[050]

As much as I hate to say it, I think that a big portion of shooters don't really have the FOGGIEST idea of where the "vital" areas really are on most animals.

If one spends a bit of time looking at, for instance, advertising pictures for scopes showing the crosshairs on a big beautiful buck. Nine out of ten times, the crosshairs are nowhere near the X ring on that animal. I'd guess that a whole lot of hunters are just as badly mistaken as to where that area is. In most (by far) of those pictures, the shot would probably be a lung shot, but in reality, it would be NO WHERE NEAR the heart. The heart does NOT sit dead on the middle of the chest/lung area. Once people understand just where the heart lies in that animals chest, they would start getting a lot better results, and wouldn't have to watch a lot of animals run around while they are bleeding out.

Reliance on going to a bigger, more powerful gun to inflict massive damage is NOT the answer. Spending a little time understanding how animals are built would be time well invested.

(BTW.... It took all the restraint I had NOT to type that whole thing in caps!!!!!!!)
Ron

 

[050]

Something to consider. The ribs on a coyote are, in all probablity, not more than 3/8ths of an inch thick. the heart sits within the soft, pulpy mass of lungs and the bullet only needs to punch through two or three inches of this soft mass, to get there.

The question isn't whether a 22 Long Rifle can kill a coyote. The question is, can you hit the target?

Ron

 

[050]

Perferator...

You can take almost any four legged animal and when standing perfectly broadside to you, draw an imaginary line straight up the back edge of it's front leg. then, where that line goes up the chest, mentally divide it into thirds. Where the bottom line, (one third of the distance up the chest) intersects the imaginary line you drew up the back of its leg is almost positively a heart shot.

Another way to look at it is on the animals elbow, which is just a pointed joint on the back edge of it's leg, shortly up in the body, is a good reference point. If you can drive a bullet into the chest right at the tip of the animals elbow, you'll get your heart shot. (If you are going to err, do it on the high rather than the low side. Hit too low and all you have is a nasty chest wound. hit high however, and you still score a double lung shot.

Hope that wasn't too confusing. I spoze I could draw a picture. In fact, I will. This is kind of crude, but should get the point across.