Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hearing the shot and the bullet impact

John, one of my favorite German words for one of my favorite sounds is "Kugelschlag"... used by German speaking hunters to denote the sound of a bullet's impact on game.

Says it so much more descriptively than "Thwack"... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

On a more redneck level, I love it when I listen close after the shot and here the rest of the group go.

Holy Crap did you see what happen to Lester, I didn't like him anyway but, let's get out the flock out of here!!!!

I am pretty sure I heard that this year when Magnum's buck bit the dust! grins

Mark D

The first time I heard it I was a kid on a stand and my uncle shot a deer that was near my area. It was almost like hearing two shots except one was more of a splatt sound. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I usually can't hear it unless the hit is a couple of hundred yards away from the gun.

Yep, I love to hear that sound from a buddy's rifle across the canyon. You know its time to pack something heavy and bloody. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

When I guided for elk hunters in the Snake River Canyon, I often saw a thermal thingie, when they were shooting an elk across a canyon on a clear, cold morning.

Apparently, the hot bullet messes with the cold air as it passes through. Actually, it looks like some special effect that is out of a science fiction flick.

I got so I often could precisely call the shot by watching the thermal of the bullet. Kinda spooky, but true.

Steve

I have heard the thud on larger animal's moose elk mostly.Have never heard it on deer or bears.

DZ, While taking a jet boat ride up the Snake River last year I met a guy on the boat by the name of Ken Nadle (not sure on the spelling?) He said he knew you and described you as a "walking encyclopedia". Ken was getting dropped at Temperence Creek to do some horse stuff for a few days. Interesting guy to talk with. From the sounds of it he has done work with wildcat cals if I remember correctly. I wish the boat hadn't been so loud so I could have picked his brain a little more.

Anyway, I didn't mean to disrupt the thread. Now back to the lovely sound of the THWOP!

I may have already posted this on the Campfire but if not you will find this interesting. Sounds of the bullets being fired and the sound as it passes the microphone.

http://www.firearmsid.com/Feature%20Articles/soundofbullets/soundofbullets2.htm#top

Lonny,

That would be my only living relative, Ken Nagel. Kenny is my cousin, the son of one of my dad's sisters. He is a really great guy and a gun nut of the first water.

Kenny is as deaf as I am. The only difference is that I wear the finest digital hearing aids that money can buy and my hearing is spooky-good. Talking to Kenny on a jet boat would have been a significant challenge.<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

By the way, he prolly didn't mention it, but Ken has run a bazillion marathons and is in great shape. I ran one, the Trail's End Marathon, out of Seaside, Oregon, with Kenny (he slowed up) and it was enough for me. It was back to half-marathons, 15Ks and 10Ks for the rest of the time that I ran.

It's interesting that he was dropped off at Temperance Creek. That is gorgeous country and if you climb up a bit, to the 3,000 or 4,000 foot level, it is really great elk country.

Karen and I have killed quite a few elk in Temperance and the drainages each way; basically, Saddle Creek and Somers Creek.

We were filled up and packing out one very cold day (-20-ish) and ran into a drainage that was totally filled with elk, thousands and thousands of them. That would have been at the head of Rush creek, it's the one with the sheep pen on the south slope. It must have snowed heavily up the Imnaha and there must have been some type of green-up under the snow in the drainage because the concentration of elk was unnatural. There was absolutely no way of counting the elk, but if I had to guess, I'd say there were somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 elk in the drainage and we rode through them like it was some kind of Elk Disneyland. The snow was black with them and it was like riding through a herd of sheep...they'd bugger slightly away and let us pass, looking at us dumbly...then close totally behind us.

Unbelieveable elk smell.

Yeah, there were some really BIG bulls in the herd(s).

Our elk were frozen to the bone and, in fact, Vera put her's in her front yard at Christmas. Just stacked the pieces together in the deep snow, tied-on the head and put a red light on the nose. Think of a Joseph version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I'll post a photo of us packing out of Temperance. The photo was taken on the same trip I told about. The scene shows us just over the top of Freezeout Saddle, on the far side of Saddle Creek, and dropping into the Imnaha. The coldest we saw on this trip was -51 degrees on the Certified thermometer at Warnock Corral. Going in, the snow was so deep that we had to walk ahead of the horses, to break trail. Couldn't ride anyway, 'cause we were freezing out of the saddle.

In the photo, we were out of horse feed and if Freezout was snowed shup, we'd have had to drop to the bottom and graze our horses half-days and slowly work our way north until we hit some kind of pickup point, prolly Doug Bar. As it was, the Saddle only had a foot or so of snow and we just rode over it and into the Imnaha.

It was probably -30 degrees or so and I paid dearly for the photo. I'd planned it for quite a while; quickly remove my right mitten, unzip my pack (hanging on the saddle horn), flip out my camera and snap the photo. Everything went according to plan, but my right hand was dead as I put my camera back into the pack and I just left it unzipped and jammed my hand back into the mitten. Then, it was "pins and needle" time for about a half-hour as my hand thawed.

On the trip, Karen and I shot our elk out of a big herd above Temperance and it was miserably cold. As i walked to the my elk, I just couldn't wait to cut the belly and jam my hands into the hot guts. AHHHHHHH, DAMMMM...that feels good when you're frozen to the core.

The musings of an old hunter.

Anyway, yeah, that was Ken Nagel, my cousin; all around good guy and a fella that you could trust with your life and everything you own.

Steve

The impact of a .22 LR is the one that I always hear. That THWOP as you drill Bugs through the chest with a WW Powerpoint is very distinctive.

Cool pic there DZ!

Mark D

DZ,
Great story and photo.
Was that an extra late season hunt?

MIKeNZ-a bud of mine asked me once if I wanted to go and shoot a bunch of "whops", I thought wth?

Then he told me that is what he calls gophers because when he shoots them they go "whop"!

Mark D

Second cow, as I remember.

I've been cold, but this particular season was unbelieveable. Crick gorged up with ice and almost no water. Cranky mules and frozen-flat saddles every morning. Froze the eggs and froze the beer.

Don't think we saw zero degrees the whole time.

Steve

DZ, Great story and photo! Thanks for sharing. The trips like that are always the ones that make a lasting memory. I have many times glassed those benches above the creek and looked at hundreds of elk just lounging out in the open. I always wondered how many more must be hidden in the timber and behind ridges that couldn't be seen. That country is the only place I have ever hunted where mule deer, whitetail, elk sheep and bear can be spotted from the same spot. Awesome country.

Come to think of it, I remember Ken saying he was your cousin. He did look like a guy that wasn't physically intimidated by those canyons and after him telling me about some mule deer hunts in that area, it was obvious he wasn't. In the short time I had to visit with him it became quite apparent he was a knowledgable and honorable man.

I hear the bullet impact more often than not. I agree on the faster expanding bullets making a better thump. I have shot numerous deer with 140BT's in .277 and they make a satisfying noise. Coyotes, fox, rabbits, and other furry critters shot with a 55gn soft-point make a noise even as close as 25 yds. My most satifying THWACK!! to date was a muskrat at about 75yds using .277 90gn hollow-point sierra's @3600fps. I've shot many hundred prairie dogs, never shot one so far in the air as that muskrat with the 270, it was outstanding hangtime.

What do you suppose is a more satisfying sound? The THWACK!! from an animal? Or the 1st pane of glass you break with your first BB gun?

That is interesting. I always try to listen for the meat report, as often in brushy country game will travel some distance, if the bullet doesn't put him down on the spot. I believe it's very useful. Have looked for many a coyote i knew i hit for awhile in sandhill country, before finding it. Had to help a buddy do the same just last season.

Several yrs. ago we were hunting elk close to Durango, and we put a buddy on a big rock that overhangs a valley where elk frequently pass thru. My other buddy and i took off for other parts, and several hours later we were probably about 1.5 miles away as the crow flies, and we heard our buddy shoot, and i thought i heard again just a hint of a meat report just afterwards. Told my friend. "Bet Mitch got 1." Sure enuf, we were hauling cow elk quarters out that evening.

I learned the "kugelschlag" term from Jeff Cooper, he uses it frequently.

I hear the bullet impact as long as the range is greater than about 100 yards, give or take. I notice it frequently in Africa as the ranges in the bush are typically 75 yards to about 175 yards.

DZ,

The cold, snow and ice remind me why I like to hunt in Africa: shirtsleeves weather!

jim

Like many of you, I can almost always tell when a hunting buddy has connected. What amazes me is how LOUD the impact sound is. Its almost as load as the discharge itself.

Can anyone explain the physics of this?

My thinking is that maybe possibly there was a solid object close to your left side that echoed the sound back to you. Thats the only reason I can think of it would have been that much more noticable.

Dr. Howell,

I have always been curious as to why when I shoot right handed as I do, if I shoot without hearing protection my left ear suffers the greatest. I had surmised that the way I slightly turn my head to mount the gun and look down the scope that my left ear is open the the direct sound waves, whereas my right ear is atleast partially obscured from direct sound waves by my face and head. Have you ever done any such research or know of any?

Naturally I shoot with hearing protection now, but as a kid...we didnt pay as much attention to such things....being 10 feet tall and bullet proof and all that. But it seems all shooters complain that the ear opposite their strong shooting side is worse for the wear than the other.