some muscle spasms, nobody can suggest they are still alive though!

 

 

 

 

About 15 years ago me and my bro where kids and we where preparing a trout caught about half an hour earlier. We gutted it and 2 mins later it flapped across the work top and onto the floor no kidding - it had no guts We ran out of the kitchen scared to death! My brother saw it too and is on this forum. It was a real shock!

[mattybugeye 885]

Yep Tom I can vouch for that saw it with my own eyes was unbelievable

[secretagentmole 1,701]

 

 

And while we're on the subject, what about pigeons?

I've read about and tried neck twizzles, follow up shots, even skull crushing. But what works best?

After many years I've decided that the quickest and most humane way to finish a wounded bird is simply to pull the head off. Sounds a bit gruesome but it's a damn sight quicker than anything else.

Grab bird by head, move hand containing bird head like you are bowling a cricket ball.

 

Oh I see! Then your shooting partner smacks it with a bit of 4x2 to the furthest corner of the field?

Head pull for me thanks, discreet and quiet and no one sees what's happening.

 

No no, you go for the off stump while he is figuring out his googlies!

[Rez 4,961]

Right. So I've had a sneaky smoke this evening, and it's dawned on me after thinking about this... So we shoot the rabbit in the head, right on the mark, but it's kicking like a mad un. How do we know what's happening at that moment? What's it like to be shot in the head... How does it feel, does it still see? Does it feel? Does it see long enough to see us wander over and pick it up? Does its kicks actaully mean it still thinks it's running?

 

I shot a nice handful of young un's this weekend and found that the younger ones, like the size of small melon stay "alive" longer than the big un's. Size would suggest that the head is smaller on the young ones, so the pellet, in ratio, is bigger, (irrelevant of calibre Mark ) thus meaning the damage is more. I shot a small to medium one, and my god did it kick for some time... The pellet struck right in the drop dead area, with my 100... (This is where you all go, he must be telling the truth, the 100 is sooooooo accurate, he must be) and the little bugger was kicking as I bagged it up with the others.

 

The internal workings of the nervous system is so complex that each shot is down to its own moment. You shoot a rabbit bang on, it drops like a stone. Exactly the same shot if we could turn back time, the same rabbit could be flipping about all over the place.

 

I actaully have no idea what my point is. Thank god for auto correct and I'm off.

 

Safe. Man.

[Wildling 520]

On kits I always aim for heart and lung shots these days since I've had too many bounce and buck from head shots!

[Deker 3,478]

On kits I always aim for heart and lung shots these days since I've had too many bounce and buck from head shots!

 

Shooting it in the heart does not destroy the nervous system, so heart/lung shots need to be accurate and precise and immediately catastrophically effective, or any animal (person) will be able to function and feel for however long before they are brain dead.

 

Brain dead is the point at which death is generally accepted as occurring.

 

Those tiny bundles of fluff bunnies do seem to dance about more readily after what would appear to be a very effective head shot, and that isn't just with a 12 ft lb, I have destroyed bunnies heads with more powerful tools and still seen this phenomenon, it doesn't mean they are not dead!

 

Edited May 6, 2015 by Deker

[charlie caller 3,654]

I rather like neck shots on bunnies, as it always seems to drop them without a twitch, even on the kits.

[RodN 41]

About 15 years ago me and my bro where kids and we where preparing a trout caught about half an hour earlier. We gutted it and 2 mins later it flapped across the work top and onto the floor no kidding - it had no guts We ran out of the kitchen scared to death! My brother saw it too and is on this forum. It was a real shock!

Reminds me of the day of my son's stag party. We all had a day's trout fishing on a farmer friend's private lake with a BBQ going all day. As the experienced fisherman it was down to me to do the fish gutting and preparation..... surrounded by interested onlookers. After pulling the guts of one trout I reached in and plucked out the heart and placed it on a rock to show them what it looked like. Much to everyone's fascination the heart sat on the rock and continued to beat for a minute. Nerves are strange things.

[RemyBolt 420]

I had a harsh moment the other day. Shot a rabbit, and while skinning it I found a few sacks of "What's that?" in the stomach area.

 

After a few minutes of pondering I realised that these were pinkies. Unborn baby rabbits. Five of the little one's. That made me feel guilty, but after a while I just rationalised it in my head as being a part of life. A fox would have killed and eaten it, plus the babies. So really I've done the farmer a favour, and I'm no more evil than a fox. Morality with killing is false, regarding animals in the wild, there is no such thing as fair, there is only dead or alive. That's probably really badly explained.

 

But when I first realised, and held the unborn kitts still in their sacks, wondering what they were...that moment of realisation was pretty harsh.

[charlie caller 3,654]

Indeed, nature is neither cruel nor kind, it simply is that, nature, I dislike intensely shooting kits, however I know damn well that if I dont keep the population down on one farm in particular, he will find someone who will, I take a small amount of comfort knowing that they are not wasted, making good food for my ferrets and hawk, but I much prefer to shoot them when they are half grown, not least because I can eat them then we cant help being anthropomorphic sometimes, especially where cute and cuddly creatures are concerned, but so long as no suffering is caused and they are not wasted, my conscience is clear.