This is a Vital Thread!

[Airgun Supremacy]

I started this thread on another forum a while back to (troll) discuss the efficacy of shots to the vitals.

I often take squirrels with a well placed shot to the vitals. There are some out there that believe that headshots are the only way to go.

I will start this thread on this forum with a squirrel I shot today. This was at 28 yards, perfect vitals shot behind the shoulder using a Sub-12fpe Daystate Revere in .177 & a KnockOut Slug mk2 in 10gr.

Yes, you read that right! Sub 12, shooting slugs, accurately enough to pest with!

It did run! All out, 3 yards, up a bush, & onto the roof of my workshop. It was then that it realized that it was dead & dropped down and into my trailer below.

 

[Luis Leon]

It’s understood if you’ve hunted or pest long enough that “head/brain” shots aren’t the only options. As long as you strike your target animal where it disrupts the CNS? Its all good… except for the critter, of course… Its “vital” that you strike some part of the CNS…

 

[Danman]

I started this thread on another forum a while back to (troll) discuss the efficacy of shots to the vitals.

I often take squirrels with a well placed shot to the vitals. There are some out there that believe that headshots are the only way to go.

I will start this thread on this forum with a squirrel I shot today. This was at 28 yards, perfect vitals shot behind the shoulder using a Sub-12fpe Daystate Revere in .177 & a KnockOut Slug mk2 in 10gr.

Yes, you read that right! Sub 12, shooting slugs, accurately enough to pest with!

It did run! All out, 3 yards, up a bush, & onto the roof of my workshop. It was then that it realized that it was dead & dropped down and into my trailer below.
View attachment 8541View attachment 8542View attachment 8543

I take body shots on squirrels 90% of the time as well to be honest. And usually they run as well...maybe 10Y (sometimes even up a tree part ways) and then collapse without a second shot needed. The pesky squirrels here rarely wait around for a head shot, (I've never baited them) and I shoot them usually at 30 to 75 Yards. Definitely a sub 12 gun if you retrieved the slug outta it! I shot a squirrel this summer that did some crazy antics, I wondered where I hit it but by the time I pulled the lever for another round he lost steam and dropped. Vital shot. Looks like they are after your black walnuts? My neighbor has tons of those trees as well...

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

I take body shots on squirrels 90% of the time as well to be honest. And usually they run as well...maybe 10Y (sometimes even up a tree part ways) and then collapse without a second shot needed. The pesky squirrels here rarely wait around for a head shot, (I've never baited them) and I shoot them usually at 30 to 75 Yards. Definitely a sub 12 gun if you retrieved the slug outta it! I shot a squirrel this summer that did some crazy antics, I wondered where I hit it but by the time I pulled the lever for another round he lost steam and dropped. Vital shot. Looks like they are after your black walnuts? My neighbor has tons of those trees as well...

They actually prefer the Pecans. It happened to fall where the Black Walnuts collected.

 

[Luis Leon]

They actually prefer the Pecans. It happened to fall where the Black Walnuts collected.

I have many black walnut trees on my property and a corresponding amount of squirrels… “Your” reference to “trolling” in your OP? Is just that… I believe that someone as “trolling” and knowledgeable as you has heard of the “Texas Heart Shot”… Take out the spine “back to front”… Many different ways to effectively kill animals… The “tone” of the title of your thread is strident…

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

I have many black walnut trees on my property and a corresponding amount of squirrels… “Your” reference to “trolling” in your OP? Is just that… I believe that someone as “trolling” and knowledgeable as you has heard of the “Texas Heart Shot”… Take out the spine “back to front”… Many different ways to effectively kill animals…

Yes, I an “familiar” with a THS, my reference to Trolling that people would get butt hurt when anyone would say that they offed a “customer” with a shot other than a headshot, anything but a headshot was neither acceptable nor effective.

 

[Luis Leon]

Yes, I an “familiar” with a THS, my reference to Trolling that people would get butt hurt when anyone would say that they offed a “customer” with a shot other than a headshot, anything but a headshot was neither acceptable nor effective.

You “simply” need to “define” what “you” mean by “vitals”…? It really isn’t complicated, disrupting the CNS is the goal. For me? I’ve gotten kills many different ways. Brain shots = DRT. Lung, shoulder shots? More movement than I prefer… From shooting many critters we understand that it doesn’t always go as expected…

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

You “simply” need to “define” what “you” mean by “vitals”…? It really isn’t complicated, disrupting the CNS is the goal. For me? I’ve gotten kills many different ways. Brain shots = DRT. Lung, shoulder shots? More movement than I prefer… From shooting many critters we understand that it doesn’t always go as expected…

I simply will not ! A shot to the Vitals is a well understood term in the “industry” Welcome to the Troll Train…..

 

[Luis Leon]

I simply will not ! A shot to the Vitals is a well understood term in the “industry” Welcome to the Troll Train…..

Hey at least you’re honest about…

 

[pan60]

I like head shot because of the challenge but I will take any shot I can get I wont hold out for a head shot but if its a option I will take it.
this guy at maybe 25 to 30 yards and all o could see what his head, I'll take it.

 

[pan60]

this guy stood his head up just as I squeezed the trigger so just a touch under the chin.

 

[Danman]

For me i guess it depends on the gun/distance and the critter. Starlings in the field - body shots work magic. Sparrows - body shot and usually they blow apart and it's quite graphic, 100% instant death. Squirrels - body shots as they simply do not stand still, ever. Got a coon at midnight last week and that was a head shot but yeah you need some power behind those shots. Skunks vitals for sure!! Lastly...rabbits always head shots, their heads are huge, they are not that fidgety, and if it's a good one for the fryer then I don't have to worry about lead.

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

Took this one today. It’s Pecan season, so they pretty much are all in the same place/distance.

28 yards. Daystate Revere .177 in Sub 12fpe. It jumped, ran down the tree, maybe one yard out and done.

As you can see, it was a perfectly placed shoulder shot. It cut across the chest to the distal side of the POI, and stopped subconsciously. Can’t ask for more expansion from a Sub-12, that’s pretty damn excellent.

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

This one thought it was a good idea to sit and eat a pecan on top of my pellet trap. Same distance and Sub-12 setup in .177, and a Polymag.

It literally got thrown back and done almost where it fell. I did retrieve the spent ammo, but didn’t dissect it to assess damage done. The pellet was again found diagonally across from above the shoulder where it hit.

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

Here’s a juvenile that I got earlier today. I had a choice of shot placement on this one, & went with a vitals shot. Right on the shoulder with the Sub-12, .177 Revere using a 8.44gr diabolo JSB.

It was sitting on the wood frame on the tree, about 1/2 way from the trunk to the left. This squirrel didn’t run or flop any further than a squirrel taken with a properly placed headshot.

 

[Airgun Supremacy]

Here is one of 3 vermin I got today, but of the 2 squirrels (the other was a chipmunk), it’s the one I took a vitals shot on.

Interestingly enough, this one was just a bit further, 33 yards to be exact. Same gun in Sub-12 .177cal. Furthermore, it was a complete pass through.

Where you see it laying, is only inches away from where it was sitting when I took my shot. Pretty much it was done almost instantly.

Another interesting occurrence was that a little bit later my son came to tell me about the hawk that was feasting on my kills in the backyard. It was a big one too!

 

[JimT66]

Here is one of 3 vermin I got today, but of the 2 squirrels (the other was a chipmunk), it’s the one I took a vitals shot on.

Interestingly enough, this one was just a bit further, 33 yards to be exact. Same gun in Sub-12 .177cal. Furthermore, it was a complete pass through.

Where you see it laying, is only inches away from where it was sitting when I took my shot. Pretty much it was done almost instantly.

Another interesting occurrence was that a little bit later my son came to tell me about the hawk that was feasting on my kills in the backyard. It was a big one too! View attachment 9316View attachment 9317View attachment 9318

A birds gotta eat too! I bet he appreciated the great meals, not expending the energy to hunt them down. Keep that up, and you will have a feathered pet.

 

[FL22]

30y
HW95N “Scarface”
.177
H&N Barracuda 8
Standing bracing
UTG 4-16X44





Under front left shoulder, ran 12-15’ dropped.

 

[FL22]

49y
Brocock Contour .22 S6 “green goblin”
Hawke 3-9X40
JSB 15.89
Standing bracing



Returning to the nest it made in my pump shed, vital shot but drt.

 

[Danman]

Got an absolute textbook kill on a squirrel this morning. Every Saturday morning I make breakfast, and with the bacon sizzling I had a quick peek out my windows for enemy activity. On my neighbors property, making its way here was a squirrel with a walnut in his mouth. I ran to the bedroom and grabbed the S510, slipped in the Hades 15.89gr pre-filled mag and slipped outside with just my socks on. The squirrel crossed the road, ran across the ditch and decided to 'plant' it in my front lawn as they often do. I sent a Hades 925ish fps, 30Y or so away. DRT while digging, not even a tail flick, Talk about caught in the act! Then I went back to tending breakfast my kids alerted me that a bird (Grackle) was attacking the dead squirrel...what a scene!
After breakfast I spent over a minute trying to find the entrance hole, and somehow it hit him in his back??
I cannot bring myself to aim for the head on squirrels, I always go for vital shots.