100 yard head shot-- easy?

[Arn?Narn.]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

I don't hunt with a 30-30 either as there are much better choices to be had.

wonderful comment....

[elkhunter11]

Head shots are lights out, right now.

They can just as easily result in a jaw being shot off and having an animal starve to death.Or they can result in an ear or eye being lost,but not a fatal hit.

[Tuc]

I wouldn't take a head shot with a 30.30 but one in the ole bread basket or neck if it's close enough.
A 30.30 will get the job done, I can vouch for that.

[jaylow?]

Originally Posted by NCC

knowing where the brain is located is important as well. A 3" circle inside an elk's skull is a relatively small target. If you hit an elk between the eyes or lower it would likely run off.

are you throwing rocks or shooting a rifle? ive made a few head shots in different spots on the head of whtetails from 7mmrem 300winmag and 30-30win and i can tell you theres not alot there after. like smashing a watermelon with a sledge. that is a tremendous amount of energy to dump into a small area.

[Arn?Narn.]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

They can just as easily result in a jaw being shot off and having an animal starve to death.Or they can result in an ear or eye being lost,but not a fatal hit.

Perhaps "just as easy" for you... but not for everyone,...everyones skill level is not the same.

[elkhunter11]

Perhaps "just as easy" for you... but not for everyone,...everyones skill level is not the same.

My point being that contrary to what some people believe,head shots are not always either clean kills or clean misses.Animals are also wounded and lost with head shots.

[TreeGuy]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

My point being that contrary to what some people believe,head shots are not always either clean kills or clean misses.Animals are also wounded and lost with head shots.

With all due respect EH11, but how often does this happen? Seriously.

Tree

[Arn?Narn.]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

My point being that contrary to what some people believe,head shots are not always either clean kills or clean misses.Animals are also wounded and lost with head shots.

As with all shots
I've found and seen more gut shot and quarter shot animals then ones with no faces...

[Sooner]

Yrs ago I took a about a 150 yrd broadside shot at a mulie buck in 204. Pulled bad and hit him just behind the jaw. Another half inch back and it would have dropped him. 6 hrs later following a minimal blood trail and one jumped and missed shot to put him down I caught up to him again and closed the deal. I wasnt trying for a head shot but it is what I got. Upon inspection he would have died soon as his jaw was done. I am greatful I got him but stil feel crappy that he suffered for 6 hrs. I wont do the head shot after that experience. To each his own though. I just sighted in my 308 yesterday at 100 yrds and took a pot shot at a 500 ml water bottle the same distance out, which was vertical on a stick. Leaning with a rest I hit the bottle but 100 yrds is far enough out to make a head shot attempt risky. A very small kill area. If your confident in your ability and gun then its a choice you make at that moment.

[joeti7]

Originally Posted by bonedogrocky

I missed what could have been my first elk last evening. The elk was looking right at me and all I could see was his neck and head. I shoot a 30-30. Is this considered to be an easy shot? I shot and missed and am driving myself crazy thinking about it. Help me!! How badly did I screw up?

Well bone, hopefully you get another chance, some say head shots aren't ethical, some say they are. It's all opinoins. Everyone misses, too bad I guess. You are the only one who can judge what you see and how you feel about shooting it(or at it). Screw up? nah, alteast you didn't have to do all the work at the end of it. Buck fever gets all of us at one time or another. Whether the animal is facing you or broadside. Good luck the rest of the season.

[Dick284]

Originally Posted by TreeGuy

With all due respect EH11, but how often does this happen? Seriously.

Tree

Dont know about Prairieboy but for me.

Enough for me to see it happen twice in a 2 year period.

Damned butchers any ways.

1st time this fellow who's a butcher he simply blew the side off the head of a doe at 50 yds while using a fence post as a rest, deer dropped, but simply got back up and wandered dazed in a circle where I had to finish her off for him because he was so adament that he killed it stone dead he unloaded his rifle.

Time 2 resulted in the classic head fake at about 70 yds, to the same fellow, the deer did the old roundy round with the head and he simply missed it, to watch it bolt into the cover.

The butcher has since left the head shots for penned up animals.

I don't think anybody here has said head shots can't be effective, they truely are, but more often than not there are better higher percentage shots that are equally effective although somewhat not as potentially definative, available.

100 yds on a sheet of paper makes a lot of shooters pretty humble in a range session. Heck I've seen hunters mess up severly on 1-1/2" squares at 25yds too.

It's pretty easy to claim this that or the other thing cause you've done it a couple of times, try it 5 or 10 times and see how your odds fall.

The more I shoot in somewhat extreme situations the less I want to hunt to the same extremes, why's that I ask?

[elkhunter11]

With all due respect EH11, but how often does this happen? Seriously.

I have had to track three head shot animals myself that went down at the shot,but got up and ran away.I also had to shoot another buck that was head shot a second time as he rose to his feet,but no tracking was required.As in Dick's post,the original shooters put down their guns when the deer fell,and were not prepared for the deer to get up and run away.
I also saw a deer at Camp Wainright that was running around with part of it's jaw shot off.
By comparison,a vital zone of 9" (heart/lungs) actually contains nine times the area of that 3" brain,so the chances of a good hit are nine times as good.

[alittlej]

i took my fist moose with a 30-30 [open sights] she was standing behind a spruce tree and all i could see was head and little neck....waited till she turned and moved... now looking at the lungs and heart ...she was standing uphill on the river bank and fell with my fist shot....i still hear the words from my late father "3/4 of an animal is better than no animal " that was 30 some years ago.....2 years later i can show you where i MISSED a cow moose because of an "experienced" hunter trying a head shot...cause that is all i had to see......i can still hear the words as well 3/4 is better than none....