Worst shot turned out to be the best shot

Most cattle ranchers in Namibia hunt plains game for the meat and not for their trophies. So one aim is always to have the least damage to the meat which is why some farmers tend to shoot at the neck or head.

I was once accompanying a farmer who shot a kudu. The wounded kudu ran away and when we followed the tracks there was blood everywhere. On the ground, the grass was covered, and in the trees. The kudu did not make it far, about 100m. Upon inspection the bullet severed the main artery to the head as if it's throat was cut. The kudu was totally bled out.

But the funny part was that the farmer apparently aimed for the vital area behind the front leg and instead shot it in the neck. I must add that it was a quick free standing shot.

Hi,

On a slightly different note, once my Uncle told me a true story as a small child that he was out on a hunt in the Eastern Cape when he shot at a moutain reedbuck and the same shot went right through and hit a klipspringer stone dead ! 2 species one shot :-)

An older gentleman hunting moose on the same area as I do once by mistake shot a moose bull straight through the nose. I was called there to start tracking it with one of the dogs but it lay dead about 100 meters away. Apparently it had drowned in its own blood. Sometimes you are lucky!

Something happened with my brother, but with a blesbok and an impala. Both stone dead.

Just after the dinosaurs left, my dad and I were hunting antelope in Idaho. We kept jumping this same little bunch near a certain field. They consistently ran off the same way each time. The next time we got smart. My dad dropped me off near the escape route and he drove over to where they usually were. Sure enough the little herd ran right past me. I picked out the buck and fired. I was thrilled to see the buck laying right where I shot him. We went over to get him and found him stone-cold dead. The funny thing was that we couldn't see the bullet hole.

We gutted him out and again - no hole. It was right around then that we noticed the width of the horns kept changing. Apparently I had shot him in the head. Apart from being an excited 15 year-old I have no other excuse. I was shooting from a bipod in a sitting position. I tried to play it cool, and tell my dad that I did this on purpose. Ha! In retrospect, my shooting was really horrible in those days. Every once in a while it's better to be lucky than good.

My 9 year old son shot a blue wildebeest through the carotid artery with his 243. From the way it acted, we thought it was a good heart shot (which at 40-50 yards from a stand, it should have been!) As it slowed down and staggered to a fall, we noticed it was spraying blood everywhere. It went about 40 yards and dropped dead.

If I thought there was any way to do it reliably, I'd take it as a preferential shot. Just no possible way you could lose the animal: the blood trail wouldn't be much better if you used a paint roller to make it. It is really too bad that it is sheer luck to hit it.