Shot To The Heart

[Bicholui]

Why in the world, when you hit to your game right in the heart it falls on its hind-quarters first?

 

[Kiwi505]

not all game dose that

 

[monish]

Bicholui,

My friend , its not always the case, when its a good heart shot, the nervous system gives away instantaneously and so the blood supply is severed & the hind quarters being on the heavier side tends to collapse first. But I have seen animals like cape buffs, & zebra, even after taking loads of lead do trot away for couple of miles.

Monish

 

[Bicholui]

Monish:

My Shikari friend, I did not have the honor to hunt a cape buffalo yet. But it has happened to me with other plain game and american big game and I have seen on video with the BIG5, that when the ambush is perfect and you got your quarry calm, unaware, distracted, without that rush of adrenaline in its body, and your shot placement is also perfect, to the heart or to the brain…. it drops just there and usually it falls on its hind-quarters first.

And I wondered....why they did not fall from the front-quarter or on 4-legs at the same time. It is just a biological curiosity.

Regards.

Bicho

 

[dwerner]

I am just guessing. It must have to do with the nervous system that the back collapses first. It could also be that a heart shot reacts like a major heart attack which jerks the animal backwards. But I have also seen many heart-shot animals that take off at full speed just to collapse about 100m later.

 

[Bicholui]

Thanks for your comments!
A veterinarian told me last week: - “what you saw was not a heart shot, was a spine or some sort of vertebral shot”, which makes sense.

 

[ECHIV]

Why in the world, when you hit to your game right in the heart it falls on its hind-quarters first?

I have heart shot several different animals and seen a variety of reactions. One wyoming pronghorn dropped in it's tracks years ago while another in the same herd ran in a big circle before succumbing. An 8 Ft Alaskan Brown bear shot through the heart became quite perturbed at the notion and required a second shot in the spine to keep her anchored. A Texas Whitetail shot in the heart jumped straight up and was dead when it touched back down after a heart shot. I don't know why they reacted so differently. After the Bear I understood why other guides always advised breaking a shoulder or leg to keep them from scratching you up.
ECHIV

 

[vgruan]

Personally I love it when the back quarter goes down first! That usually indicates that the animal is not getting up again. But with African game you always have to be sure as it is the dead animal that kills you!

Regards,

 

[davidarizpe]

spine shot

in my experience when I had shot ungulates in the spine most of the time they bend the four legs at the same time almost, especially if the spine is broken at the shoulder junction, but have never seen a head first drop.

 

[ArmyGrunt]

I got my hartebeest with a perfect heart shot, as evidenced by the missing top chambers, and he got two bounds before falling down. At the cleaning shed I got to hold the heart. It was amazing. A half inch or less lower, and he'd have been missing the entire pump!

 

[JimP]

The kudu in my avatar was a heart shot and he staggered around for 20 or so seconds before he went down head first. When he was cleaned the trackers held up the lungs for me to see what was left of the heart, nothing but threads of meat were left. If you didn't know that it was his heart you would never know.

 

[S.W. Smith]

Why in the world, when you hit to your game right in the heart it falls on its hind-quarters first?

Because you give love a bad name.

 

[Mekaniks]

I shot an Antelope in the heart and it went down back end first, still scratching forward with its front legs for a few seconds.
I shot a deer in the heart and it turned and ran directly at me, went about 15-20 yards and piled up.
I shot a black bear in the front shoulder and the bullet hit off the opus ute shoulder and went back full length of the bear taking the top off the heart and turning the insides to jello. The bear still went 50yards uphill through heavy alders and devils club at mach 2 before it piled up.
I guess you never really know for sure how a heart shot critter will react but at the end of the day they don't live without a heart for long.

 

[Bert the Turtle]

My son shot a whitetail in the heart. It ran like a bat out of hell straight into a tree, knocked itself out, and bled out before it came to.

 

[CAustin]

I shot a blue wildebeest in the heart and shredded it but that big boy still ran! I shot my Gemsbock face on in the chest with a 300 win mag, and the animal sat down on his hind end. I thought it was just the force of the round passing through the length of his body. However, there was a hole in his heart. So maybe that's why he sat down like he did.

 

[Scott Slough]

Shot lots of animals in the heart and never got the rear first drop ... I have also have shot lots of animals with a "high shoulder" shot ... all of which dropped instantly ... some rear first drops. The high shoulder shot is VERY hard on the spine on most animals and results in the instantaneous kill. I haven't done a post mortem of all of those animals but I ASSUME ...like the other posters that it was a broken spine!

 

[vinnymbogo]

I'm guessing that some of the animal's reaction to the bullet will depend upon which chambers are affected and if those chambers are in systole or diastole cycles. (contracted and empty or relaxed and filling). Undoubtedly there is a great deal more hydrostatic shock when the bullet shreds a filled chamber(s).

 

[Eddie P]

I'm guessing that some of the animal's reaction to the bullet will depend upon which chambers are affected and if those chambers are in systole or diastole cycles. (contracted and empty or relaxed and filling). Undoubtedly there is a great deal more hydrostatic shock when the bullet shreds a filled chamber(s).

Interesting idea. That shock should follow the greater vessels to the spine too.

 

[CAustin]

My eland took this 300 WinMag in the heart and he stumbled backwards and almost sat down. He regained his footing took a couple of steps forward and I shot him in the liver....Luther he went down. Obviously he was dead on his feet and he didn't know it.

 

[ArmyGrunt]

Ew! Blood! I'm offended! Hahaha


But, naw, that's a good shot