Author Topic: This groundhog almost got away (pics) (Read 963 times)

Feez · « **on:** April 08, 2005, 01:03:58 PM »

Just thought I'd share a tidbit from today's farming.
.204 Ruger, 32 grain, distance - 15 yards.
When it went bang I thought it missed because of the ominous white rock dust cloud. But the first pic is exactly how I found him.

This pic shows his barely grazed skull cap. The bone was still intact, yet he was stone dead. (pun intended)
Another eighth inch high and HE would be telling the story.

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trotterlg · « **Reply #1 on:** April 08, 2005, 06:31:27 PM »

Thats what you get at 4,200fps. Like they tell you in High School, speed kills. Larry

JohnClif · « **Reply #2 on:** April 08, 2005, 08:10:53 PM »

Well, the second picture shows blood in the nostrils, so the impact must have been enough to scramble his brains a little. I wonder if the impact against the flesh on the top of his skull actually crushed his head in a little bit, and the broken bone is beyond the actual open wound. Or, maybe one of those chunks of rock came back and smacked him hard enough to fracture his skull. Maybe you did miss him and a chunk of that rock is actually what killed him.

Stuff like this makes me wish that someone could have take this critter in and give him an MRI to see exactly what the damage was. That would increase our knowledge of killing and wounding mechanisms of gunshot wounds.

If he's still there, how about going back and removing his head and boiling it so we can see what the skull looks like? Or just skinning enough of his head down to the skull to see if his skull is fractured?

hardertr · « **Reply #3 on:** April 08, 2005, 09:21:07 PM »

Seems pretty obvious to me:
You over-shot...scared the poor critter half to death....he hit his head on the rock as he tried to get back down in his hole :grin:

Feez · « **Reply #4 on:** April 09, 2005, 02:57:05 AM »

JohnClif,
You think like me! I have done driveway autopsies before. :wink: And the theories you bring up did go through my mind.
The cut in his head was a straight slit in the direction of bullet travel. I pulled it open feeling for broken bone. I'm pretty sure he was grazed by the bullet. I think a decent head trauma could make the nose bleed without breaking the skull, but I don't rule out a cracked skull somewhere around the wound.

Here's the kicker, I sprained my freaken ankle a couple hours later. The thought of going back for him was the last thing on my mind. It's all swollen now, it looks like it will be weeks. But I will keep it in mind, maybe bugs will do the autopsy for us.

JohnClif · « **Reply #5 on:** April 10, 2005, 06:52:13 PM »

Thinking further about this...

That groundhog might have been killed by, for lack of a better phrase, a massive punch to the head. Even if the bullet didn't fracture the skull, the temporary cavity caused by the displacement of the moisture-laden tissue might have had the same effect as a very hard punch. If that groundhog's head was accelerated downward rapidly enough, the brain's inertia would have caused it to be slammed against the top of the skull. That could have caused massive brain damage and even caused enough damage to the cranial cavity so that a breach occurred between it and the critter's sinuses... hence the blood in the nostrils. Perhaps his head snapped down hard enough, and fast enough, to bounce back off the ground... which would compound the brain scrambling, and maybe even cause a bloody nose if his nose hit the ground.

In other words, that groundhog might died from the same thing that kills some boxers in the ring.