Shot Placement: Maximizing Meat Yield while Hunting Big Game
Shot placement, ammo selection, and overall animal positioning/movement are the main factors in maximizing the meat you bring home. Justin dives into shot placement on big game animals for maximum meat yield. He uses two wild pigs as examples, showing the damage incurred from targeting one animal’s head and the other’s vitals.
Witness the real-time results of a head shot and a vital area shot on two wild pigs. Discover the immediate differences in meat preservation and overall carcass quality, guiding you to make the right choice in the field.
In our wild pig camps, we teach the students to target the head to reduce the amount of impacted edible meat. This type of shot placement may not always be available, but care and precision can lead to a clean shot, limiting the amount of meat impacted.
Check out our Wild Pig Hunting Skills Camp
Ammo selection plays a huge part in the effects on the meat. Lead ammo will begin to splinter on impact, leaving shards of lead in the meat. Non-lead ammo, like a full copper round, will impact, create a wound channel, and exit the other side of the animal, leaving a clear wound channel with no splintering left in the meat.
Animals will likely move and reposition while you are aiming. Understanding the anatomy of your target species in various positions will also allow you to place a lethal shot on that animal. Confidence in shot placement into a vital organ will result in a deadly shot, and limit the amount of meat affected.
This segment originally aired on the Sporting Chef on the Outdoor Channel. View new episodes on Mondays at 9:30 PM ET in October and November 2023.
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