We are 10 days and three airplane rides away from our Namibian adventure. We'll be hunting one of the conservancies in the NW and giraffe is high on the hit list. We've studied the Perfect Shot drawings but I was just curious from those that have actually shot giraffe, what is your favourite shot placement?

The only giraffe I ever shot was at the base of the tail!

Dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

He was wounded by a friend who shot too high.

He ran of and was about to cross into the next concession when I shot him.

He actually fell on the dividing road.

I understand most misplaced shots are too high.

You have a couple of choices.

If you are really close (50Yds) and the giraffe is looking at you, the shot is at the base of the chin or where the neck and head line. they drop like a sky scraper tumbling down. This was a management kill as the giraffe had a snare on it hind leg and they had been trying to kill it for over a year. It was on it last legs so to say and did not move off when we approached to look at it.

Now if they are further than 50 yards, i like to get them sideways and have shot them a few inches below the back line and straight up on the front legs. you take the heart and lungs on this shot and they will only go a few yards and drop. We played cat and mouse with this one for over a hour. We needed to make the kill early in the AM so that the hide would not spoil. Dang it took an army of skinners about 5 hours to skin the giraffe and transport the hide and meat to the skinning shed. Our PH was careful to watch the temperature and this gave us only a 2 hour window each morning to try and find one.

I have done the above hunts.

The next was the option the PH was trying to get me on. 3rd option with a direct head on is where the neck meets the body and center your shot.

Use a quality bullet, i shot mine with a 338 WM and the 225 gr bullets did not exit.

I am interested in this question as well. In four weeks I will be headed to BVC and I plan on taking two. I will use a 375 and John Sharp said I might think about a solid. So, I have loaded some 300 gr Woodleigh solids.

We'll be shooting a 375 H&H with 250-grain Hornady GMX. These were absolutely devastating in South Africa last year and I have no doubt they are up to the task for a giraffe.

I have never seen more Giraffes in my life than in the BVC. Shot two! One for the rug and the other for the shoulder mount. The blacker the better. Anywhere in the shoulder or hip bone will drop them like an oak hit by lightning. Br ready for a follow up shot but a soft will work better than a solid because shooting something like this creates som room for error.

I've shot them on the shoulder with 500 grain bullets and had them go quite a ways before giving up. They are incredibly tough and can take a lot of lead if your first shot is off. The heart/lung area sits forward in the chest area from a side-on perspective. I prefer picking a dark marking on the neck about two thirds of the way up and shooting for the center of that spot. A good neck shot will anchor them in place. I definitely like softs over solids. Whichever shot you choose, keep shooting until he is on the ground. They can cover a lot of country in a hurry and depending on how they're hit, the blood spoor can dry up quickly.

On two occasions, I have shot two in one day. Like Bwana says, the recovery is a lot of work, about on par with that of a tuskless elephant.

Randy, you'll have plenty of opportunity at BVC. They're thick there!

The vertebrae on a giraffe is about 4" in diameter. My PH has guided clients taking a lot of them, and has seen them lost with shoulder shots, even with big bores. Once their adrenaline gets up, its CNS or nothing. He prefers neck shots now, but doesn't shoot over 100 yards.

The only one that I've shot was a neck shot, and I used a 7 mm RemMag with 160 gr. Halfway up from shoulder to head, and halfway from front to back - pick a white cross between four dark patches and let her rip. Shot properly, they look like a building demolition going down!

I've shot 6 giraffes! From the neck, to the chest, to the base of the tail. All I can say is they are really tough, and lots of fun to hunt.

Head and spine is pretty self-explanatory, and the heart/lungs are VERY far forward in the chest. Just keep shootin!!!

Good luck

" Just keep shooting!!!" OMG, lol, - thanks for that one Aaron just made my day hahaha!!! Seriously, I did watch a video called 30 days in Zimbabwe where the client made a poor first shot and was forced to chase down the animal placing multiple shots ... unloading a clip and finally stopping the animal with 100lbs of lead weighing it down, don't think any were actually kill shots? Looks to me the animal is all stomach but can't wait to see the hunt on film!

Good luck and great shooting!

I've shot a number of them with 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, 470NE, 450/400, and 300 RUM. As with any animal, a solid CNS hit and they are down like a ton of bricks. Nothing is more impressive due to the shear size of the animal. A good heart/lung shot with a quality bullet will do the job. Make a marginal shot on one of these buggers and you are guaranteed a long day. These big boys can soak up an enormous amount of lead.

The one I shot in Namibia two years ago was a frontal shot at 75 yards. At the shot he didn't even flinch from a 416 solid where the neck and shoulder meet. The PH even said that he thought I missed as the giraffe came crashing down. We came up and I gave him another insurance in the heart. All that you saw was where the bullet entered the skin. No blood at all. That thick hide seals up so neat and tidy and boy can they soak up energy.

Remember, a shot just behind the shoulder is a gut shot on a side-on giraffe. Also, they should be considered as pachyderms because their skin is an inch thick. Use only the very best quality expanding bullets if this is your preference. If there is any doubt on soft point quality, rather use solids. The two bulges on the front of their chest are the shoulder joints and the bottom half of the heart lies between them. The right caliber / bullet weight / type combination through the top of the heart is very effective but remember the chest cavity and therefore the lungs are pretty small for such a huge animal. Heart/lung shot giraffe will invariably run, so keep shooting - with solids as these will be going-away shots. Most heart/lung shots are messed up because these organs are not positioned where most think they should be. Be warned, brain and spinal cord shot giraffe often fall in the direction from which the shot came. Don't get so close that could will fall on you! This may sound obvious but an acquaintance of mine very nearly had this happen to him so be warned! When he saw the giraffe falling towards him he flung himself backwards and spread his legs. The giraffe's head landed between his legs!

Neck shot hands down, placed right in the middle of the neck half way up or higher. DRT.

Mike

Would love a giraffe rug...but am always discouraged (even in areas with low trophy fees) by the tanning/taxidermy shipping costs. Even high TF animals wind up being cheaper quite often.

Tendrams: Have the hide tanned in Africa and then shipped at a much reduced weight/cost.

Stating the obvious here but a giraffe rug takes up a lot of space. A person really needs a large room to make this piece work and not overwhelm an area.

Still not cheap in Africa. Just a tanned flat skin at a Namibia taxidermist is about $2000 plus a $1500-2000 trophy fee plus shipping. Other things I would rather hunt for $4000+. Everyone has their own priorities.

quote:

Originally posted by Safari James:
...
Stating the obvious here but a giraffe rug takes up a lot of space. A person really needs a large room to make this piece work and not overwhelm an area.

Good to know. Now, I want one. Have the perfect room for it.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Neck shot hands down, placed right in the middle of the neck half way up or higher. DRT.

Mike

You are 100% correct Mike as always, they collapse like a cheap suit with a neck shot 2 ft down and down they go. The only problem with a neck shot is that the shooter must be able to shoot to make it happen. It is an old big black boy you want. They make great Trophy room rugs and the skulls are great. Have the leg bones scrimshawed and/or made into lamps.

A neck shot worked for me with a 250gr TSX out of a 338RUM.......and the darker the bull the better.

And they drop like a block of flats......

I killed a giraffe two years ago and before the hunt my PH showed me the book "the perfect shot" written by Kevin Robertson. He told me that my first shot should be perfect because with a bad shot we could run behind for a long time.

When I shot it off-hand at 65 meters , it was a sideway shot exactly in the same position as in the book. I used a Heym 88 in .470 Nitro express and Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw 500 gr borrowed to my PH.
It didn't have a reaction at my first shot and it started to run so I shot really quickly my second bullet and this time it's fallen down. To finish it off I shot an other bullet through the neck.
After we checked where was my two first bullets.
My first shot was exactly where I aimed, it touched the heart and the lungs and the second touched the spine.


None bullets crossed it and I was surprised by the thickness of the skin.

Unfortunatly, the skinners have found just one bullet in the chest.
Here is the bullet, at right.



Weight retention : 408 gr.
The other bullet on the left is a Sierra Game king (.308" 180 gr) recovered in a gemsbok.

I shot my first giraffe two weeks ago. I found the "bump" along the front of the animal and moved the crosshairs behind that and in line with the front leg. The Barnes 270 grain TSX did its job as the bull took four strides and was down in 3.5 seconds (recorded). The diagram that Larry posted is spot on. By the way, the TSX was recovered and mushroomed perfectly. Blake

Whoops......I forgot to mention that we had giraffe steaks and giraffe biltong from my bull. I found both delicious. However, the steaks from my partner's leopard were out of this world.