We occasionally get a thread on here about hunting big game with single-shots, and there are the normal number of people who would NEVER do it, and those that do it all the time.
Out of curiousity I went through my hunting notes of the past 40 years and compiled some figures.
I have hunted big game with single-shots off and on since 1992, and have taken game from pronghorn to Cape buffalo with them. Calibers have ranged from .257 Bob to .375 H&H and .45-70. Of the animals taken, 78% were one-shot kills.
Of course, some of the 2-shot kills were like the kudu I took in Botswana with a Ruger Tropical in .375. The fist shot went through both lungs, as the bull ran between two bushes at about 75 yards. We took up the trail and maybe 100 yards later, one of the trackers spotted him ahead in the bush, standing spraddle-legged with his head down. I shot again and he fell. The second shot probably wasn't necessary, but the sun was going down....
Of the animals I've taken with repeaters (lever, pump and bolt, but no semiautos) 71% have been 1-shot kills. Again, I did not count kills like the 6-point bull elk I took 5 years ago with a .300 Winchester. Shot him in the shoulder as he quartered toward me, and the bullet busted the shoulder and top of the heart, and exited. He ran about 35 yards and stopped, same deal as the kudu: legs spraddled and head down. It was also about sunset so I shot again and he fell. So the 1-shot kills have been strictly that.
The higher percentage of 1-shot kills with single-shots may be due to more careful shooting--or just the fact that I didn't start using single-shots until I'd been hunting big game for 25 years or so. Don't know. Do know that I have yet to come close to losing a big game animal shot with a single-shot. Maybe that is indeed because I am kind of careful about the shots I do take when using one--or the terrain hunted. The first shot has either killed--or would have killed, if I hadn't put another one in there.
Oh, have missed a couple of shots with singles. Both times I just pulled it and shot under, at about 200 yards.
In the notges I also found several streaks of 1-shot kills, one of 8 animals, one of 9--and one of 18 out of 19, the other one of those unnecessary 2-shot kills. That is what is supposed to happen as we get older, and both shoot better and hunt more carefully.
JB
