Author Topic: Tough Critters...... (Read 1672 times)

Mohawk · « **on:** September 19, 2004, 08:21:21 PM »

Is it just me or are some smaller, and bigger, animals just plain tough! I took out a troublsome possum with my duty revolver while working on our deer stands and it took 4 good hits to finish him. :shock: Four, well placed, .38 Special 158gr. SWC's. The first one, technically, put him down but he was still alive but severely wounded. After the fourth shot he finally rolled and died. I've heard of squirrel taking some great quanities of lead also. My buddy harvested a swamp rabbit during our last hog hunt and after the 4th .45 acp Hydrashok it finally died :eek: . Ok, lets here ya'lls stories!!!!

Questor · « **Reply #1 on:** September 20, 2004, 04:04:10 AM »

All but two of my "toughest critter" stories have in common the use of the 45ACP. I have shot a number of ground hogs and one racoon with 200 grain 45ACP semi-wadcutters at 800fps (i.e., target loads). Results have been terrible. It's amazing how long an animal can live after receiving a large caliber well placed shot.

Mikey · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2004, 05:39:35 AM »

One of my most difficult to finish critters was a red squirrel. My buddy and I were out small gaming one January and I spotted this little guy hustling through the bushes. He hit the near end of a frozen pond and I sent him all the way across with a load of #4 shot. He turns back and keeps coming, right into the 2nd load, which sent him spinning back across the ice. Even that didn't stop him, so he collected #s3 and 4 and wouldya believe I had to administer the coup de grace with a 45.

I also remember a gray squirrel who took a shot from a 30-30 Contender, dropped to the ground and charged the shooter who couldn't reload in time, dropped his Contender and ran for it. I'm tellin ya, the rest of us just dropped to the ground in fits of laughter. We had advised him not to shoot but he was a nummy and took the shot. The squirrel finally broke off the chase but not befor nummy went face down into the mud. LOL. Mikey.

Mohawk · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2004, 05:40:27 AM »

I've even had two cottontails take .38 +P Lead Hollow Points through both lungs, blowing out meat and fur. They gainfully hopped away never to be found. :?

maggot · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2004, 06:21:05 AM »

How about 9 shots from a 25acp on a cat.no lie

Mohawk · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2004, 07:24:09 AM »

I have heard of a cat taking four .40 S&W's and not phasing him.

CJ · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2004, 07:43:39 AM »

In the late 70s a Gunshop owner I know had a cat get in the shop. Caught it, it proceeded to shred up his arm so he dropped it. Decided we were gonna take no prisoners. He carried a .38 spec loaded with the old origanal Hydra Shoks. {before federal} 4 good body shots with them and a lot of cat screams later I got a Ruger SSix and some Stingers and got one in its head for a finisher. He upgraded to a .357 after that incident.

Mohawk · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2004, 08:01:11 AM »

That's just it....I shot a possum with a .357 and it did not really do much more than the .38. Took one shot but didn't die much quicker. Those critters amaze me.

joeb40-65 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 23, 2004, 05:58:22 AM »

Once while calling coyotes, had a badger come in, didn't see him til he got pretty close, brother opened up on him with a ruger super blackhawk 44. All his loads were beyond hot, and he emptied the gun, hit the badger with all 6, badger was still ticking, finished him off with a 22-250. At each hit with the 44, the badger would be flattened, only to jump back up, and continue in to what he just knew was an easy meal. When it was all over, examined the carcass, was just a bloody rag.

Smokem · « **Reply #9 on:** September 23, 2004, 06:29:43 AM »

Headshots...headshots. If you don't get'm in the head they will continue to move. Really most animals are dead and they just don't know it.

squirrel_hunter6 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 23, 2004, 06:41:14 AM »

I saw a guy shoot a possum with a load of 00 buckshot and the thing still kept running. The possum couldn't take the second load though! :-D :-D :-D

rickyp · « **Reply #11 on:** September 23, 2004, 07:49:31 AM »

I have killed several opossums with 22 CeBees all with a single shot.

I have had a little doe that I hit with a ruger old army the shot took out her spine she started to crawl away I walked up to her and from about 2 feet put a shot right between her eyes she flopped over with a lot of blood and brains coming from the hole. I took her off to be field dressed when I went to open her up she kicked at me. I then cut her trought and let her lay there for 10 minutes and tried to open her up again and she stilled tried to kick me though very slowly.

patrick_sween · « **Reply #12 on:** September 23, 2004, 11:42:46 AM »

Hit one three times in the chest with 140gn XTPs out of 6" S&W .357 before he gave up. This at a range of about 6 feet, so shot placement was pretty good! I'm sure the first one would have done him in eventually, but I didn't feel like waiting for it.

Patrick

garzaglass · « **Reply #13 on:** September 24, 2004, 04:12:47 AM »

I shot one with my ar-15 223 hollow point bullet at about 20 yards. I hit his mid section and it blew him in half. he was still hissing at me and trying to crawl away with his front half. I knew the next one had to be to the head.

mr.frosty · « **Reply #14 on:** September 24, 2004, 03:28:55 PM »

ok my turn
japanese hornet with a 16 gauge killed the dogwood tree bee flew away
squirell off a fence post with a 30/06 found a tail
grouse taken with a 30/30 found a few feathers
and this just made me laugh till i cried:
a man i work with ,while he was hunting in minnesota, claims he shot
a grouse with a 338 win mag says he shot under the bird so he could
save some of the meat all he got was a small black spot in the snow

mudriver · « **Reply #15 on:** September 25, 2004, 03:41:52 PM »

While in the Army I had to 'dispose' of two donkeys because of disease in an unamed country. Killed the first one with one .45 to the head. Proceeded to empty two full clips of .45 into the head of the second with little apparent effect (point blank range). It wouldn't even fall down. Finally used my Tanto to finish it off - tough critter indeed.

sreding · « **Reply #16 on:** September 28, 2004, 06:19:01 AM »

A couple weeks ago when my buddy and I were scouting deer we caught a porky pine on the ground. Since the kill a ton of pine trees we take em out. This one took 5 .357 loads at point blank range and about 6 .22 LR rounds before it stopped crawling. My buddy proceeded to finish the clip of .22s just to make sure.

sreding

Cabin4 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 28, 2004, 06:34:04 AM »

It's not all that complicated. If you hit the heart or brain, its almost instant death. If you hit any other area, it likly wait till it bleeds to death and or sufficate in the case of a lung shot. A spine shot takes on differant results.

512 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 28, 2004, 07:44:05 AM »

how about the other side of the coin?
last year 2 of us witnessed my 14yr. old daughter kill a big mule deer buck with her 45 colt. range was 50yd. exactly. 2 shots, 1 just behind the shoulder and 1 at about 45 degrees in same place. both exited. #2 traveled quite a bit further as it came out in front of offside shoulder.
the deer went less than 50 yd from where it was first hit and fell dead in mid stride.
the load?
a 265gr. keith from mount baldy bullets at a cronographed 700 fps!!!!!
this year her load is making 875 fps. it will be used on antelope and deer.

512

garzaglass · « **Reply #19 on:** September 30, 2004, 09:32:31 AM »

cabin4,
I have seen a whitetail run over 50 yards from where its heart and lungs blew out on a tree after being shot with a 300 winmag. The only gauranteed down shot I have seen is a spine shot.

JC · « **Reply #20 on:** November 17, 2004, 09:54:40 AM »

On a varmint hunt in the Abilene, TX area a few years ago my brother and brother inlaw were vermint hunting while I used the call. They were using 22mags. We had the land owner spotlight for us. I had my 300 mag in case the varmints were hoofs and curled tusks. My brother and brother in law wen to the back of the truck while myself and the owner where at the front. We saw a pair of eyes and they could not get a shot. I shot a big ole coon at 85 yards with a 190 hornady at 2950. Hit just at the base of his neck and ripped his guts out. He screamed and spun down the side of a hill. Also took my brother in my truck to retrieve a doe he had downed. When we approached it jumped up with no heart and started to walk off. My brother THEN informs me he had no ammo in his rifle. I finished it off with a 230 grain hydro-shock to the skull at about 15 yards. It finally died.

S.B. · « **Reply #21 on:** November 18, 2004, 04:36:41 PM »

Personally, I've never had any trouble killing squirrels with one round of CCI stingers from my K22. Rabbits always seemed easy to kill for me. Opposums, I don't have much experiences with, sorry. Shot placement seems to be the biggest factor in my being able to keep animals down for the count. My older brothers all carried .22LR pistols for coon, and though the coon seldom died from the shot, it came tumbleing out of the tree to the hounds. I don't think heart or head shot nessisarily mean that the animal will die imeadiately. If you want split second death, go for central nevous system interruption.

TCShooter · « **Reply #22 on:** November 18, 2004, 04:45:19 PM »

Quote from: Mohawk

I have heard of a cat taking four .40 S&W's and not phasing him.

I had a pesky cat that needed to go and it took one .22lr to the head. Dropped like a rag doll and it didn't even twitch.

S.S. · « **Reply #23 on:** November 20, 2004, 02:04:37 PM »

I have heard this as a scientific explanation before,
It kinda made sense to me.
Unless the brain is hit on a small brained critter,
it seems to take them a long time to die simply
because the brain does not process that the body
has received a lethal wound very quickly.
The body is essentially dead, the brain just don't know it.