The Inexplicable Happened....

[huntingsgr8]

So, as many of you (if not all) have targeted vermin to maintain your skills, or to just keep the ruckus in the attic down. When I was a boy my father had a small feed store, and I was his official pest controller. To date I've shot hundreds, it's almost reflexive, but this week an anomaly occurred which I thought impossible. I put one down with a shot to the head with a .22, using an unplated round nosed bullet. It fell, it twitched, and when I picked it up, the thing started to squeak and hack. The thought that I had just graised it flashed through my mind, until I turned it around....and saw it was missing a piece of skull 3/8 of an inch in diameter. I could see it's brain, and the bullet hole in it, it had been a properly executed shot. I immediately put it on the ground to finish it off, but discovered my magazine was empty, so I had to step into the house to grab another bullet. I was still trying to breathe, and squeaking when I returned to finish it.

In my lifetime I never thought this was something that was possible. Spasmodic muscular movements, sure, seen plenty, but this squirrel, I swear it was still conscious. The bullet went through both hemispheres of the brain, and caused a significant amount of blood loss, and yet it clung on for over a minute until I finished it off. I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't seen it myself. Has anyone else seen something like this occur? It just defies everything my experience has taught me to be true.

[45workhorse]

Hopefully it didn't breed any more 'super' critters!

[Hickory]

Once, while shooting prairie dogs I shot one in the head it jumped and twitched for a while and ended up on its back running in place for over 2 hours.

[Winger Ed.]

It was dead, but didn't know it yet.

[Markopolo]

i had a bear that did that very thing to me this year.. lol

[huntingsgr8]

Do tell

[fiberoptik]

Popped a tree rat in the head with my .22 lr. hv non- hp’s. It ran up the rest of the tree, kept running as I t fell from a high oak, hit the ground & stopped. Picked it up and turned it over, looking at the hole and brains [emoji3447]. It cake to in my hand & tried to bite me. I rang its neck like a chicken [emoji239]. I was a teen & it was a bit unsettling! Began using hollow points after that.


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[NyFirefighter357]

I had a deer hit by paramedic in an SUV responding to a call, an off duty LOE stopped and shot it, 2hrs later it was back in the road. I stopped because I knew the paramedic he had found it back in the road. I used a brand new ultra sharp hunting knife to slit it through ear to ear while standing over it from behind. It got up, now I'm straddling it. I couldn't keep control of it as it was bucking & it's head was flipping off it's neck like a PEZ dispenser. The snow at the shoulder of the road was about 2' high, I was able to get off it's back and it made it off the road onto the snow. The local cops had already been dispatched & showed up a few minutes later and ended the ordeal.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Tough little critters. I've had a few stubborn ones that required quite a bit of ventilation...

[Dapaki]

Chickens, beheaded they can run around the yard for several minutes. Proving they never had brains in the first place!

[poppy42]

There is only one way to insure A one shot kill in any animal. That is to take out the medulla oblongata ( brain stem). It is the part of the brain that controls all autonomic functions. Breathing heart beats and blood pressure etc. separate the brain from the brain stem and it is instant death in any animal. In man, The size Of the brain stem is somewhere between the size of a quarter And a 1/2 dollar. In a squirrel you can imagine it’s quite a bit smaller. It is entirely possible to take out a large portion of the brain and have an animal still have autonomic function. The thing is, even though the animal is breathing and his heart is still beating it’s basically brain dead. How many times have you seen in the news where a person has been shot in the head or received severe head trauma but still breathing and the heart is still pumping blood. It’s the same thing and all animals. The screeching heard was nothing more than an autonomic response. It was not in pain. the brain has no Nerve endings so it feels no pain. That’s why a lot of brain surgeries are done with the patient awake. The only thing that needs to be anesthetized is the scalp and the skull. The brain itself feels no pain.

[mozeppa]

Chickens, beheaded they can run around the yard for several minutes. Proving they never had brains in the first place!

and then they become democrats.

[rancher1913]

google mike the headless chicken, happened along the front range long time ago.

[alfadan]

I shot two possums back to back that were feeding on a dead armadillo. One shot each with a 158 swc out of my rossi and I thought I'd missed them; just couldn't be that thing is a laser beam. They just stared at me. Finally they walked off, started staggering, then fell over

[jcren]

Several years ago, I shot a small opossum that was in the cat food with my old trusty 22 cal Benjamin air rifle (that had accounted for countless big opossum, skunks and stray cats) just in front/below the ear. Started down the steps to get the shovel and the thing rose up and began running in small 18" circles, turning in the same direction as he was shot. Took at least a minute to gather my wits and get a .22 to finish the job, running the whole time. Quite unnerving and I never used an air rifle on bigger pest since.

[trails4u]

I had a hammer dead squirrel come back to life in the back pocket of my hunting vest once..... Lively experience!!

[303Guy]

Yup. Shooting out half the brain is no guarantee of instant death. Half the head shot away with half the brain remaining and exposed and the critter is alive and chirping and conscious to boot. Just not able to fly away.

[Iowa Fox]

Thats what boot heels are for

[Neverhome]

When I was in college I lived with my grandparents. Granddad was a big fisherman and used squirrel tails often when making lures. It wasn’t uncommon to find whole frozen squirrels just thrown willy nilly into the garage refrigerator right next to food. Well I get home real late one night and get a craving for frozen lasagna which just happens to reside in the garage fridge.
I open the freezer door and this squirrel starts running all over!
Scared the heck out of me! I slammed the door and went without my lasagna that night.
Tough ********. This had to be midnight. It had to have been unconscious when it was thrown in there and must have been there for at least 5 hours.
By morning it was thankfully really dead.

[Texas by God]

That squirrel had some alligator blood. They live long past death.

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[clintsfolly]

Was run a trap line yrs ago and the local fur buyer and I where friends. When I got opossums I just dropped them off and wrote it down of the wall. One day I got Three and dropped them off a few days I stopped and he was home. His wife come in a is mad that I was trying to cheat them! I ask what are talking about. She go on about me putting down 3 opossums and dropping 2. I said no big deal and change it to 2 but I dropped 3. Few weeks later he see me at the local bar and came over and starts to apologize! Shortly after I was there thing Start to move about his fur shed. Boxes of fleshing scrap tip over. Carcasses moved. Till one day he seating doing paperwork and a opossum walk out from behind one of his freezers! With a bullet hole in its forhead!

[huntingsgr8]

I'm relieved to know it's not an isolated experience then.

[GooseGestapo]

Now you know why hollow points were invented.

I surely wish we could still get Dominion Imperial brand standard velocity 22 Short Hollow points.
Very quiet, impact louder than muzzle report, and very, very accurate.

When I was 11-12yrs old, my older brother and I bought them at a Economy Auto store (sorta like an Ace hardware store) for 29-34cents a box (50). Long Rifle HP’s were 84cents... too rich for our blood. We killed many dozens of squirrels, rabbits, a few coons, and several possums with them. Never a survivor. Then along came something called’68 GCA. RUINED everything.

[1bluehorse]

Well, I'd tell you all about the fish I caught just this last week but you probably wouldn't believe me......:groner:

[EMC45]

I have had squirrels crawl up my boot and pant leg after I was sure they were "dead". I had one years back start gnawing on my boot when I thought he was a goner. They die hard and are tough animals.

I shot an armadillo a few time with a Model 36 Smith loaded with 158gr. Lee RNFP years ago. I know I hit it 3 times. It had visible holes in the shell and was squirting blood everywhere and was running like 100 miles an hour!

One more......A buddy and I from church were hunting Robins Air Force base years ago in the shotgun only area. He had a bolt action 20ga. loaded with Brenneke slugs and I had my old 870 (Frankenstein) loaded with 1oz. Remington Sluggers. He connected on a hog and broke its spine and called me over to help him. It was very much alive when I got there so I aimed at its head from about 3 feet away and put 1oz of lead in it's skull. We went to look for another bunch of hogs in the palmetto patch behind us and then came back to find out the hog was GONE! It had drug itself about 30 yds away pooping all over the place and finally died. I saw the hole in its head and "knew" it was "dead".......

[Scrounge]

Chickens, beheaded they can run around the yard for several minutes. Proving they never had brains in the first place!

Had one in Fruita, CO some years back that survived for something like 18 months.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11178

[WRideout]

There is only one way to insure A one shot kill in any animal. That is to take out the medulla oblongata ( brain stem). It is the part of the brain that controls all autonomic functions. Breathing heart beats and blood pressure etc. separate the brain from the brain stem and it is instant death in any animal. In man, The size Of the brain stem is somewhere between the size of a quarter And a 1/2 dollar. In a squirrel you can imagine it’s quite a bit smaller. It is entirely possible to take out a large portion of the brain and have an animal still have autonomic function. The thing is, even though the animal is breathing and his heart is still beating it’s basically brain dead. How many times have you seen in the news where a person has been shot in the head or received severe head trauma but still breathing and the heart is still pumping blood. It’s the same thing and all animals. The screeching heard was nothing more than an autonomic response. It was not in pain. the brain has no Nerve endings so it feels no pain. That’s why a lot of brain surgeries are done with the patient awake. The only thing that needs to be anesthetized is the scalp and the skull. The brain itself feels no pain.

This is why people have survived after having a prefrontal lobotomy. Usually they become politicians.

Wayne

[Bookworm]

I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me, than a full frontal lobotomy.

[Hickory]

This is why people have survived after having a prefrontal lobotomy. Usually they become politicians.

Wayne

Which party, or maybe it don't matter!

[MT Gianni]

Unfortunately far to many have attempted suicide and found the same result. We do not use all of our brain.

[dverna]

But, but....the .32 ACP is more than enough to stop an armed attacker....and the .32/20 is an effective deer cartridge.

I witnessed a ground hog take 5 hits with .22 HP's and live for what seemed 2 minutes.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I am not a head shooter on game animals, much prefering the behind the shoulders hit, but one evening set up to ambush a deer that might come into the target end of the friend's 100yd, shooting range.

Having already spent a buch of testing sessions at the reange, and knowing where the 45/70 - 465gr Wide Flat Nose cast bullet hit at that range, I decided to take the deer that came in with a head shot.

Dropped like a rock right where it stood, so the above info is very interesting.

Typically, by the time I walk up to a deer shot behind the shoulders, the critter is dead. By this I mean all body movement has stopped.

Not so with the head shot deer. It may have been "dead" but body movements went on for quite awhile.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[huntingsgr8]

I grew up making headshots habitually. I only had a pellet gun, and my father didn't want them scurrying off between feed bags before dying. Fresh corpse smell puts off customers.

These days it depends on the range. <50 yards, I'll usually go for the head, further than that, I go for the heart/lungs. Still, it's the first time in hundreds, perhaps 1200 shot, that I've seen what happened, happened. When I was 16 I killed my first bear at 22 yards. I stalked it in an uncut oat field. I was using MFS (Silver Bear?) soft points in my M91 Finn. It was roughly 90 degrees to me when I shot it, I hit roughly level with the top jaw and about 3" back from the joint. The bullet made an exit wound not much more than 5/8" in diameter, but it dropped like a stone. I still remember the thud. It had nothing more than tremors for muscle movement, aside from its heart. I put my hand on it and kept my watch out. It stopped after nearly 3 minutes.

[Little Oak]

Many years ago a pal and I used to lamp rabbits at night to keep the rascals down for farmers, as we do here. He drove the old delivery van around the fields and held the lamp, I did the shooting with a moderated BRNO .22 and subsonic hollow points. All the rabbits had to be head shot for sale so he would gently drive to within about 25 yards and I'd pop them off. We only had one 'runner' out of the hundreds we shot and that jumped around the cab spraying blood everywhere.
One night the farmer asks us to shoot any hares we saw as they were eating his vegetables so, as we chugged around the field, here's this hare about 50 yards away. I had a spare 10 shot mag loaded with standard velocity solids and sent one into the hares heart, too far for a sure head shot.
'You missed him, try again' whispered my pal. I didn't think I had but the hare just stood there in the light so I shot again and again...I fired 7 shots before the hare fell over.
When I picked it up the 7 shots had made a 1" diameter hole clear through it, right where the heart should have been.

[OldBearHair]

You are a hoot Bookworm!!! heh heh I was a kid and killed a young rooster for dinner. Almost. Used a long chef knife and it stuck tightly in the stump with the head on one side, rest of the chicken on the other side. I pulled the chicken away and pitched it to the ground to see him land on his feet and started walking. I ran in to the house and alerted everyone to come see. We watched with amazement for forty five minutes when the chicken bumped in to the side of the door to the chicken house. Blood spurted the chicken hit the dirt and began to jump around like a normal chicken. it is good for me to see that you guys had similar experiences.

[huntingsgr8]

If I remember correctly, someone told me once about a similar experience with a 300 Weatherby and a bull moose. 5 shots, it didn't flinch, then he walked up to it and pushed it over.

[Doughty]

Yeah but there is the other side of the coin. I once shot at a running ground squirrel at about 15 yards. I was shooting a .45 auto with GI hardball. I clearly saw the bullet strike the ground just in front of the squirrel. The squirrel did a tail over head flip and lay there DEAD. It didn't have any holes in it, only a pin head drop of blood at the base of one ear. So it all evens out.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

This is a weird thread! Can I add to it? How unpleasant to chop off the head of a large rattlesnake and have it continue to twist and writhe for sometimes well over 2 hours. Seems to be more so if it is lying in the sun. This can go on so long and so actively as to make one check to see that the head really was severed.

Referring back to Poppy's post, there are ghastly tales of soldiers killed in combat-- obviously technically dead, but continuing to walk or crawl for awhile. Felons absorbing several anatomically fatal shots but not acting appropriately dead for several minutes. Nightmare stuff.

Apparently a brain can live without blood for several minutes until the oxygen runs out.

[Pigboat]

Sounds like you might have run into this guy. :lol:
https://i.postimg.cc/G2hnF9K9/monster-squirrel-Copy.jpg (https://postimages.org/)carolina beach nc restaurants (https://thesawmillgrill.com/)

[Der Gebirgsjager]

That is funny, Pigboat! [smilie=l:

[T-Bird]

friend of mine had a "dead" rooster fly out of his game bag and get away.

[Ozark mike]

Knew a feller got shot in the brain by his brother still alive jus not all there to say the least

[huntingsgr8]

So, it seems this year is one for the books....I killed a rabbit at the start of the summer with a shot to the head with a .22 round nose. It went limp, dropped.....then launched itself about 6 feet vertically and 12 feet out from where it had dropped. I think I may just go into hibernation till the spring.

[huntingsgr8]

Sounds like you might have run into this guy. :lol:
https://i.postimg.cc/G2hnF9K9/monster-squirrel-Copy.jpg (https://postimages.org/)carolina beach nc restaurants (https://thesawmillgrill.com/)



That's simultaneously hilarious and frightening...I would get taken out by a squirrel, the poetic justice there is just...immense.

[Dimner]

grab by the tail or two back legs whack it against a tree (or in your case and exposed stud or joist, or concrete floor). Whack it like your are trying to drive a nail in a piece of wood in one hit.

When I hunt the Squirrels (the tree kind 8-)), I carry a spare tomahawk handle with me through the belt. Anything slightly suspicious after being shot gets a sound whack.

[fiberoptik]

This is why people have survived after having a prefrontal lobotomy. Usually they become politicians.

Wayne

I lost my left frontal lobe in an accident. Said I had a walnut sized dead spot where it sits. Looked pretty wierd in the cat scan. Did a 180 personality wise for years. The VA doc said he couldn’t understand how I had more damage than all his other patients put together, yet only I was functional!


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[popper]

LAX states pilots landing report man with jetpack off the port side, 3k ft.

[Texas by God]

Thats what boot heels are forThis^

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[onelight]

Thats what boot heels are for
That's how my dad taught me , heel on the head until you are sure they are done .