Bb Cartridge

clintfan

Well lads.
The damedest thing happened last sunday,i was walking along a riverbank that runs through my land.A dog fox walked out in front off me no more than twelve yards away.He was so engrossed in sniffing the trail that he didnt notice me.So having plenty off time i lined up my trusty lanber and let fly with a bb in the top barrell.Mr fox leaped sideways into the air and legged it in a hopping motion.There is no way i missed him but couldnt find him anywhere.The point being i thought a bb at close range would have dropped him straight away or at least only gave him a few seconds to say his prayers .So what happened?

foxshooter243

clintfan wrote: »

Well lads.
The damedest thing happened last sunday,i was walking along a riverbank that runs through my land.A dog fox walked out in front off me no more than twelve yards away.He was so engrossed in sniffing the trail that he didnt notice me.So having plenty off time i lined up my trusty lanber and let fly with a bb in the top barrell.Mr fox leaped sideways into the air and legged it in a hopping motion.There is no way i missed him but couldnt find him anywhere.The point being i thought a bb at close range would have dropped him straight away or at least only gave him a few seconds to say his prayers .So what happened?

I had a similar thing happen many moons ago in the 70/s, i stumbled on a dog fox whilst rabbiting and whacked him with a no 5 cartridge at a distance of no more than 5 or 6 yards, I seen the impact of the shot strike his neck square on and off he goes a running..searched and searched but couldnt find him.. however not to be undone a follow up search the day after revealed he had made 100 yards through some decent cover only to roll over dead. its just one of those things i suppose

It wasn't me!

C'est la vie. Sometimes you do everything right and it still doesn't work for some reason. Wouldn't worry unduly about it.

Ruger.220swift

Fox can take a lot of lead if not shot in the right place ie heart and lungs or head. happened me a good few times shooting them in the hole when they are running away, slows them down and the dogs usually catch up with them after. i shot a fox a few years back and tumbled him twice about 15 yards away he ran about 100 yards and dropped stone dead in the middle of some furz.

revan23

same thing happened me with a duck, hit him dead on at about 10 yards after he flew out of a bunch of reeds, feathers everywhere, but didnt seem to bother him as he kept flyin as if nothing happened.
but i'd never shoot a fox with No.5 shot...

foxshooter243

revan23 wrote: »

same thing happened me with a duck, hit him dead on at about 10 yards after he flew out of a bunch of reeds, feathers everywhere, but didnt seem to bother him as he kept flyin as if nothing happened.
but i'd never shoot a fox with No.5 shot...

I know what your saying about no 5 shot , but ive also taken fox easily with no 6 shot when unintentionally stumbling across them when after woodcock and snipe, but my preferred method is 58 grain v max out of a 243:D

quackquackBOOM

bbs hold fairly close maybe you might have dropped or raised a small bit unintentionally it happens us all sometimes the easiest shot is the one you miss
you could have caught him with the end of the tail of pellets and just injured him.
its an unfortunate outcome i always hate to see a wounded animal head away.
id prefer the death upon impact approach
a mate of mine insists of using 28g shot on game which i think is unfair to any quarry you shoot as they usually end up hitting the ground alive and walking away into cover

It wasn't me!

I should think 32 or 36 gram loads are better for anything that flies. Rabbits are alright with 28 grams if done right, and means better bunny for the eating. Agreed, where possible, prey should not survive the shot for any length of time.

Grizzly 45

Can happen,had one of my first foxes that I ever shot run over 100 meters after he caught both barrells of BB shot over a one from a full choke at appx 25 meters.I could actually see the hit as his rear quaters were thrown to one side on the second shot.So do make a through search for them.Or better still,always carry a double load of OO buck on the belt for those close encounters.

meathstevie

This did not happen last season but the one before it. Me and a friend were going through a field of sugar beet searching for pheasant ( Stephen's Day it was ) when a big fox broke cover. He let fly at him with the semi and gave him at least 2 lashing of 32g no5 shot over his neck and back. I actually saw dust and hair kicking up. Fox kept running and I gave him two broadsides of 32g no6 from about 35-40 yards as he ran for cover in the far corner of the field. We never found him and there's no way in hell he could have survived that.

pullandbang

revan23 wrote: »

same thing happened me with a duck, hit him dead on at about 10 yards after he flew out of a bunch of reeds, feathers everywhere, but didnt seem to bother him as he kept flyin as if nothing happened.quote]

Was shooting pheasants one day with my mate who level with me on the other side of a low hedge. Cock broke out about 25 yards ahead of me. I gave him the first barrell and saw a puff of feathers explode from him but he kept going. I gave him the second barrell. Again a puff of feathers but he never faltered in his flight. He the crossed the hedge and my mate hit him hard with another shot. Again a puff of feathers but he kept going.

We watched him fly into a small wood beside a house about 600 yards away. When we got to the wood I sent in my dog and she came back a few minutes later with the cock stone dead and shot to bits! How did he keep flying?

damo03

meathstevie wrote: »

This did not happen last season but the one before it. Me and a friend were going through a field of sugar beet searching for pheasant ( Stephen's Day it was ) when a big fox broke cover. He let fly at him with the semi and gave him at least 2 lashing of 32g no5 shot over his neck and back. I actually saw dust and hair kicking up. Fox kept running and I gave him two broadsides of 32g no6 from about 35-40 yards as he ran for cover in the far corner of the field. We never found him and there's no way in hell he could have survived that.

I don’t know about that we shot a fox once and skinned it and it was covered in No.5 five or 6 under the skin plus a scatterin of BBs around the arse. Looked like it was done a while as well. I shot a big fox on Monday with a 36g AAA at 30 yards it took the second one to put him down.

quackquackBOOM

there was a deer shot in the next gun clubs grounds from were i shoot and a bit of controversy surrounded the death which i wont go into but it an x-ray had to be done on the carcase and apparently it was full of shotgun shot and .22 bullets (dont know if these were .22 lr,wmr,swift or any other) the animal had turned septic and had a bad limp from the wounds it received.:(shame really

NoNameRanger

I'm sorry i don't see the mystery here. If i fire at some thing and it doesn't fall i generally know why and its not because the animal or bird is bullet proof or has extraordinary resistance to lead.
First thing i think when something keeps moving is did i wound that. And this is often the case.
Second after observing it, is have i missed it. No matter how good i think i am it happens. A good miss is better than a bad hit.

After that you need to examine why this happened. If you missed maybe you were too close and the patteren hadn't expanded enough and you might aswell have had a rifle.
If a lump of fur or feather files off at close range and the animal keeps going, well then you took a piece flesh but but it wasn't an immediately fatal shot.

You need to consider the distance and this is fundamental.
Too close and you will simply take a piece and graze the animal, there will be an explosion of fur or feather and you will think "Jasus how'd it survive that", when in fact if you hit it properly you would have blown it to bits.

Too far and you will lack penetration and the pattern will have dispersed and the bird or mammal may take a pellet or two, it will give a wobble or fall over and take off again and yet again you will think, "Jasus thats a tough bird".

Do not shoot beyond 40 meters with a shotgun and when shooting in close remember that you need to be very accurate. We all know people who have or have ourselves shot birds and mammals beyond 40meters, 50meters and further again with a shotgun, but how many have we wounded in the process. Measure 40 meters with a tape, put up a pheasant sized target. Know your distances. Know your own abilty and the ability of your gun.
It doesn't really matter if your using 5's, 6's, 7's, BB's, AAA's or even slugs, 40meters is the maximum any average shooter should be engaging a live target with a shotgun. I can break crossing clays from a tower at 50 meters with 24gram loads, but i wouldn't dare try the same with a pheasant or duck.

You hear it all the time, a guy will tell you about a great shot he took on a bird at 60meters and when he skinned it there was one pellet in the head. Question is, how many birds did he fire at before one got a pellet in the brain, how many got pellets and didn't fall.

same thing happened me with a duck, hit him dead on at about 10 yards after he flew out of a bunch of reeds, feathers everywhere, but didnt seem to bother him as he kept flyin as if nothing happened.
but i'd never shoot a fox with No.5 shot...

If you hit a duck dead on at 10 yrds he would be dead and you would not have much left to eat in fairness. There was a burst of feathers because you grazed the bird taking feathers and flesh and the bird certainly died later on. If you shot a person dead on (in the chest) at 10 yrds with only a no 7 or 8 you would certainly expect to kill them.
Shoot a fox with a no.5 at the appropriate distance and it is perfectly humane also. Know your abilities and the ability of your gun and chosen cartridge.
Most shotgun kills are taken between 20 and 35meters and not without good reason.

meathstevie

Can't do nothing but agree with you NoNameRanger.

Pullandbang, I've seen what your telling about the pheasant happening a few times and that's where a good retriever or at least a good allrounder of a dog comes into play. Those shots as such were all lethal but not immedeatly so. As a result the pheasant kept flying until he fell out of sky, stone dead. Good job finding him.

quackquackBOOM : the story about the deer is pure sickening. I don't condone poaching at all but at least when someone goes down that road the least they should do is try to achieve a clean kill. Most likely a good bit of the lead in the deer was put in it at night under a lamp so the least they could have done was try and get a bit closer and use something a bit more potent or go for a headshot with the .22. Afraid it would have been .22lr or WMR allright. A swift, .223, .22-250 or a hornet with half decent shot placement would have meant a kill there and then.

eoinkildare

i know of a lad who was shot with a shotgun and survived. and this wasn't a far side of the field job, the gun was in his mouth at the time. he was left with a large hole in his cheek and the wadding left in his jaw but he survived to tell the tale! not a friend of mine by the way! haha

pullandbang

eoinkildare wrote: »

i know of a lad who was shot with a shotgun and survived. and this wasn't a far side of the field job, the gun was in his mouth at the time. he was left with a large hole in his cheek and the wadding left in his jaw but he survived to tell the tale! not a friend of mine by the way! haha

I shoot with him most weeks if it's the same bloke!

clintfan

Have blisters on my feet trying to find bulletproof fox.But the brother in law went out the next evening with his remington 700 .223 (CLASS GUN) in roughly the same area and had the cross hairs on bugs when he noticed a fox watching the same quarry.He nailed him in the neck and dropped him stone dead at around 200 yards,I suspect its the same bugger that got away from me but who knows.Thanks for your comments and the next time you see a fox say " Are you feeling lucky Punk !"

ivanthehunter

clintfan wrote: »

Well lads.
The damedest thing happened last sunday,i was walking along a riverbank that runs through my land.A dog fox walked out in front off me no more than twelve yards away.He was so engrossed in sniffing the trail that he didnt notice me.So having plenty off time i lined up my trusty lanber and let fly with a bb in the top barrell.Mr fox leaped sideways into the air and legged it in a hopping motion.There is no way i missed him but couldnt find him anywhere.The point being i thought a bb at close range would have dropped him straight away or at least only gave him a few seconds to say his prayers .So what happened?

The shock effect!!
A animal that saw his attacker would be overcome with flight or fight syndrome..this fright would be amplified by the firearms report.
Adrenalin would give any animal unbelievable power and would override any pain sensors. This would allow any creature the power to run for 10's of yards if not 100's of yards in a bid to survive, even with massive blood loss.