Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Overkill

30-06 on a rabbit

416 Rigby (400gr Barnes Banded Solid)on a suni

I know I won't win the contest based on game weight vs. kinetic energy, but I got a spikehorn whitetail buck with my .458 a few years ago.

Bumble bees - used a .44 magnum and Speer shot capsules.

30-30 bang and then squirrel splat

My Dad drove a tank in the army and took out a Blacktail Deer on the military reserve back in the 50s. . . . . . . . . .Little pieces every where.

I shot a small 70 lb Blacktail fron about 70 yards with a 400 gr. Speer, made for the .45-70, with a .460 weatherby. Looked just like a squirrel hit with a .223! You could have stuffed a 2 lb coffee can in from the rear end!
Moral of this story: Use a bullet up to the task with it's given velocity!

16" 2700 lbs. dummy AP projectile .(18,900,000 gr projectile propelled by 4,620,000 gr of powder) from my ship the USS Iowa did the trick on a number of pelican like birds on Viegues Island.
I was observing fall of shot from Spot 2 and several of these large birds landed near the target area right as we unleashed the first round. The spotting round was right on and the birds were no more.

Personally, mine was a duiker (that weighed less than my wife's miniature Australian shepherd) that was taken with a .375 H&H and a 260 grain AccuBond.

The worst that I have observed was on Fort Riley in Kansas. We had some "Texas deer traps" (box traps copied after those used on the King Ranch) set in the buffer zone around the impact area. We were not allowed to venture into the buffer zone unless we had a deer in a trap, and then we had to call the MPs who accompanied us along with an ordinance disposal expert who was alert for unexploded ordinance.

So, our MO was to cruise the perimeter and inspect the traps with a binocular from a safe distance. If there was an animal in the trap, we called the Wildlife Office and they sent out the MPs and the Ordinance Disposal guys. One day, we glassed one of our traps and could see that we had a deer in it. We called the WO and requested the usual suspects to help us collect this animal.

As we were sitting there awaiting the arrival of the troops, a Blackhawk gunship flashed by and absolutely disintegrated the trap and the animal that was in it. We were stunned, as we listened on the radio and heard, "What the hell was that"--static-- then, "I don't know, but we nailed it". There was nothing there but kindling, fur and small pieces of organic matter.

The carpenter shop at Ft. Riley had built these traps from a design that I had given them based on the traps that we used in Texas in those days. We constructed them in Texas with ranch labor and whatever materials we could lay our hand on, and one probably cost less than $100 to build. The traps that the carpenter shop built were constructed out of redwood planks with brass screws, hinges and fittings and, even in the late 1970s, probably cost the taxpayers $1200 apiece!

I started hunting as a kid with my only gun in the world
a H&R 10 Gauge single barrel shotgun with a 32 inch xtra full
choke It would whack a squirrel at 50 plus yards.
AMRA

In a land far far away 5" gun v/s a tigger,there was $#ssy everywhere(of course this was with the said lands goverments endorsement,they were having some kitty issues at the time).

Wife shot a squirrel with a 378 wtby... red mist and a tail was left...

I shot one deer so far with my 50 bmg and that was a half inch hole all the way through and a tracking job without blood trail..

Shot the head off a blue quail in the air that flushed too close like JB... Just got lucky with the "shot placement"

No such thing as overkill
Dead is dead

Bob Hagel wrote that he had never overkilled anything, however maybe he just didn't know what to look for?
I think I may have overkilled a woodchuck once with a 35 Whelen I was sighting in for black bear hunting. This woodchuck had the misfortune of living on the rifle range and was a target of opportunity. I used a 200 gr Hornady roundnose at 2600 fps and it was pretty graphic. I also killed a woodchuck with some heavy Elmer Keith type loads for a Ruger #1 45-70.
whelennut

I popped a rockchuck with my 378 Weatherby loaded with 300gr partitions @2900fps.
Does that count as overkill?

375 Wby, 250 Sierra @ 3000 fps. Two Idaho rockchucks at about 125 yds. Spinning pinwheels.

I thought I was the only one that did that. My first confirmed kill with my .375 was a prairie dog @ about 60 yards. Load was a 270 gr Speer BTSP over a helthy dose of IMR4064. Let's just say the load was more than adequate.

Also one time I took a squirrel with a 16 ga. deer slug. I made it into a furlined poodle collar. I did find the rear legs on that one.

I have been known to shoot house flies with a pellet rifle. Just don't put a pellet in. The blast of air flattens them. Although there was one big old honker that I used a pellet on.

Do you still have it? I knew you had it when I was in the heating plant on base.

A squirrel with a 16 ga full choke at 8'. I put the bead on his nose and blew his head clean off.

Like RickyD said, ain't no such thang as over-dead. Daid is daid.

I got a bat once with pepper spray. He thought it was over kill.

Shot lots of grouse with a 30-06, and several rabbits. Got a few sharptails with my 300 WM and Barnes TSX. Expensive sharptails!

I shot a nuisance black bear in a tree once and he got stuck up in the tree. Had to use a chain saw to cut the tree down -- about a 60 ft poplar. Messed the bear up pretty bad when he came down under the tree from about 50 feet, but he was still only daid, not over-killed.