Headshot or Heart/Lung area

T

TheBear

New member
i do a lot of pestcontrol on rats and groundsqirrel lately and im not quite sure which is the better place for the shot. I almost always go for the heart/lung area because thats what ive learned when hunting deer and hog but i see a lot of guys on yt etc. going for a headshot when hunting pests and small game up to coyote size.
When i learned to hunt, people told me that you never shoot in the head because animals have a much smaller brain then humans and it takes only a very small part of the head. So when you do a headshot theres a big chance your just blowing the animals jaw or nose or eyes away and that of course wouldnt be ethnic.
Opinions?
 
I would think headshots so you can eat small animals and not a ton of shot.

It probably also gives a confirmed kill or not where as a dead or dying rat could get away and die somewhere else when shot in the body.
 
If I have a good head shot, I take it.
If not, I pop the vitals.

And for certain things that require extermination, I may be willing to put one into whatever part of the body I can get -- even if it's a gut or butt shot.
Slow 'em down, so I can get a couple more seconds to smack the vitals.
I know plenty of people will find that abhorrent and/or politically incorrect; but when I'm out for extermination, I'm there to kill - not to waste my time waiting around for perfect shots.
 
I too feel there is a distinction between a meat kill and the extermination of vermin. I have respect for the animal that I harvest for food as it lives to be a food source. Pests, although I am sure there is a reason they exist when they endanger my family or our survival they get dead. Coyotes feed on small rodents as do snakes and birds. There are plenty to go around and as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather have the coyotes than the snakes - other than bull or king snakes. I can train the coyotes to stay away from our small animal pens and they can be fun to shoot.
 
head shot

I've got no problem with head shots on small game or varmints. With their tiny noggin, if you hit away from your aiming point a bit, you are still likely drop the critter anyhow with collateral damage.

I aim against routine head shots on any big game animal, especially deer. Hogs? They're on the pest list, brain'em. I see where the recommended shot on a croc is the brain or high neck, so they don't swim off.
 
"do a lot of pestcontrol on rats and groundsqirrel lately"

In 2010, I worked on an RV park in Colorado that was overrun with "picket pin" gophers. Although the owners knew they had a serious problem and the threat of bubonic plague and hanta virus, they refused to allow firearms in the control of the little pests. I was restricted to a pellet rifle only between first light and 7 AM(when the citified campers started getting up). Headshots worked OK if the range was short but then I had to gather up the croakers and pack them to the burn pit. Body shots with the .177 pellets allowed the critters to escape down their holes and die underground. After around 200 probable kills, I could no longer get within sure hit range and gave up until the young ones started coming above ground and then the score really went up.
If I'd been using my 17 HMR, I would have had to scrape up the bits and rake over the bloody sand on every kill and I'm sure the campers would have been "disturbed" but I could have "cleared" the 10 acres within a couple of days.
 
Back when I was doing a lot of pest control (squirrels and chipmunks) shooting pellets as a kid, I would shoot either, depending what shot they gave me.

I never had a bad head shot. They never ran that far with a body shot either, so either works in regards to terminal effect.
 
Even a human is far more likely to survive a headshot than one to the body.
"...wouldn't be ethnic..." Nor ethical. A great deal depends on what you shoot 'em with though. A heart/lung shot is very close to instantly fatal every time. A head shot is not, always.
 
When it comes to eradication of pests, here's another vote for what ever works.
When I was a kid, I inherited the jobs of ridding the rats from both my Grandfather's scrap yard and the chicken coop at my Grandmother's neighborhood grocery.
Since both were within city limits, misses were greatly frowned upon.
Whatever part was sticking out got the pellet or bullet, while paying focused attention on backstops.
 
I dont know what your shooting them with but I have shot hundreds of ground squirrels out in Ca on a ranch with a 22-250. A body or head shot would just disintegrate em.
 
i took care of a lot of chipmonks with .22 C-B caps out of a old wincester single shot with a weaver B4 scope, most shots were 30-40 feet with mostly head shots. but i could see very well then. eastbank.
 
I've done pest control with a .223 many times... all kinds of body parts fly off, even coyotes sometimes. Not one of them was alive to be aware of its missing parts.
 
Center of mass works for pest control.

Trying to get fancy and make head shots on animals with brains the size of a dime is foolish unless you just want to play around.
 
Center of mass works for pest control.

Trying to get fancy and make head shots on animals with brains the size of a dime is foolish unless you just want to play around.
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thats what i always thought.
Im talking about pest controll/small game hunting with a .22 or a high powered PCP-Rifle. I think we all agree that it doesnt matter where you hit a rat or sqirrel when your using a .223 or a .204 Ruger....
 
Not varmint related but last 100 series season I had a choice, take a spine shot or a head shot at a buck that flushed and ran away from me.
Needless to say I got a bit lucky with the head shot but there wasn't an ounce of blood shot meat and he died instantly, so fast in fact he chipped up his antlers pretty bad from face planting. The bullet hit at the base of the skull just to the right of the vertebrae and came out the mouth.



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don't shoot over your ability

but I would also say that with some hunting to not take headshots is the unethical thing. like rabbits who will go under earth if shot heart/lungs

and even with vermin you want to be able to collect the carcasses don't you?
 
I know plenty of people will find that abhorrent and/or politically incorrect; but when I'm out for extermination, I'm there to kill - not to waste my time waiting around for perfect shots.
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Heart/lung is fine.
 
NHSHOOTER......I can relate to your ground squirrel shooting in Ca., as I have done the same thing. What a lot of fun, and barking those little buggers was a challenge. I liked the .223 with Hornady 5. gr. SX bullets and they would virtually explode. The Livermore area has a bunch of them.
 
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