Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa African Game Toughness

Oh brother......put it like this Hack.......whatever you wanna call it that's in the way of the heart, lungs, or both. I personally don't give a ratsazzz what you call it. How's that.

JJ,
Interesting point about the "shoulder". I have limited experience in big game but it seems to me that our newer premium projectiles kinda need to take a little shoulder to work at their best.

Like Hatari I was raised to shoot behind the shoulder on deer, don't ruin that meat! When I shot a few elk I started to think about taking a little shoulder and advised my friends to do so.

It has worked pretty well so far an a few elk and a kudu, wildebeest and gemsbok in Africa. Not all taken by me.

I don't have the answer to which is tougher, we had 7 one shot kills in SA, most with an '06. But then most of our deer are one shot kills as well, by there are those occasions when something goes wrong and wow they can take some horrific wounds and run off.

KC

I can not explain this but it is true. I was shooting my favorite bullet for white tailed deer, a 165 grain Siera HPBT out of my very accurate Sako .308 rifle. I shot a doe at almost exactly 190 yards. She was one of several doe eating in the middle of a clearing. At impact she reared up on her hind legs, stood still with her legs in the air for several seconds, turned 180 degrees, dropped to a standing position and didn't move. I saw the second round, fired by my hunting pal, hit her perfectly in the lungs. She dropped as the rest of the doe ran toward the edge of the clearing and disappeared into the thick brush. As we walked to where she had hit the turf she stood up and followed the herd. My pal tracked her, following a plentiful blood trail, for over a mile until she swam a small river.

I have shot buffalo, zebra, and wildebeest, purportedly the toughest African animals to bring down and never experienced anything like this. I have never had a deer do anything but drop at the shot or stagger/run a few yards before piling up. This little doe, maybe 130 lbs, had been hit twice through the lungs and we lost her. I am going to use spine or shoulder shots - and I'm considering head shots - it looks as if the doe we shot was somehow able to keep on moving with two well placed rounds through her boiler room. I am still amazed and sorry that she died in the deep woods and we didn'r bring her home for the freezer.

Terry

Terry, the only time I have seen the behavior you described following the first shot happened when the bullet went thru both knee joints.

JG,
We're not in a science class. Smash it with a big enough stick on the shoulder and its going nowhere. Our animals are not bullet proof. Hardy, but not bullet proof. Stay away from the gut.
If you can find a copy of The Perfect shot, it will be invaluable.

except it doesnt always work with cats, due to their floating collar bone their shoulders have a hell of alot of movement(the reason the can crouch so flat and still crawl forward) and in certain positions can put the shoulder well forward of the heart IIRC.....

JJ you are spot on again. I skin and butcher all my own animals so I know how running gear works and is connected......"shoulder shot" for me is to follow the leg straight up...1/3 up is "low shoulder" which isn't actually shoulder 2/3 up is " high shoulder" this is the drop um on the spot shot but leaves far less margin for error... I'm a "low shoulder" shooter
I think many use the term shoulder because of our human anatomy...where arm meets body is shoulder animals are put together differently

It aint' rocket science boys (and I'm still holding to my multiple pages prediction), just go right up the leg about 1/3 up into the ahem, "shoulder" and squeeze the trigger. Screw the ruining meat BS. That picture of the deer is a good one and take a look at the entry wound on the buffalo(the white patch on the "shoulder". that's what you might call a "perfect shot". Like my friend Allen Day (RIP) used to say, "break bone" :

jorgeI, Agreed in spades.


maddog

JorgeI,

Spot on.

Amen jorgeI

How much meat is lost when you don't recover the beast? Tuggin on a little bone helps em feel it.

KC

An old Walter Mauser 7x57 throwing 160 gr AB' at a puny 2600 fps seemed to work for my youngest son, a little 13 year old nimrod.

Nice pictures Ed

Never did care for shoulder roasts. A pain to fit into a roaster and it's easier to make into and tastes better as burger or sausage meat. Makes a good target though.

This is from my website and shows exactly that we are talking about here. From an educational standpoint I think it's going to clear up most of the questions. It will also show the construction of the animals with the bones in relationship to the organs. With this, and the knowledge that hitting the bones will not in many case hit any lethal organs, should help in understanding the confusion on this.

It should help folks to understand why so many (read COUNTLESS) guys claim bullet failure or how tough game is. They make the so called "shoulder shot" and see the animal is clearly been smashed through the "shoulder" falling yet regaining it's feet and running for a very long difficult tracking job while one leg is flopping and dangling. Even while tracking we can easily determine which is the correct track to follow because there is a distinct set of three legged tracks being made. That animal that was hit is dragging or unable to use that leg.

Please see the pictures to clear this up visually at:
http://www.huntingadventures.net/index.php?nav=newsandarticles&id=1

The pictures did not copy with the cut and past of my article.

This question comes up many times in my lodge when hunters are trying to decide where to shoot African game. I think it's best to sort out a few terms, such as "shoulder". The shoulder is not a bone, it's a joint, it's also referred to as the muscular region around the scapula and humerus. I would bet the vast mojority of people don't fully understand this bit of anatomy. The scapula is also known as, or is often referred to as, the shoulder blade. The humerus is the first long bone of the front leg which is connected to the scapula. There is no single part of the anatomy that is a "shoulder", but rather the area of the joint which is called the shoulder.

In this Kudu anatomy drawing, you can see the scapula isn't really covering anything vital. A small portion of the spine, which is a very small target to define, when under the skin and muscle. If the shot is too high, the bones can still be hit solid, but no vital organs will take a direct hit. A miss of the scapula, too low, is much better.
When you hear a person say they "broke the shoulder(s)", they typically refer to that (in my opinion) as the scapula or humerus bones. An absolutely dead on the money bullseye into the shoulder would be the joint between the two. However I challange anyone to show me that they've broken them both!
Shooting through the shoulders is simple enough but doesn't always mean any bones were broken, or any vital organs hit. I have a shoulder blade right here on my desk from a black bear that has a healed bullet hole right through it. It has another hole from my bullet which actually killed the bear.

This shows the relationship of the scapula and actual humerus bones. The lower humerus was from the other side of this bear, or opposite front leg. It was shot and broken and then healed just fine allowing this bear to keep on living, although he had a severe limp. The scapula also had a bullet hole on the top edge. My bullet hit lower and killed the bear many years after the original hunter wounded him, by taking the shoulder shot only inches too high.

If an animal has the shoulder joint between the scapula and humerus broken on both sides they cannot make forward progress with their front legs, that is plain and simple. If you shoot too high, through the shoulder blades, you will be below the spine and above the organs just as this scapula above shows. If you blow through the humerus you will, in nearly every case, hit vital organs and make quick death of the animal.

The vast majority of hunters I've heard say "I broke the shoulders" are referring to the front legs being broken. My question would be (if I was rude) lets skin him and see what's broken I want you to show me where the shoulder is. It would not likely be identifed properly by the majority of recreational sport hunters.

I like the low scapula shot and take it often. Anyone shooting this way must have a fair bit of anatomy knowledge. This whole assembly floats inside the body. The front scapula and leg bones are not linked to the rest of the skeleton with a joint. They are free floating and have no skeletal connection to the rest of the skeleton's bones. From the scapula down they are only connected to each other and not the rest of the skeleton. Again most hunters don't picture it this way and most assume there is some big joint connecting the front legs to the main skeleton similiar to the pelvis joint.

This is a closer photo of the off side broken humerus bone which had completely healed. It's 30% shorter than the other side, but this bear lived many years after being shot in the leg. My guess is that the bears leg was too far forward climbing up a hill and the bullet that broke this leg exited the armpit and missed the body completely.

Because of this when an animal walks climbs or stands up hill or down hill the joints in the front legs move a great distance. The scapula can move nearly a foot under the skin in every direction, it's loose under there and moves all around depending upon the stride or reach of the animal.

Making this your aimpoint causes various concerns depending upon the way the animal is standing. The bones on the right do not always match the bones on the left either. They are fully independent of one another. I like to "break the shoulders" but what exactly does that mean? To me it means break the humerus or the joint connecting the humerus to the scapula. Anything higher is non vital except for the very small section of spine (although likely pretty painful) and lower is below any reasonable reference to a shoulder shot.

Even though lower can be a perfect heart shot and still very lethal. With some high powered rifles and explosive bullets, a shot through the scapula will destroy enough bone that the additional fragmnets will explode into the chest cavity causing additional hemorage of vital organs.

I think the most important thing to remember about the whole thing is not to deliberately shoot for the scapula but rather just below it or at the bottom of it. A shot going only a few inches high will be a complete distaster and the animal will run for a long way! Missing the mark on the lower side is going to be better every time.

Here is another angle of the scapula above showing the top edge of the bullet hole. Not much of a miss too high, but it was enough to allow him to survive for years. It has quite a lot of abnormal growth but the hole is still through it.

It's important, I think, to understand these concepts before you go out and start trying to bust shoulders!

Right on King Marius! You said it much better than I did.

JG,
Just a simple thing to keep in mind is the angle of your shot. Putting a shot "on" the shoulder from a quartering away shot, will undoubtedly cause you to place the shot too far forward and miss the vitals. A good rule is to always try and break the opposite leg (read shoulder) from any quartering away shot. If the animal is quartering away, go up the opposite leg with your cross-hairs and try and to see "through" your target animal. Try to visualize where the opposite shoulder is. This means that the bullet has to travel through vitals (Lungs, heart) to get to opposite shoulder. This obviously gets us to a whole other topic of good quality bullets that has the capability of penetrating through all that animal without breaking up. This is why I'm a big fan of bullets like Barnes TSX and GS Custom. The Hornady GMX is also right up there. Have not used them, but have heard some great reviews.

I think the African stuff is more tenacious of life, I think that comes from being chased around all the time and trying to avoid becoming someone else's lunch. Whitetails, black bear, caribou, moose, etc in my experience are pretty easy to kill even with smaller calibers. African antelope on the other hand are tough in my opinion. I've had them drop at the shot but also seen them die hard like a puku that took a 270 gr TSX from my .375 the length of his body from a Texas heartshot who was paralyzed but showed no sign of dying even when a tracker put a knife in his heart and wiggled it around. I do think they seem tougher but agree that a well placed bullet will almost always put them down.

African antelope are tough. But so are elk and whitetail deer. Heavy for caliber, premium bullets, shot placement. All non-dangerous game, African and North American, will succumb to that combination. There is nothing magical about the African zebra, wildebeest, oryx, etc.

Going back to the OP, he has 'read' about African toughness. There lies the source of the myth: In gun culture promoted by various publications this myth is perpetuated.

Those of us who have been to Afrca or who are experienced in the field should be able (and from the responses) have recognised it as such. I would propose the sources of this myth are:

1) The afore mentioned publications looking to sell magazines through hunting culture.
2) Asset rich/time poor (city folk) 'hunters' who are unfamiliar with game anatomy and their firearms and make poor shots, therefore the animals must be tougher..
3) Astute marketers of 'product'.
4) The big ego/small dick brigade who want to turn nothing into somthing.
5) Consumers of marketing who have new, larger firearms than they need/can handle properly.
6) Unfamiliarity with the larger African animals, than the animals they are used to at home.

I read with interest that a few posters have made the same observations as myself.

1) Some animals do have 'the vitals' a little more forward than I was used to.
2) This is not rocket science.
3) The Kudu is a pit of a 'softy' when it comes to taking damage.