Editor’s Note: In the following column, Richard Fairburn takes a break from his usual police-centric firearms coverage to discuss another passion of his: hunting. This article and content like it are part of our TacticaList series, a collection of expert columns and features on all things tactical — from fishing and hunting to camping and shooting. These columns are featured in our monthly TacticaList newsletter. Check out our most recent issue and let us know what you think! Click here to subscribe to the TacticaList.
Hunting season is all too brief for most of us, but the memories of big bulls and bucks bested are among our most treasured. Dropping a big game animal in his tracks (Dropped ‘em Right There, or DRT), has been a very unusual thing for most of my hunting career.
My hunting diary tallies more than 100 big game animals I have either taken myself or served as the guide. Watching “outdoor” channels, I marveled at the percentage of DRT shots on the video hunts. Knowing from my law enforcement terminal ballistics research in the early ‘90’s that instant stops can only come from a disruption of the central nervous system (CNS), I wondered how they were dropping big beasts so cleanly.
Using my DVR to scroll through those hunt scenes frame-by-frame, I realized the TV hunters were using a high shoulder shot, which transmits bullet “shock” directly to the animal’s spine. With a proper high shoulder shot, the animal’s rear legs snap violently upward, allowing gravity to pull the rest of body instantly down, often without even a twitch.
Of course an ethical hunter will stay on target for a while to make sure they weren’t just shocked off their feet, only to jump up and run off a short time later.
The Effects of a Behind-the-Shoulder Shot
I was taught to aim just behind the shoulder on a broadside shot, about one-quarter to one-third of the way up from the brisket. That shot will severely damage the heart, major arterial plumbing, and lungs.
A hit there from a bullet which gives good expansion and adequate penetration will kill a trophy with certainty, though you can expect a tracking job. Especially with a heart shot, the animal will generally launch itself at maximum speed in whatever direction it is pointing, piling up some seconds and many yards later when its brain runs out of oxygen.
The first time I tried a high shoulder shot was for a follow-up shot on my toughest kill thus far. On the last day of the season, my guide put me on a huge Wyoming moose at the head of the Sweetwater River. The laser ranged the distance at 467 yards, with no way to get closer across the canyon.
From a solid rest, I stuck a .338 Winchester bullet into the classic heart/lung spot. Moose tend to be almost shock-proof, so the bull merely took one step and was wobbling a bit. Since one good jump would put the beast into a jumble of downed timber atop an almost bottomless bog, I really needed to anchor the bull where he stood. Moving the 450 yard aiming point in my Leupold Boone & Crockett reticle to a spot high on the moose’s right shoulder, I broke the shot clean and dumped him.
A Clean and Ethical Kill
Even without the moose getting into the bog, it took all of that day to cape and quarter the record-book bull and all the following day to pack it out on mules. I have since used the high shoulder shot whenever an animal’s position allowed and every one either dropped instantly or, in the case of a bedded pronghorn buck at 400 yards, simply fell backwards in his bed with nary a kick.
With today’s hyper-accurate rifles and laser rangefinder technology, we can make ethical kills at much greater distances than the old days of Kentucky windage and Tennessee holdover.
Computer-generated adjustment dials on scopes make trajectory compensation a breeze, except where the target is significantly above or below your elevation. When shooting either uphill or downhill, your bullet will drop less than what the computer calculates for level, making the high shoulder shot the most ethical way to take a long range shot.
If you fudge your calculation of the elevation angle, your bullet will go high, resulting in a clean miss. A low shot caused by distance miscalculation with a heart/lung hold will often break a front leg, and even the biggest quadruped can run surprisingly fast and far on three legs.
So, consider the high shoulder shot whenever you have a stationary broadside or quartering-to-you shot. Pick an aiming point directly in line with the front leg about one-third of the way below the animal’s back. True, the shoulder shot will spoil a bit more meat, but I’ll trade that any day for a clean kill and no tracking job.
