550 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1921 
THE RIFLE SHOTS THAT COUNT 
WHERE TO HOLD ON A GAME ANIMAL SO THAT IT 
MAY BE KILLED IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME 
By F. E. BRIMMER 
S OME time ago I contributed an ar- 
ticle on the mechanics of accurate 
aiming in shooting game in which 
my sole consideration for the mo- 
ment was the subject of proper rifle hold- 
ing.* At that time there was used a 
photograph of a standing deer and 
against this diagram the various sights 
were placed to illustrate graphically 
the appearance of the sights when prop- 
erly adjusted. At once a noted hunter 
called attention to the fact that as the 
sights seemed to aim on the body of 
the buck the shot would be a lung punc- 
ture and so a very poor place to hit the 
animal. This has led me to the consider- 
ation of just where to hit a game animal 
in order to kill it and so reduce his wild 
nature to your possession with the quick- 
est possible dispatch. 
Possibly it would have been better 
had I pictured those rifle sights in the 
previous article exactly where the posi- 
tion of the animal’s heart was located, 
but this was not pri- 
marily my object in 
writing that story 
and I simply saw to 
it that the aim was 
toward the front 
shoulders of the big 
buck. 
But the sighting, 
which was some- 
what high for a 
heart shot, would 
h-ave been true 
enough to have 
killed the deer if the 
right kind of a rifle 
had been used. Five 
seasons ago I hap- 
pened to hit a speed- 
ing deer in just ex- 
actly that location 
and he went down 
at once from the 
blow of the bullet. 
Did you ever stop to 
consider the power 
in a blow that is 
struck with the 
force of a ton or so ? 
If the bullet never 
entered the body of the animal but should 
be stopped at the surface of the body, he 
would go down because of the force, the 
kinetic energy, the momentum of the im- 
pact. This simply means, for practical 
purposes, that when you shoot a bullet 
that goes straight through a game ani- 
mal’s body not all of the energy of the 
bullet is stopped by the target. The old- 
fashioned guns that old timers still tote 
into the field will send their bullets 
straight through a game animal in fine 
shape but this is not what counts most. 
The thing of importance is the blow 
*Forest and Stream September, 1919 
given by the bullet. For any bullet to 
give the full shock of its blow it must 
be stopped, or at least its energy greatly 
reduced,' by passing through the flesh 
and bone of the game. 
It happened that when I got in that 
lung shot the bullet exploded for the 
simple reason that the kind of a rifle I 
believe in shooting is of the type that 
uses the high velocity, expanding bullet. 
That bullet did not pass through the body 
of the buck, but spent every ounce of 
its force in his front quarters and he was 
knocked over. Maybe he might have 
recovered in a few minutes after the 
shock of the giant blow had left his 
muddled senses, but he was down and 
I was right there with another shot to 
finish him. Remember that he was 
running his best clip broadside to me and 
through brush. I was nothing short of 
lucky to get the bullet into him. A rifle 
that was built in the ‘ 80 s and was a 
mighty good invention for its day would 
simply have pushed a hole clear through 
the body of the buck and only expended 
on him part of its power. The result 
would have been that he probably would 
never have been knocked from his feet 
and so would never have slowed down. 
The shooter who insists in toting any- 
thing but a modern high power, super 
velocity, expanding bullet rifle of the 
best type ought to take a surgeon along 
with him into the timber. The need of 
this surgeon being to mark out on the 
side of every deer the location of his 
heart so that the shooter could make no 
mistake. 
I readily confess that I am not a sur- 
geon and never found time under the 
pressing circumstances in which I have 
done my game shooting to really stop 
and locate the heart of the running tar- 
get. Some men may be able to do that 
and it is their gift. I must trust a good 
gun to get them if I am lucky enough 
to hold it so that it will puncture the 
front shoulders and knock the game off 
its feet when hit. I once saw a fox 
shot with a deer rifle of the expanding 
bullet type. It was of the small calibre 
variety and the bullet entered the neck, 
exploded and failed to come out any- 
where along the length of the animal’s 
body. The shooter rather expected that 
the hide would be ruined but the fact was 
that the only hole in it was a tiny one I 
where the lead entered. The copper 
jacket about that bullet mushroomed 
the tip and the full energy of the bullet’s 
velocity and striking power stayed in- 
side that animal’s skin. When that fox 
was skinned his insides were, in the 
terms of the man 
who shot him, 
“nothing but jelly.” 
T N ORDER to kill 
*■ your game quick- 
ly and surely the 
right kind of a rifle 
is necessary first of 
all, unless you are a. 
skilled game shot 
and can place your 
bullet as skillfully 
as a surgeon wields 
his knife. I realize 
that all men do not 
agree concerning 
what make of rifle 
that should be, but 
such weapons are 
built by all the big 
manufacturers to- 
day. Whether you 
like an auto-loader, 
pump, lever or bolt 
action; whether you 
fancy an American 
or an imported rifle 
for game shooting, 
in any case the mod- 
ern gunmaker will have among his list of 
products a type that combines a maxi- 
mum of velocity and hitting power with 
a light weight. Remember that the 
higher velocity, and greater powered 
bullet will often fail to go through as 
much resistance as the slower bullet. 
One explodes and distributes all its 
energy into the resisting game animal’s- 
body, the other bores its way clean j 
through. If you think a real high power 
bullet is “too wicked” then shoot the 
slower velocity with more weight to- j 
make up for lack of speed, which is 
necessary to get the foot-pounds of 
striking power, and you will surely get 
