The oblique shooting angles (probably the most common cause of misses).
The top box above is when the animal is standing at an angle to the bullet’s path.
The bottom box is when the animal is standing completely perpendicular to the bullet’s path – i.e. with its side facing the hunter.
This illustration points out, that when the animal is facing diagonally towards, or diagonally away from, the important trajectory of the bullet (pullet path) through the animal can often be different than the hunter thought.
Of course, you don’t shoot at this red deer because there is no bullet catcher behind it – but if there was: At what angle is the animal’s side- surface in relation to your bullets trajectory?
The blue arrow in the illustration is where you should aim on the animal’s outer surface – and the red arrow is where you might think your bullet trajectory through the animal will be correct, hitting the desired target (the black dot) in the middle of the animal, standing 30 cm off-center from the perpendicular to your bullet path.
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Often when you turn around the shot animal, you are amazed at how oblique the animal actually stood.
The chance of the animal standing in a completely clean side shot is 2:180 – and of all the deer I have shot, only 5% have stood completely perpendicular to the bullet trajectory.
I am convinced that it is precisely these oblique shooting angles that cause the vast majority of misses, and wounded animals.
If you look at an intended clean heart hit, where the maximum hit circle you must hit within has a diameter of approx. 6-7 cm, to deliver a clean and effective heart bullet – you can see from the illustration above:
* that the bullet trajectory (bullet path) can easily give a grazing shot in the heart, and even hit right next to the heart (at the 40 mm deviation shown, red line) – and thus only one lung is hit in the lower, decreasing part. – And if this happens behind the heart (when the animal is facing you diagonally) it is a malignant stomach bullet.
And who among us can say for sure, where the center of the heart is located on an animal – which becomes more and more difficult, the more oblique the animal is standing in relation to your bullet trajectory (bullet path)?
A stray shot to the heart should be seen in the context that even with a completely broken heart, a deer can easily escape 50-60 meters.
The above should prove that the most unsafe and unethical shot you can offer an animal, within the “vital” hit areas, is the heart bullet.
When it comes to the CNS- bullet, the problem of skewed shot angles is not present, as the primary CNS hit area is fairly horizontal and the safety area laterally is relatively very long (and large) – as can be seen from this photo:
In the photo above, you can see that all hits within the shaded areas are fatal hits, and in over 70% of the total shaded black and purple area, the animal will fall with a bang and unconscious.
And if you happen to “dive” (pull the trigger down) in firing – there is plenty of room for letal hits below the CNS hit area.When it comes to heart and lung bullets, one must be very careful to correct one’s line of sight in relation to how crooked the animal is in the horizontal plane.
This is because an intended heart bullet can easily become a grazing shot in the heart, or a heart-bypass (perhaps a stomach shot), and because an intended double lung bullet can easily become a single lung bullet, where the animal’s second lung can supply the animal with oxygen for a very long time.
Correction in horizontal side shot:
The longitudinal direction of the animal has the following deviation in relation to the perpendicular to the line of sight:
in cm.: 15 25 30 35
, move horizontal aiming point approx. mm.: 25 35 40 45
Correction for downward shot inclination:
You also need to pay attention to the inclination of the bullet trajectory when, for example, you are standing in a hunting tower and the animal is standing below your position – where it is important to aim sufficient high on the animal’s outer surface, so that the trajectory hits, for example, the heart, giving a double lung bullet or a CNS- bullet.
The closer the animal is to the hunter, and the higher the hunter is above the animal – the more you need to correct vertically upwards:
As a rough rule of thumb, you can count on the following:
You stand 3 meters above the animal, at a distance meters: 15 25 50 100
, then raise the aiming point approx. mm.: 25 15 8 4