I was watching "Burke's Law" last night. The show's original airing was 1963. The case involved the murder of a famous big game hunter named Cable Roberts. Cable had been shot in his trophy room with his own rifle, and then hung on the wall like a trophy.

One of the detectives, who seemed to be up on the whole big game scene, noticed that whoever killed Cable had been another big game hunter. There was a shot to the chest at some distance with a .300 H&H with a finishing shot to the neck. The rest of the episode revolved around which of Cable's friends from safari had done him in.

1) Was it ever really customary to deliver a coup de grace to the neck?
2 Wouldn't it be a tad dangerous to walk right up to a lion(a film clip was shown as an example) that you didn't think was dead and plug him in the neck?
3) Wouldn't this risk really screwing up the mount?

BTW: The trail led back to Cable's brother, Paul Lynde, who basically played himself. In between whimpering, and sniveling, there was a confession that he did it. One of the big reasons was he couldn't stand to see all those beautiful animals reduced to trophies on the wall.

Was it ever really customary to deliver a coup de grace to the neck?"

I don't think so. It's hard to hit the spine, especially
on a lion with a mane.

"Wouldn't it be a tad dangerous to walk right up to a lion(a film clip was shown as an example) that you didn't think was dead and plug him in the neck?"

I think it would be.

"Wouldn't this risk really screwing up the mount?"

Maybe. Taxidermists can fix holes.

As far as the coup de grace is concerned, a shot in the chest or spine from 30 years or so away works best.

I once hunted with a guide in Wyoming who used a .22 Ruger handgun for a coup de grace in the brain. His maximum accurate range was maybe 15 feet, though.

One time I spined a Blesbok from about 125 yards. The legs were "dead" but the neck and head were very much alive. My PH wouldn't let me shoot it again but instead got out a knife and, grabbing a horn, stabbed it through the top of its head. I didn't think that was a very good idea.

As with most things African, it's not usually a good idea not to use the words never or always.

Do shots like that happen? - yes they do occasionally but not very often.

Offhand, I can think of 3 occasions where I've taken not quite the same, but somewhat similar shots. 1 was a Lion and 2 were Buffalo. On all 3 occasions, the animal had been spined and was effectively sitting or laying like a dog but was pretty well stuffed up. Each time, I ran up behind the animal and just whacked it at point blank range between the shoulder blades. With this shot, the bullet breaks the spine and then goes on through the heart and brings instant death........... you gotta be pretty damn sure the animal is actually paralysed rather than temporarily paralysed though before you do it or you just might find yourself in very deep doo doos.

Okay, so it's no big , big game hunter tradition then-- didn't think so. It seemed like I would have heard of it before if it were so.

The neck seemed like a bum place for a shot-- coup de grace or otherwise. I'm just a lowly whitetail hunter. I always go for the heart and lungs for the first shot as well as the last.

Thanks again.

I don't recall whether I've ever put a finishing shot in the neck or not, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I had the right angle. But I'm willing to use the neck for a first shot, too, under certain circumstances.

Maybe it's geographical because everyone I know uses a Coup de Grace shot in the neck unless the animal is so near death that they can just cut the throat or stab the spine behind the head as they do in Africa.

Why would anyone destroy more meat with a body shot or ruin a good set of horns with a head shot??

I will say that the close up neck shot is easier with iron sights, but if you take the time to shoot at a golf ball size target at 10 feet with your scoped rifle you will know where it hits. Up close changes the bore scope alignment and you need to aim high with a scope up real close. This is also very good information to have in an up close charge, live or die situation with dangerous game. Always know where your bullet POI is in reference to bore alignment.

You can never kill them too dead, but is is possible to not kill something enough. Hence one through the back of the neck to be a little more sure.

If it's good enough for the Chi Coms, it's good enough for me.

The coup de grace shot to the neck is common in my area. It must be a geographic thing like Ray said. It's a good way to kill an animal. Puts them right out.

-

YOur taxidermist will hate you.
And you have a larger vital target thats much more round in the brain/stem than you do in the weird shaped neck target. I've never understood the popularity of the neck once you sit down and see how much smaller that target is and a miss isn't always only a flesh wound, it can be as bad as a blown jaw off a head shot.

At 25 yards the bullet first crosses the line of sight. At that distance grouse are head and neck shots with a 22. I have head shot grouse and rabbits with a 30-06 when only a single gun was carried. It is not a hard shot to make at all on the neck of a large game animal. We all brag we can shoot 2" at 100 on game which is 1/2 inch at 25. |That is plenty accurate enough gentlemen.

Randy

If that reply is to me, my response is why not go for the larger target that stops the brain. All the neck does is bleed out and paralyze the animal. The brain is centrally located from any angle, the neck spine is not in the center of the neck in all places, it varies in its location and you are putting a bullet into edible meat.

Just my take on it. But I agree, the neck isn't hard to hit, especially up close. My finish shots when needed are always to the head though. Assuming close range. And thats assuming not mounted. If mounting is an issue or if I"m afraid of the animal getting up I just dump another into the large vital target the lungs.

I have found it to be popular in RSA for the PH's to use a knife to severe the spinal cord at C1-C2 to put an animal down. I hate to say I'm not man enough for that. If not done quickly and accurately, the animal does protest enough to stir up my empathy. However, I get over it.

I didn't see the part about taxidermists can fix holes. Well if you've never been a taxidermist you are talking way out of turn. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. And we have to cut a MUCH larger hole in there than you put in it to start with, so that your screwup isn't visible and makes the mount look like crap later on..... Don't assume that a hole is nothing. Personally I charge for holes, especially those in the neck and those that are large. And have refused to mount some stuff due to holes. We do great work but are not God or magicians.

Now if its a tsx type hole, caliber in, double out, its almost always workable. But hitting neck bones rarely results in a small hole.

Jeff

rost495

just directed in general terms. I do use TSX and am not a trophy hunter so my 25cents maybe does not apply in that case. Hitting the neck spine will disrupt function even if spinal cord is not severed. The vagus nerve carries impulse to heart and lungs and the knife into base of neck does the same thing. Sykes and Fairbourne developed a dagger in WW2 for the british commandoes to fill that very need, on humans.

In paramedicine we teach c3 c4 c5 keeps the diaphragm alive. A fracture in the fifth cervical or above shuts down the keep alive part of the animal. I can appreciate the difficulties a taxidermist could have with the destruction of hide by bone fragments etc.

Yes if you hit bone. but there is a lot of none bone in the neck. And the spine is not centered the whole way. You have to have a good understanding of anatomy first. Heck most folks talk a shoulder shot knocks a deer over, when in fact they are half ways up or higher and its eitehr hitting the spine or fragging into the spine. The spine in the neck moves around as it goes from shoulders to the C1. OTOH a high shot in the neck will knock them down and let em get up wiht a non fatal flesh wound, while a centered one works fine and yet if you miss a few inches low you are through a vein or artery if you are lucky, and if not, flesh, windpipe, esophagus etc.... and that generally is a slow death days later.

Now definitions of neck. if you are around C1/C2 thats all a head shot to me. Neck means middle of the neck between the head and shoulders and thats one I've never liked. Just me I guess. I can use the correct caliber(not small) and if I hit within 3-4 inches of center of the brain in any direction I have instant death. Miss the neck by 3-4 inches on our deer and you can actually miss the whole neck, much less end up with a wound.

And my take, the neck is actually a small version of actual chest vitals. Its not round. It can be more dynamic than the chest but thats an aside topic. but the target is long, narrow and oblong basically. Same as the vitals in the chest. IE hit too high and forward in the chest and you are over the spine. Yet hit high and back and you are in vitals. Low and forward and vital. Low and back, behind the diaphragm. Seems not fair that the targets are not round, but thats life.

I do realize the neck target is a much better one up close to C1 and the lower jaw but again thats not really neck to me. Its below that when the Cspine joint bones become small and start snaking their way into hte backbone area that it gets tricky.

Heck when a lot of folks try to take both front shoulders out to disable a deer, especially where the neck ties in, its not the shoulders that do the deed, its hitting the spine that does. And the spine shot as you then get further back certainly has more bone mass area to shock.

Jeff

Patching a bullet hole is pretty simple job for a good taxidermist IMO..but I do carry a solid or two for dispatching game, just an old habit from hunting in Africa so much, where one usually has a solid or two handy...

A neck shot can be from behind the ear to where the shoulder joins the body btw...and I have never had any problem hitting the spine or at least I cannot remember ever missing it, but at my age I can forget anything!

Rost495,
I agree with you a shot in the jaw is the worst wounding shot there is to be made, it results in a vile death of a fine animal. That is something to consider in every case when you think about a head or high neck shot.

The other vile shot is the low neck shot through the esophagus.... which is why a neck shot I'll never take over the larger target of the head anyday. High head from teh back like I tend to take, well if you screw that up and blow a jaw off you are not much of a shot. I'll qualify that with the fact I'd take a head shot on everything unless I mount it, but only if I am confident of the shot. Exactly like a long shot. I'm not good enough to make them every time and defer to pure lungs and ribs often enough like most folks should.

As to comments on sewing holes, small ones yes, but unless you've ever dealt with something like a short haired impala with a small neck to start with and a 2inch plus exit hole, you don't know jack IMO. Ain't enough there to work with and make it invisible like new. Of course lots of folks are not picky about mounts and as long as a slob taxidermist gets is sewn shut so you don't see yellow form, they are happy. I am not.

Patching up a brain shot is about as impossible as can be, as it in many cases blows off the horns and the top of the head,..I am not sure where your coming from on this, but I have no problem where you shoot your animals, that is totally up to you..

BTW I have shot about as many Impala in the neck as anyone I suspect and it sometimes does damage but mostly does not, but if I intended to mount the animal then I would not shoot it in the head or high in the neck, rather at the shoulder junction in the spine and probably with a solid as I carry a few of those all the time...Also I know where the spine lies on all animals, just like I know where the heart/lung/brain is located. That is something that every hunter should know I would think.

rost495,
Jeez bud your about 3 ft. from the target, surely you can spine one at that range, I can...but hey its your game, the choice is yours and its really a non issue, its a matter of choice, I am sure about anything works at that Coup de Grace range..Even a rock.

Ray, as usual we are on the same page, just typing it differently and my apologies for that. I"m not always totally clear.

When it comes to shots, I generally take a head shot if it all looks right. For a finish shot I'll take whatever I can if I need to, but if the animal is down and still alive and close, I slip one in the head if I can see it or walk up and slip one in the head. There is no difference between the head and neck. Both result the same.
And you are totally corect, you know the anatomy, I know it, but many dont. And dont' know exactly how curvy that neck can be. Heck most folks will argue me to death that the spine can't be as low as it is in line with the front leg, and lets face it, it has to drop a fair amount to get to the center of the neck, and then it curves back towards the top of the neck to get into the C1 and brain stem.
Now for mounting I'd never shoot them in the shoulder and never finish in the neck or head. As such I consider about anything shot on a guided hunt as a trophy and not meat hunt. I may well be wrong. I simply would rather shoot a doe than an immature male. So I'll either shoot or not on a guided hunt and if I shoot, its going on the wall. Hence my issues with neck shots/and head shots.
I've sewed up more holes in the neck than I care to over the years, and mostly from ignorance of folks bleeding the animal or shooting it in the neck when they could have shot it in the lungs.
Again the difference between a neck and head shot on a meat animal, is simply the head is a larger rounder target, and the neck longer, skinnier. Take your pick. I personally feel that its easier to wound wiht the neck shot than with the head, others feel differently. And thats why its free America still thankfully. I have 2 options when meat hunting. Head or lungs. If can't get the first, I go to the second. Or I pass the shot totally.

My apologies for taking this to task, the topic was CoupDeGrace, and thats any extra shots in the body to me, and if I can make a neck shot that means I'm close enough and will take the head shot every time. The topic did not ask about mount destruction etc...I just took it off course.

Regards, Jeff

The procedure to sever the spine between c1-c2 is called down here pithing. It is widely practized in the north on caribou/reindeer in Canada, Lapland and Siberia.
The natives can be lightning fast about it.
The standing reindeer is aproached from the side, with slight hand pressure the head is bend forward, opening the space between c1-c2, a quick stab with a boning type of knife straight downward at the proper location immediatly severs the spinal cord, making the animal collaps like a sack of sand. I used it a lot on the gov't caribou slaughters to finish off dying animals. A fast humane death without meat loss. However do use it only on animals that have little strength left. A caribou is not a tame reindeer. They have been known to strike back. They can do serious damage on a man.

All of the aninals I've shot in the neck have dropped like a sack of potatoes, including those who's neck wasn't broken. It's quite a lethal shot for those who trust their rifle enough to take it. I shot a nice Whitetail this year head on, through his jaw and into his neck. Literally collasped where he was standing.

As to customs in Africa, I have no idea what they do.