I have a question for you experienced guys.
When do you take a second shot at a downed animal?
Here is something that happened last weekend when I shot a hog.
I shot a 171lb. sow in the head with my .308 rifle. From my ladder stand I aimed at the ear expecting the bullet to enter the brain and come out the other side somewhere near the base of the head. I expected the hog to drop on the spot. When I shot the hog dropped on the spot on her side. However, instead of the occasional twitching leg or legs she was shaking her head side to side. She kept moving her head like that for about 40 seconds but did not make any noise. In the meantime I looked through my rifle scope and I could see that her chest was not moving up and down like I would expect if she was breathing. It was only her head that was moving. I was aiming to shoot her head again when I hear my wife and son calling out to me so I put the rifle down and came down. I approched the sow with my sidearm a minute or two later and she had stopped moving.
If you were in my shoe in that stand would you have shot her again? Was that sow really alive or was her head movement just a primitive nerve reaction to the shock like legs twitching? While cleaning the sow I found that the bullet had entered just below the ear and exited on the off side behind the jaw. I would think that was an immediately killing shot.
When do you take a second shot at a downed animal?
I would have jut to assure it was not suffering or gonna attempt to run off
When in doubt, shoot again
The main reason I didn't shoot was that her chest was not moving up and down.
I would have expected her chest to move if she was still alive and breathing.
I figured he head was moving just because of nerve reaction despite being dead.
If I thought she was still alive I would have continued to shoot her as I would not have wanted any animal to suffer.
Never hurts to make sure
