Buck Head Shot

7:00 am out of the door and on my way to my permission about 5 min drive

i have a friend who wanted to buy a roe deer carcass, he is a chef and has recently acquired a mincer. I'm told he is using it for he own personal consumption, experimenting burgers, sausages, bbq's etc.

i arrive at the place and within 10 minutes i spot 5 deer

3 does
1 buck
1 little one

as i start to make my approach in the truck 2 does and the kid start to walk into a thick wood.
i am approximately 200 yards away (not confident at taking a shot that far)
crawl out of my truck and up into a position to take a shot.

crawling through thistles, nettles, long due covered grass up the side of the hedgerow.
i am now about 100 yards away.

bi-pod open.......then the buck decides to sit down :p

so unless i crawl further towards it there is no way of taking a chest shot.

starts to rain.

so a fine head shot was taken although the pressure of the bullet has somewhat made one of his eyes to bulge a bit , its a bit ugly and disconcerting when performing the gralloch to have it staring at me like that but was dead immediately.
 

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The photo says it all, a dead deer, zero suffering, not everybody's choice of shot, but when needs must if you can perform the duty properly so be it!
 
Well done, good shot with a good result.

TJ

(The eyes pop back in with a little pressure, should you need to make one look more photogenic in the future).
 
looks like he ran for a while.... not well done

+1 on fb
not sure what that means but thx ;)

i dragged it 200 yards back to my truck before i performed gralloch and the photo shoot, thats why it may look a bit screwed.
still , my friend coughed up and i hope to taste some venison burgers next weekend weather permitting.
 
well done mate, looks spot on.
never needed to take a head shot but i have to say if i was in a similar position and on the bipod i would consider it

Alex
 

that bit i meant ;)


in total i have taken 3 head shots.
last one was looking straight towards me for ages, whilst a group of does were approaching from a flanking position.
and then another was behind a fallen tree except head of course.

never known where on the neck to place my cross hairs. front - windpipe or back- vertebrae ?

its getting to the point wherever the shot is taken is going to cause damage to a trophy head or the cape for tanning etc .

perhaps the deer would oblige me by lying down so i could use a hypodermic needle for euthanasia.
 
Head shots well theres a subject.
Obviously you are confident in your ability, and was happy with the conditions on the day .
I think you made the right decision, But not all will agree.
 
that bit i meant ;)

ha ha xim,

ok see it, what i was doing was agreeing with what finnbear had said.
you normally get a barrage of oh its wrong thats not nice etc when you post a head shot thread.
its good to get the support the shot deserves when its done and done right thats all.

f.
 
Had you have been in that situation and could have taken a neck shot

where on the neck would you be aiming ??

front(windpipe), middle, or rear (spine) ??

remembering the animal was led down
 
Had you have been in that situation and could have taken a neck shot

where on the neck would you be aiming ??

front(windpipe), middle, or rear (spine) ??

remembering the animal was led down

Xim, don't take this the wrong way mate but, if you need to ask this question (are you really considering aiming for a deers windpipe??) then my advice is to stick to chest shots for the next 20-30 beasts and examine each animal as you gralloch and inspect and get to know the anatomy. I also suggest the next time you have a spare deer head, bung it in the freezer whole, get it out when its fully frozen, take a bone saw or panel saw and cut it in half lengthways right down the middle. Take a good look at the size and location of the brain and brain stem and its relation to the nose, ears, jaw, eyes etc. If you still think its a good idea to take side on head shots at wild deer then fine but be honest with yourself. No hard feelings, just giving my opinion, take it or leave it. JC
 
Xim, don't take this the wrong way mate but, if you need to ask this question (are you really considering aiming for a deers windpipe??) then my advice is to stick to chest shots for the next 20-30 beasts and examine each animal as you gralloch and inspect and get to know the anatomy. I also suggest the next time you have a spare deer head, bung it in the freezer whole, get it out when its fully frozen, take a bone saw or panel saw and cut it in half lengthways right down the middle. Take a good look at the size and location of the brain and brain stem and its relation to the nose, ears, jaw, eyes etc. If you still think its a good idea to take side on head shots at wild deer then fine but be honest with yourself. No hard feelings, just giving my opinion, take it or leave it. JC

i would like to see that picture jc if you had the time to do that and take one mate.
from my experience in boiling heads its amazing how high up in the head you have to go to make the hole large enough to spoon out the brain tissue.
that would definitely be an educational picture.

f.
 
all my deer are now head shot. If I cannot get a confident head shot the deer lives another day.

I hate nothing more than having a deer run on from a chest shot. I only switched to head shots a couple of years ago and after over 100 deer have not injured or had a runner.

A rather good benefit of head shots is you can use a smaller round with a varmint bullet giving less recoil, less noise and greater confidence.
 
7:00 am out of the door and on my way to my permission about 5 min drive

i have a friend who wanted to buy a roe deer carcass, he is a chef and has recently acquired a mincer. I'm told he is using it for he own personal consumption, experimenting burgers, sausages, bbq's etc.

i arrive at the place and within 10 minutes i spot 5 deer

3 does
1 buck
1 little one

as i start to make my approach in the truck 2 does and the kid start to walk into a thick wood.
i am approximately 200 yards away (not confident at taking a shot that far)
crawl out of my truck and up into a position to take a shot.

crawling through thistles, nettles, long due covered grass up the side of the hedgerow.
i am now about 100 yards away.

bi-pod open.......then the buck decides to sit down :p

so unless i crawl further towards it there is no way of taking a chest shot.

starts to rain.

so a fine head shot was taken although the pressure of the bullet has somewhat made one of his eyes to bulge a bit , its a bit ugly and disconcerting when performing the gralloch to have it staring at me like that but was dead immediately.

From the above write up you make it sound that you took a head shot (albeit off the bipod) at 100 yds:eek:. From the photos it is obvious that the deers head was side on when you fired. I personally would never EVER take a shot like that. The margin for error is just way too much. Minute of angle accuracy = 1 inch at 100 yds. so it would take nothing at all for that shot to have hit a bit low and blown that deers lower jaw off. the deer would have leapt to its feet and run off, only to have died the most miserable death any off us could imagine in our worst nightmares. This time that shot went OK.......... Next time who knows......???
 
i would like to see that picture jc if you had the time to do that and take one mate.
from my experience in boiling heads its amazing how high up in the head you have to go to make the hole large enough to spoon out the brain tissue.
that would definitely be an educational picture.

f.

Frank, just out of interest I took a fallow pricket head out of the freezer this morning an sawed it in half as described. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera but I'll get some pictures after lunch. I am not able to put photos directly onto here but could email them to you if you are interested and if you want/are able to put them on thats fine. (send me your email address if you want to do this) JC
 
From the above write up you make it sound that you took a head shot (albeit off the bipod) at 100 yds:eek:. From the photos it is obvious that the deers head was side on when you fired. I personally would never EVER take a shot like that. The margin for error is just way too much. Minute of angle accuracy = 1 inch at 100 yds. so it would take nothing at all for that shot to have hit a bit low and blown that deers lower jaw off. the deer would have leapt to its feet and run off, only to have died the most miserable death any off us could imagine in our worst nightmares. This time that shot went OK..........
Next time who knows.
.....???
Lakey, next time he may not be happy to take a shot like that, lets say due to a heaving chest/heart hammering away after a rough stalk/climb, or distance too long, my view is "IF" you are capable of using an accurate rifle & ammunition combination, up to your personal range limitations at the time of shooting the beast, then there is no problem for me, if the shot is practical & the only one available. A lot of stalkers are not happy with a rifle that can only achieve hits in a four inch circle @ 100yds, if my rifle puts multiple shots into a hundred yds all touching, I therefore know that weather conditions allowing I will stick a killing shot in @ many hundreds of yards.
 
Lakey, next time he may not be happy to take a shot like that, lets say due to a heaving chest/heart hammering away after a rough stalk/climb, or distance too long, my view is "IF" you are capable of using an accurate rifle & ammunition combination, up to your personal range limitations at the time of shooting the beast, then there is no problem for me, if the shot is practical & the only one available. A lot of stalkers are not happy with a rifle that can only achieve hits in a four inch circle @ 100yds, if my rifle puts multiple shots into a hundred yds all touching, I therefore know that weather conditions allowing I will stick a killing shot in @ many hundreds of yards.
Finnbear, I too am not happy witha rifle that only just manages to put its shots in a four inch circle at 100 yds however that isnt the point. The point here is about margin for error. If you are taking a head shot at 100 yds there is no margin for error. An inch either way could have resulted in a wounded animal. If you are an inch (or even two inches) out on a boiler room shot, then no probs. Shooting off a bipod does give the shooter the ability to 'reach out' a bit further, however for me, (and this is only my opinion) a 100 yds head shot is way too far. I personally would only ever attempt head shots within 50 yds, then only off a bipod, and most importantly of all, only when the animal is looking straight at me or straight away from me. I accept that, the head has less potential for movement when the animal is lying down, and that the shooter in this case probably knew that the rifle was precisely zero'd etc etc, but it still doesnt alter the fact that IMHO a 100 yds head shot just increases the potential error factor too much. In other words you have not incorporated in any 'cock-up insurance' into the equation......
Also, if shooting from a bipod, one stem of grass in front of the barrel would be all that was needed to move the bullet off its correct trajectory..... Way too risky

After all, it is called 'deer stalking', not 'deer long range bombardment'
 
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