Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Nilgai, How much gun is enough?

It's called a "dermal shield". Breeding bulls "fight" by dropping to their front "knees" (actually their metacarpal joints), crossing their necks and pushing with their hind legs against the shoulder of their rival. While this is going on, they are also hooking their opponent with those short, sharp horns in the lower neck and shoulders. The dermal shield prevents those from horns penetrating deeply enough to do some real damage.

After a few moments, one bull realizes that his opponent is bigger and nastier and breaks off before any real damage is done. However, occasionally the shoulders will slip, allowing the heads to move down toward the heart/lung cavity or the abomen where the horns can penetrate the hide and inflict real damage--sometimes enough damage to prove fatal. The ones that I have necropsied that died from wounds inflicted by fights usually had multiple punctures in their lungs that hemorrhaged enough to cause the animal to bleed to death.

Punctures to the abdomen do produce some nasty looking wounds, but they are rarely fatal. The bull that I referenced in the post above had a loop of intestine literally dragging the ground, but somehow survived.