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Depends, of course, on where you manage to sever the spine - generally if it's up in or near the neck it will kill pretty quickly. Further back, not so much.
OP, your shot was fair to good, but not great. A lot of times shooting at feral hogs or "Russian" boars, they are moving in cover and you don't have the chance to aim so precisely. Hogs are tough and can take a lot of shooting.
I mean, try to get a cleaner shot next time, but it's not like you gut-shot the hog or anything like that.
The shot is right on the other side of the should blade opposite the neck, just below the shoulder blades. It did drop immediately. It flailed its legs and arms for a few seconds only. Do you think it died slowly and painfully? I am hoping that it did not. I was not aiming for that spot, but I guess the recoil caused it.
Dude from what you write you got a pretty clean kill. If the hog only thrashed around a few seconds and then was still, that's pretty much what a clean kill looks like, as far as I know.
You might want to do some "practical" rifle shooting if you can find this sport around where you live. Too many guys only shoot the centerfire from the bench, which is usually not much like an actual hunting shot. More practice shooting from offhand position. If you can arrange it moving targets. Some of this can be with an air rifle or .22 (assuming you can find any .22 ammo!)
It's commendable that you are not satisfied with a shot that didn't hit where you intended, but I think you are obsessing over something that really turned out OK.
BTW what rifle and caliber did you use here? Hogs are tough and a tough bullet is a good idea, a Nosler is an old standby, but there are all sorts of premium bullets out there to handload. In popular calibers you can find them factory loaded, too, in various premium ammo lines.
The best way to answer the question you are probably really asking (where should I aim on the animal?) is that you should not specifically aim for the spine. Aim for the chest just behind the shoulder. The chest (thorax) is the single largest vital target on the animal by a large margin. It contains the lungs, heart, and major blood vessels. Disrupting any of these to a significant degree will cause rapid fatal blood loss and stop the animal pretty quickly. A single shot with a suitable rifle, handgun, or shotgun slug with a reasonable bullet and range will usually kill the animal in short order.
Hitting the spine will paralyze the animal. Essentially the animal will be paralyzed beyond where the bullet struck. The spine is a small target and unless you hit it right behind the skull to paralyze the diaphragm, it will still very much be alive. You would be much better off trying for a head shot if you want a shot that will drop an animal in its tracks as the head is much more lethal and a larger target. However the head is still a much, much smaller target than the chest and considerably less forgiving if your shot does not land directly on target. Do the animal and yourself a favor and use a rifle powerful enough for a chest shot. It doesn't take an extremely hard-kicking rifle to do so until you start to talk about going to Africa. As one famous gun writer put it, deer aren't too tough and can be knocked over with little more than bad breath. A .257 Roberts, .260 Remington, or .30-30 will kill a deer or black bear easily with a chest shot and minimal recoil. Use one and aim for the chest, then go and collect your venison
Somebody brought up people and spinal injuries above. That's much closer to home as I work in a hospital and unfortunately see that happen. Disrupting the spinal cord at C3 or above is fairly quickly fatal as you paralyze the diaphragm- "C3-4-5 keeps the diaphragm alive" as the mnemonic goes. They very likely know they are suffocating as the brain would continue to work for a few minutes prior to the injury before shutting down from hypoxia. I am judging this based on people who are paralyzed with a general paralytic such as succinylcholine/vecuronicum/rocuronium prior to being intubated for general anesthesia for an operation feeling an overwhelming feeling of fear from suffocation if anesthesia forgets to give them a sedative before the paralytic. If you want to see what gets knocked out when a spinal cord injury happens at a certain location, look up "spinal nerve innervation map" on your favorite search engine. I have seen people get shot and pretty well universally people who take an expanding type .243+ caliber rifle bullet, 20 gauge or larger shotgun slug, or a .357 magnum or more powerful handgun bullet to the chest comes to us DOA. Shot loads are notoriously variable but larger shot and closer ranges are better associated with being fatal. FMJ handgun bullets and .22s need to generally directly hit something vital like penetrate a heart chamber, aorta, IVC, or cross the midline in the skull to kill. Dr. Martin A. Fackler did a bunch of research on human ballistic injury in the 1980s and 1990s and his work is really the most definitive in the field. You can look him up on the PubMed.gov medical journal database if you are particularly interested in the topic of firearm lethality.
Last edited by Flyover_Country; 09-07-2013 at 09:54 PM..
Dude from what you write you got a pretty clean kill. If the hog only thrashed around a few seconds and then was still, that's pretty much what a clean kill looks like, as far as I know.
You might want to do some "practical" rifle shooting if you can find this sport around where you live. Too many guys only shoot the centerfire from the bench, which is usually not much like an actual hunting shot. More practice shooting from offhand position. If you can arrange it moving targets. Some of this can be with an air rifle or .22 (assuming you can find any .22 ammo!)
It's commendable that you are not satisfied with a shot that didn't hit where you intended, but I think you are obsessing over something that really turned out OK.
BTW what rifle and caliber did you use here? Hogs are tough and a tough bullet is a good idea, a Nosler is an old standby, but there are all sorts of premium bullets out there to handload. In popular calibers you can find them factory loaded, too, in various premium ammo lines.
I used a savage 25-70 I believe. I rented the gun from the outfitter. It thrashed for a few seconds. Then I walked up to it. I am afraid it was just lying there paralyzed but still alive, and thinking "oh crap a pig's life is tough oh well this kinda hurts" I dont like to hurt animals. I want to as ethical as a hunter as I can be.
With all due respect....."I want to as ethical as a hunter as I can be." - would mean that you would have studied where to best aim PRIOR to going hunting.
Not busting on you, but dude if you're going to claim to want "clean kills", then you should know what they are BEFORE pulling the trigger.
With all due respect....."I want to as ethical as a hunter as I can be." - would mean that you would have studied where to best aim PRIOR to going hunting.
Not busting on you, but dude if you're going to claim to want "clean kills", then you should know what they are BEFORE pulling the trigger.
I know where to aim. I did pick a good target, but my shot did not end exactly where I wanted it to. I just want to know if I still hit a good spot.
But if you do manage to severe the spinal cord, does the animal take a long time to die or is it a quick death? Of course it will paralyze the animal, but does paralysis always get accompanied by excruciating pain? That is not what I am was going for. I wanted to end it very quickly with zero to minimal pain to the animal.
If you are using a high powered rifle with a well constructed bullet the energy kills it in an instant if you have made a good shot.
Not my Normal Target I've only intentionally shot it once to bring down a Deer facing just down from me, I shot it between the Shoulder Blades with a Crossbow.
A Hog would be harder considering their Spine sets so low.
Usually I shoot for the Heart Lungs, years ago I shot for the Head, Neck area.
Years ago I shot a Ram running away from me, hit its Spine. Finally get to it, it was still breathing. I was going to shoot it again in the Lungs, Guy with me said no it would die by the time our Guide got to us. I just couldn't do this so finished it off with shot to the Lungs.
brushrunner
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