Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Head shots

I used 125 gr 30-06 and 308, hollow points loaded to max. a hit anywhere on the head is a dead deer. if you know what hydrostatic force is the you will understand why. I got the idea when I shot a buck in the heart lung area and everything from the diafram forward was jello. but he still got up and run 50 or so yds. if you do that to his head they are dead where they are standing.. and yes I shoot a lot and practice for head shots. I love it when they are looking at me that means their head is usually in the open..I have never lost one or wounded one. and they are a lot nicer to dress out...any one can do it if they will pass up iffy shots and stay cool... good luck.

Generally last Sat or first Sat in Oct opens archery and general season starts first Sat in Nov and runs through first Sun in Jan or so. Some counties run a couple weeks longer. And then to follow are some antlerless/spike seasons that can stretch the season to early Feb or so.

Some areas are under management that can allow gun hunting starting in late Sept and going through Jan/ Feb also.

Generally you may get to harvest from 1 to 3 bucks and up to a total of 5 deer depending on the county regs. Though the management places are allowed to allow you to buy more extra tags to meet their harves quotas.

Be aware its almost all private land and not cheap at all to hunt.

Jeff

I'm mostly a lurker on topics that aren't my own, but I couldn't resist posting. Going back to the "mercy kill" topic, my opinion is that you shouldn't feel obligated to shoot a deer that is fatally injured. If you encounter a wounded rabbit, or a bird with a broken wing, in the middle of a deer hunt, do you shoot it? After all rabbits and birds have nerves and they feel pain. So, why should you feel obligated to shoot a doe, or any other deer for that matter, with a broken jaw, or a shattered leg if you are hunting something other than that deer? Oh, and on the topic of head shots in general; I personally wouldn't take one (just not my fancy) unless there was no other shot. I have taken a head shot; only because it was the only shot I had. Anyways, that�s just my opinion and not an attack at anyone else�s.

Kotupod:

I am not relating to injured birds, rabbits, squirrels or the like. I am speaking of game which were injured due to someones lack of good marksmanship so to speak. I was taught and raised to make every effort to retrieve wounded animals being hunted. Obviously, if I was deer hunting and saw a bird with a broken wing I wouldnt shoot it and ruin a hunt. But on the other hand, lets say a deer crosses my stand which had been stuck with an arrow by some hunter who poorly placed a shot, I would put it down in a second.

I am just saying that I make every effort to retrieve wounded game animals injured by hunters. Nature has nothing to do with some hunter who wounds a deer and never makes the recovery. Only twice in my hunting career of nearly 30 years now have I observed what I am speaking of.

The first instance was about 10 years ago on opening weekend hunting in Rusk, Texas in the deep Piney Woods. A forkhorn buck crossed my path with an arrow pinned through his hind quarters from the preceeding bow season. The deer was struggling and I put it down. We called the game warden who met us in the camp and he took the deer to be donated to the needy.

The other time was with a doe that had been shot earlier that morning by a hunter in my camp who was using a shotgun. In the evening she staggered by my stand and I put her down as well. We had legal doe tags so it wasnt that big of deal.

Was I obligated by Texas State law to do so? Absolutely not. Was it the right thing to do? In my opinion....yes.

To each is own. I dont care that much about the killing anymore as I do the experience. Ruining a hunt to put down a wounded deer vs. waiting on the big trophy is not that important to me. I am fortunate enough to hunt on a property where the big trophys are routinely seen and will be there again next weekend. Welcome to the campfire.

Depends on the range, I shoot for the shoulder on bucks and behind the shoulder on does 99 % of the time.

stroker,

Alabama hunting/shooting is much the same. Here most all good hunting land is private, save the Managment Areas and National Forrests which you could'n't pay me to hunt...Id take a night job as an asbestos installer first and consider it safer. You pay by the day at a high dollar full service operation, or join a club for the season. For safety sake, you sign out for a stand and and youd don't move, or move very little. That way you know you wont cross another hunter's area. Depending on the club and how much you want to pay, you may have as much as 200 or 300 acres (bounded by easy to recongnize physical boundries) to "stand/stalk", or as little as 10-15acres. In a pay by the day operation, you'll be put on stand and left alone or with a guide and told not to leave 'til you're picked up, which is how I suspect lots of TX is. Ranges same way. Public ranges packed with "whoshotjohns" toting AK's, SKS's, AR's, and the like, blasting lead down range, which is OK I guess if they are safe, but I don't know they are safe. Private ranges, few and far between, and literally with huge waiting lists to get in.

Boggy Creek Ranger...

Your signature says it all. Shooting at paper, or ever hunting or shooting in different styles is all hunting, but not the same. Personally, I have just been "indoctrinated" to shoot at the chest. Its natural for me. I don't even consider a head shot. I know I could hit it under ideal or even average conditions, but I just dont even think about it due to my training.

Also, just a personal thing, I dont' like the end result as as far as what I have to look at. I know I am not mounting a doe or spike, but I don't want to look at an animal with it's dome blown to bits.

Head shot? If the whole body is exposed and presents a good shot, that`s my kind of shot. I`m not looking for a "handi-cap".
Hunting doesn`t mean take the shot no matter what, sometimes you have to "pass" no disgrace in that. There is more to hunting than just Killing something,IMO.
Course if guys like the "head" shot, it`s a free country, have at it.
That being said i don`t shoot Doe, my preference, free country.

" The best part of the hunt is not the harvest but in the experience."

I've never taken a head shot and probably never will - I don't see the need. The usual argument "for" taking head shots is saving meat. My thoughts are that if a guy is a good enough to risk a head shot he is certainly good enough to thread-the-needle via a heart/lung shot - with more room for error and/or deer movement.

Okay, I brought the side issue of fixing other folks' mistakes into this thread. I'll at least put my $.02 in. As I see it, suffering is a sad thing. I won't tolerate suffering around me, as long as I can do something about it. If a cat is after a bird, so be it. If a coyote is after a rabbit, that's fine. That's nature, and the suffering of the victim will be over shortly. I am not going to get in the way of another hunter and his food.

However, I would not be able to sleep at night if I left a run-over dog lying by the road. Neither would I stay my hand, or my boot, or my gun from putting down an animal I found in the field that had no hope. I've put down a sick coon, a couple of injured wild cats, and a few others over the year. It is not a duty. It is not an obligation. Rather, it's a prayer. It's a prayer that someone will do the same for me someday if it is needed. If a deer comes stumbling past my stand, I will do what it takes. It's for the deer; it is for me as well.

Head shot? I suppose I could live with the idea of somebody punching my ticket with one. However, if it were me walking through the forest, I would much rather be taken with a round to the boileroom. I'd like the chance to look up once more at the sky and know I'd been.

.280Rem

I underrstand where you are coming from. We hunt on 19k acre ranch in the hill country, of which nearly 5k acres is leased to our group. There are 15 hunters in our group. My stand is set up in the middle of about 900 acres so there are no hunters anywhere close to us. We can move around if we want to ie. still hunt, or stalk however 99% of the time we stay in our box blind. We park our jeep about 3/4 of a mile from our stand and walk in from there. When we hunt in the morning we head right to the stand, in the afternoon it may take us up to an hour to make it to the stand due to the fact that we still hunt on the way in. Hunting with a 12 year old son, its just easier to make it to the stand and dig it and settle down.

As far as the shooting ranges go, I am in the process of trying to join a private shooting club here locally. The list however is quite long.

This head shot thing and the side issue of putting down injured or sick deer is digressing into personal ethics again. There will never be a answer that is right for everyone in every situation.

The issue of shot placement is a personal one. I mean that a person should take the shot they feel most comfortable with and refrain from shooting when they are not comfortable with the situation. When I was younger I would only take broad side chest / shoulder shots. It is the largest kill zone target and allowed for the largest margin of error on my part. Now, I've killed so many deer and improved my ability with a rifle to the level that I feel confident that I can put a bullet into any spot on a deer I wish.

As to the issue of "mercy killings" this is really into the personal ethics and could put one outside the game laws in a hurry. It's a decission each has to make with his heart. Would you kill a crippled / sick buck knowing you would have to tag it with your only buck tag for the season and the meat would most likely not be something you would want to eat? That's a hard decision to make and not one anyone should dictate to another.

I've done my share of "mercy killings" on wild game and some of my personal pets. It is a decision that weighs heavy on one's heart. And those decisions have to be made at a very personal level.

Shaman:

I think you've very eloquently said all that needs to be said about this subject. Thank you.

You can hunt out of my truck or fish out of my boat any time.

If a guy has pounded out the rounds required to become a good free hand shot then what's the problem.
They are a joy to butcher as there is no bloodshot meat.
I think the reason alot of hunters are against head and neck shots is that they practice from a rest and hardly ever practice free hand so when one encounters an animal and has to shoot free hand the hunter has to go for the biggest target they can find with the most room for error, a very common sense approach to hunting.
Take the shot you feel the most comfortable with.

AS to waste of tags, I've never known a situation that if you burned a tag and killed a cripple, and then called the warden, that they won't allow you another tag.

I've even seen it happen in Colorado and by an out of state hunter.

But we are talking ethics. Some have different standards. For some there is no such thing as ethics. But that digresses.

BTW I got to wondering, and I'm not flaming anyone on this, but how does a head wound differ in grossness from a bullet through the shoulders thats blown the heart and lungs apart, secondary frags getting liver and maybe part of guts open, blood all over the ground and inside the animal etc.... ?? Because the gross is inside?

Jeff

Gentlemen, I have just read 54 posts on this thread, and this head shot by choice crap amazes me !!! Do we all know how a head of beaf is killed ? Alow me, they hammer him on the head, then hoist him by the rear legs, then cut his jugular while his heart is still pumping! This pumps him out of blood and makes his meat taste good !!! Need I say more ? I say shoot them in the lungs, let them run at least 50 yds. if you can, so you can enjoy your venison, after proper ageing! Oh yeah, use a deer rifle, not a magnum cannon, you do not want to drop your buck in his tracks! Trust me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Edward L.

You know, this guy might have something there.

...Old testament Bible text commands the Jews to bleed out animals before eating them,they are not Kosher without such treatment. Many Christian hunters prefer blood letting the animal as well. I think it is a good idea from the standpoint of clearing the deer's body of the major source of anti-bodies and hormones,which of course effect our human imunology in unknown ways. Milk is VERY rich also in hormones which are designed by nature to PROGRAM the PROPER construction of THAT animals imunological system. How such foreign hormone balances effect our human systems, are "a GOD ONLY knows what" situation! Of course the flesh of the animal also contains these elements ,but the blood contains the highest percentage of these factors.I'd always choose bleeding out the kill,head and spine shots prevent this.A shot through both lungs,causes massive bleeding into the body CAVITY,which effectively accomplishes as much a bleed out as cutting the juglar vein would. Heart shots prevent the more complete bleedout that lung shots would, but betters head and spine shots. Zero blood presure is the goal of our shot,but not so quickly that bleedout is prevented....These are ONE MANS ideas on this,and not meant as a dictate to others,just food for thought...

olhippie.. interesting thoughts, but I thinketh you worryeth too much. By the time you cook that meat up most everything in the blood is pretty well ... umm... fried?

Course, this would explain a lot about my father-in-law, who liked his steaks cooked "... so that a good vet can save it!!"

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

olhipple...... Great post ! I bet you could lead a hard headed old mule to water, and make the sombitch drink! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Edward L.