Thread: What's your pet Sika load?

Originally Posted by Scribe

A guy working on the chopper had cut the hock and clipped a carabiener into ones leg when it stood up between his legs and shot through. All he could think of to say was "hey you are not supposed to doing this"

I try to avoid neck shots with whatever calibre. There is a massive sinew and muscle mass above the bone on the top of the neck. Hit that and they will go down like they are done for but they will be up and away in 30 seconds. The Indians and American settlers used to capture mustangs and brumbies by shooting them in this spot. It was a method they called creaseing.
I tried a couple times during the live capture day to crease deer, unsuccessfully, one dropped and then got clean away cause the dog wouldnt grab it.
The dog was to clever for that, it had had several hidings for chasing deer.

The other one developed a bad case of rheineck.
I have shot several deer over the years that have been hit in the neck by a bullet and healed but they had all got a case of rheineck out of it. The deer's neck developes a permanent twist, so when they run they appear to be looking back over their shoulder. This might not be the completely correct term for this state but it was what we called it at the time.

There is also a far bit of non fatal material on the lower neck, muscle, trachea, and brisket.

Yes. My experience with the 222/223 meat hunting was that the neck shot ones were mostly still flapping their heads around or still alive when I got to them and needed finishing with a knife. I soon got sick of that. It takes a hit right in the neck bone to really flatten them. So I stepped up to a 308 and that fixed the problem, marginal neck shots included.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Yes. My experience with the 222/223 meat hunting was that the neck shot ones were mostly still flapping their heads around or still alive when I got to them and needed finishing with a knife. I soon got sick of that. It takes a hit right in the neck bone to really flatten them. So I stepped up to a 308 and that fixed the problem, marginal neck shots included.

My experience with all calibres tells me if you dont hit that neckbone the animal has a fair chance of getting away. I have spent more hours on my hands and knees blood trailing 308, 270, 30 06 than I care to remember as well.

Its going to be many years before any single other rifle calibre kills more sika than the 222/223 222mag. The 303 is possibly the nearest contender at the moment.