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October 2007 Feature Article:

Six Tips for Better Shot Placement

Hunt long enough and you'll see some weird things. My own list of odd occurrences seems endless. I've seen an arrow pass square through the center of a bear's chest with the bruin collapsing immediately. Then, not 20 minutes later, that same bear leapt to his feet and scampered away, never to be seen again. On another occasion I witnessed a fellow shoot a moose that collapsed on the spot. Upon close inspection, there wasn't a bullet hole to be found anywhere on the moose - not even the head. Then there was the time I saw an arrow pass clean through the body of a Canada goose. As though nothing had happened the goose flew off into the horizon and just kept on flying. Then there's whitetails. I've seen countless trophy-class deer suck up bullets like they were shot with a pellet gun. Once I even saw a 350-pound whitetail shot four times with a .338 at close range (under 50 yards), the best shot was square through the chest … as the hunter and I approached, the deer tried to get up and needed yet another shot to close the deal. The last one I'll share with you is a grizzly bear that I shot with a 7 mm Rem. Mag. a few years ago; talk about a will to live! Shot at 75 yards, I hit him a few inches high in the chest, but he collapsed instantly. Assuming the bear was dead, I approached. As I walked toward the bear, it stood up. Confused, I free-handed a second round into the base of his skull as he stood facing away from me. Again the grizz collapsed. Opting to wait a half hour, I figured better safe than sorry. When I finally did walk up to the bear, I couldn't believe what I saw - he was still breathing! The moral of these tales is that perfect shot placement is imperative, but that despite best efforts, sometimes our well-placed shots can turn into a rodeo. Read more...

Please use this area to post comments or questions about this feature article.

[Illinois_Dave]

I once dropped a nice whitetail in his tracks with a 25- yard shot from a 20 gauge slug. The deer lay motionless right where I shot him. No need to wait, I thought, because he's obviously dead.

That deer lay right where he dropped as I descended the tree in my climber, but as soon as might boot crunched in the fallen leaves of the forest floor, he jumped up and bolted over the hill without a trace of blood left in his wake.

I went to where he had fallen after I shot him, and all I found was a few drops of blood and a little bit of hair.

I'm still not sure what happened, but I learned a valuable lesson that day...never assume anything when it comes to whitetails. :](*,)