So what does DRT mean? If it means dead right there or immediate death how can there be a viable CNS system? If it means down right there than a leg hold trap would suffice?
To explain some more nervous tissue anatomy. There is the autonomic nervous system. It is the bodies rheostat and controller of organ function. This system is divided with the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The sympathetic is fight or flight,the para sympathetic is rest and digest.Not all of this system is routed through the body via the spine. There is a cranial nervous system namely the Vagus nerve that is wired into all of the organ systems. The word vagus means to wander I.e. Vagabond.Just like on any construction sight when the backhoe shows up plumbers electrtions and phone guys are all wanting to route their stuff in the ditch that is dug. This is also true in mammals, there will be the nerve ,artery ,and vein traveling together in a bundle.Generally the thicker the artery the more nervous tissue that is "wrapped" up with it.
Trauma to the peripheral nervous system will back feed through the autonomic nervous system and cause a CNS shutdown and death due to shock.
When I was in the army my job was an armor crewman. We had two different types of projectiles in our anti tank arsenal. One was a heat round one a sabot. The heat round was a frangeble type round that exploded out side the target on the surface and relied on fragments of the inside of the tank being shot to ricochet around and kill the crewman. The sabot relied on penetrating the tank and in essence "sucking" the crew out the exit hole. Now envision the thoracic cavity of the elk you are shooting as the Tank. One must get enough fragments bombarding the cavity to send sufficient traumatic signals to the brain or have enough suction out the cavity to cause enough trauma. This require bullet velocity exiting the thorax and integrity of the thorax. I.e. Punctering the diaphragm will cause the integrity of the thorax to collapse. Kind of like if the tank you shot with a sabot had all of the hatches open then you would not expect to suck the crewmembers out of the sabots exit hole. So that is why a thorax hit will give a variations of response when it come to behavior of the elk.
Now the shoulder shot.....ever heard of between a rock and a hard place? This bundle of nerves "brachial plexus" lays between the shoulder and the rib cage. That is why the observed CNS shutdown with this shot is both consistent and repeatable. The landmark used to pick point of aim is also easily communicated and understood to most. I.e. Lower half of chest directly above front leg. This landmark is also where the epicenter of the lung field lays further inside the thorax. For me personally using this aiming point has helped me harvest quicker and have less shots enter the abdomen. Certainly anticipating puncturing and smashing bone limits my choice of bullet construction and caliber. Common sense is also needed...the shot needs to be fairly broadside to work the best.I hope this helps.......your friend ANUS.
