Thread: Between eyes or ears

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

general rule front shots are crap , heads are tilted to all sorts of angles , rifles sighted to different ranges so unless this is something you are confident with side shots or 12g ...some reason people think there is going to be a great mess with a 12g well this is not true can pretty much stick a barrel to a head & big hole in the size of a 20c but nothing out ..12g is the go to on the home kill front , don't have to worry about a bullet poping out the other side etc etc

Never used one, but makes sense.

personally I prefer to fire forwards and downwards into pithing spot...slightly high still brain/slightly low still good neck shot, but from front on above eyes, the x39 will work well it does even with subsonics....use softest/best expanding, load you have.

Lots of good advice in this thread.
12 ga works well,bit more margin of error if things don't go quite right. Heard of a homekill butcher on the Coast who uses a 12 with buckshot. Seen another homekill guy use a .22 with success on steers and I seen it go wrong too!
7.62x39 with softpoints would be fine.

When I was very young I saw my Aunty go into a run, hand feed a small pig, then flip it over, stick it and let it go, it got about 3 circuits of the enclosure before running out of blood! Left me badly traumatised, but hardened me up make sure your kids ain't watching, or make sure they have ear protection at the very least!!

Watched my brother attempt to shoot a steer with the .22 one day... it went through the rails of the yards, 150 metres down into the middle of the swamp, stood there with blood dripping from its nose... And that my friend is why I use the .223 on anything bigger than a lamb

I've shot thousands of animals, my advice is the the probablility of something going wrong is directly proportional to the number of people watching, with triple points for the owner of the animal...

Pigs and horses are fairly similar. X between eyes and ears front on, in the ear if side on. people stuff up by shooting to low and goes into the top of the nose. I usually use 22mag for all our pigs we kill here, but further than 30m away use a 223 or something.

Yeah much better to use something big and certain just like a home kill guy did several years ago up my way. I think it was 7mm which went thru the animal and then into his young assistant.

When we raised goats I put a few down with the 22 by shooting them in the lower part of the back of the head angling up into the skull. Seemed humane enough but of course the poor goats were easy targets.

Also remember my dad saying how he shot a bailed pig with a revolver jammed into the pigs ear.

I'm with @Boaraxa 12gauge with slugs or buffalo shot. Too many animals sense you pulling the trigger and move half an inch.

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

Simple answer is 12G they are great for that stuff N04 or less ,buck or slug iv shot many things no one wants to shoot but someone has to do it rabbits to horses , 12g is solid ..22 unless you are putting barrel to head side shots below the ear, any cal above that it wont matter to much.

Agree with Boaraxa
Have used 12g on cattle is the way to go.
When close spread is nothing to speak of.

Done shit tons for my mum, .22 cross from eyes to ears. Had only one fuck up when it moved all of a sudden. As said not nice but being domestic the chase and stick wasnt too bad

Thanks Muzza sounds like what we will be doing. It's a big old Kune