Neck shot ethics

[tradman]

During my elk hunt last week, I found someone's 6x6 bull in a canyon that had not been recovered. Reported the find to game and fish. Upon closer inspection I found that it was a neck shot as I found the entrance hole. You can see that it had been dead air few days as the eyes have been pecked out, the bird droppings on it and the smell of rot.

 

[Caseknife]

During my elk hunt last week, I found someone's 6x6 bull in a canyon that had not been recovered. Reported the find to game and fish. Upon closer inspection I found that it was a neck shot as I found the entrance hole. You can see that it had been dead air few days as the eyes have been pecked out, the bird droppings on it and the smell of rot.

Yep, neck shots you either kill them or miss them........

Tracked and killed a spike bull one elk season that had been wounded 4 days prior, lower jaw shot off.

Hunting partner shot a branched antler bull in the neck, bull dropped, hunter took his eyes off the bull, it got up and ran off, never to be seen again.

I shot a spike bull at about 50 yards offhand in the timber in the neck, he dropped like a sack of spuds, shortly got up and started to stagger off, shot again and he was down. Lots of area in the neck of an elk that is not vital, but will have adverse effects on the health of the animal. A little high and hit a spinal process and it will knock them out, but will not kill them. Hit a bit low and you just gave the elk a tracheotomy.

Too each their own, can only decide on your own personal ethics.

 

[FredoTwoWheels]

idk about elk but with whitetail my dad always takes neck shots, I used to always aim for heart but last year I aimed center of his neck broad side with 30-30 and he did not even take a step, honestly the most humane harvest I have ever had. But if you are the type to get excited I will say its a smaller target and it could more easily go south because of that.

 

[Swamp Fox]

I guess I "get it" but again, either you're taking a shot you know you can make or you're playing the "pull and pray" game on a live animal. There's not much similarity to me shooting a buck that is standing stationary giving me a good angle with my 45/70 at 20-25 yards and lobbing one in at 400. I can put 10 shotsa into an inch black square with that rifle at 25 yards.

It's not either/or. There is the third, more true situation where you *think* you can make the shot.

If you *know* you can make a shot under field conditions on a wild, untethered animal, there are more things in your favor than a wizard has crystal balls: range, wind, rest, nerves, weapon, load, stationary target, Fate.

(That is only a partial list. It could go on.)

The shots we think we can make are many more than the shots we know we can make.

I'm gonna leave it there, because almost nothing chaps my ass more than the idea/advice that if you're confident, you should take the shot.

Dean Wormer was confident he could run a college, and look where that got him ...