I know I'm not the only one to experience a "Super Critter". I'm also certain that not everyone has experienced a "Super Critter" and there is no guarantee they ever will.

"Super Critters" can be any species, any size, anywhere. What defines them is the following. You make a well placed shot with an adequately powered well constructed for the task projectile. Then quite simply the animal just keeps going and going. The animal goes much further and stays on it's feet far far longer then your experience would dictate you to expect. You start to question the projectiles effectiveness, weapon choice and possibly even your shot placement. The vast majority of the time, poor shot placement and insufficient penetration can easily been seen as the culprit. In those cases, it doesn't qualify as a "Super Critter" experience. "Super Critters" are not so easily dismissed. A true "Super Critter" experience can only be confirmed when the animal is finally brought down. Inspection of the animal confirms proper shot placement and adequate penetration as being what was expected. Literally, inspection shows you hit both lungs and the heart, but these animals go on and on like some supernaturally charged energizer bunny. "Super Critters" make for a long long day and it defies all reason to explain why.

I don't expect many folks to admit experience with this. I do expect quite a few more to say these cases are always explainable. I wholeheartedly agree the very largest majority of these cases have reasonable explanations.

No matter how much you think you know. You can always still find mystery. Even if you are not looking for it, it will find you.

I had such an occasion with a "Lazarus" springbok. I hit it with a 357 Herrett. It was a fairly close shot but the animal was mostly obscured by brush. The PH said "hit it anywhere" and I did. The first shot was not placed particularly well but the animal was immobilized adequately for a second shot through the lungs (judgeing by entry and exit wounds). The animal was down and appeared to be on its last agonal respirations (I actually have a lot of experience with evaluation of respiratory status). The PH and I were waiting for the tracker, when the animal took off. It was found again shortly and put out of its misery.

I heard another story from a PH whose client shot a cape buffalo. The animal was apparently dead. The animal was posed for photos, photos were taken and the hunting party departed to get help and a vehicle to haul the animal away. When they returned, the buffalo was gone without a trace and was never found.

Astounded a couple years ago when a heartshot buck recovered after ten minutes and went a couple creeks away to expire. No follow shot, and his heart was completely splattered inside the ribcage.

Heard one opine that it makes all the difference if the animal was breathing in (vs. out) when shot.

BNagel

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:

I heard another story from a PH whose client shot a cape buffalo. The animal was apparently dead. The animal was posed for photos, photos were taken and the hunting party departed to get help and a vehicle to haul the animal away. When they returned, the buffalo was gone without a trace and was never found.

There was a hunting photo posted here some years ago of guy who was reportedly gored to death by the buff he had shot and had posed with.

I needed an impala ewe for leopard bait. She was only about forty yards or so away and I thought I'd be cute and shoot her through the neck. I did and she hit the ground like a sack of spuds. The trackers were all slapping me on the back when one of them noticed she stood up and ambled off as if nothing had happened. The guys got on the track while the PH and I did a loop to try and get in front of her. After about fifteen minutes we sat up on a likely trail and sure enough she came walking by nibbling on leaves as she went. I shot her through the shoulders this time, and when we went to pick her up she had a fist size hole through her neck.I shot her with a 300 grain Barnes X out of a 375 H&H. Go figure.

This is what you need:



The NEW .825 G&S Online Express Magnum

By the Guns and Shooting Online Staff



Given the dearth of new big bore hunting pistol cartridges in recent years, we at Guns and Shooting Online felt that it was time that we became proactive in order to jump start the market. Wimpy efforts such as the .475 Linebaugh and .500 S&W may be okay for mouse guns and girley men, but real men need a new cartridge into which we can sink our teeth.

Our cartridge design team spent months surveying the market and concluded that the new cartridge should be between .800 and .850 caliber. This is because big game has, undeniably, become progressively harder to kill during the last century.

Perhaps a brief handgun cartridge history can best illustrate the point. From the last quarter of the 19th Century through the first quarter of the 20th Century, standard revolver cartridges such as the .45 Long Colt (the "world's most powerful revolver cartridge" at that time) and the relatively flat shooting .38 Special High Speed (loaded to maximum average pressures--MAP--up to about 20,000 psi) were considered to be all that was required for any handgun purpose afield. But by the mid-1920s game had gotten harder to kill and the standard velocity handgun cartridges were no longer sufficient for the task, even at very close range.

The first magnum handgun cartridge, the .357 Magnum, was therefore introduced in 1935 to shift the balance of power back to the handgun hunter. And, for at time, it did. At the time of its introduction the .357, loaded to the previously unheard of (for a handgun) MAP of about 43,000 psi, was the most powerful handgun cartridge in the world. It was loaded with a 158 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 1550 fps and muzzle energy (ME) of 845 ft. lbs. The .357 was used to bag all North American big game, including elk, moose, and the great bears, before the beginning of the Second World War. Big game was still relatively weak in that bygone era,so practically no one felt any need for a more powerful handgun hunting cartridge.

But by the end of World War II wild game was becoming too tough for the .357 Magnum. Elk and moose were becoming impervious even to perfectly placed .357" bullets. (Today, of course, we all know that even the smallest deer have become completely immune to .357 Magnum bullets.) Experiments to again redress the balance of killing power were underway in earnest by 1950, and in 1956 the result, the .44 Remington Magnum, was born.

This new cartridge, billed as the world's most powerful handgun cartridge, was standardized at a MAP of 36,000 psi. The original loads drove a 240 grain bullet at a MV of 1470 fps with ME of 1150 ft. lbs. The .44 Mag. was used to kill all manner of heavy game such as elk, moose and the great bears, and did so with authority. All across North America hunters heaved sighs of relief. Protected by a .44 Magnum revolver, it was once again safe to venture into the woods.

Unfortunately, that happy state of affairs only lasted until the 1970s. By that time elk and moose had begun to shrug off solid hits by .429" (.44 Mag.) bullets. In desperation, some handgun hunters began carrying crystals for protection in the field and storing their .44 Magnum ammunition inside pyramids specially constructed for the purpose. (A secondary benefit of the latter practice came to light when it was discovered that these pyramid shapes also sharpened razor blades.)

Others sought safety in the magic properties of the .45 caliber bullet and traditional .45 Long Colt cartridge, loaded to pressures far in excess of the SAAMI standardized 14,000 psi. Cultists, of course, have long recognized the .45 as possessing killing power completely out of proportion to the scientific reality of its cross-sectional area, sectional density, and available kinetic energy. Wildlife had the last laugh, however, as the inevitable results of such experiments were far more missing fingers and blown-up revolvers than injured animals.

A stop gap measure was Dick Casull's .454 Casull revolver cartridge, a sort of super Long Colt, introduced as the most powerful revolver cartridge in the world. Markedly more powerful than the .44 Magnum, the .454 drove up to a 300 grain bullet at a MV of 1650 fps and ME of 1478 ft. lbs. The .454 brought temporary relief during the 1980s. However, by the time of its standardization by SAAMI in 1998 at a MAP of 65,000 psi, big game animals had already become too tough to be killed by mere .454" bullets.

John Linebaugh stepped up to the plate with his .475 Linebaugh, the "worlds most powerful revolver cartridge" of the 1990s. Offering a modest increase in killing power over the .454 Casull, the .475 Linebaugh drives its heavier 400 grain bullet at a MV of 1300 fps with ME of 1501 ft. lbs. But the .475 Linebaugh is a cartridge whose time has already come and gone.

By the turn of the 21st Century, the .475 Linebaugh was no longer sufficient to kill, or even dissuade, heavy North American game. In an effort to bolster their tattered corporate image (and financial bottom line), Smith & Wesson courageously offered up their .500 S&W Magnum in 2003. This cartridge, for which a new, larger revolver had to be designed (sadly, based on the same antiquated S&W lock work), drives a 400 grain bullet at a MV of 1625 fps and ME of 2346 ft. lbs. and was pegged at a MAP of around 50,000 psi.

In 2005 a panicky Smith & Wesson introduced the higher velocity .460 S&W Magnum (300 grain bullet, MV 1750 fps, ME 2041 fps) on the same case to augment their .500, but the handwriting is already on the wall for the big S&W revolver cartridges: North American game is becoming immune to them!

As can clearly be seen from the forgoing history, the pace of big game indestructibility is quickening. It is no longer a secret that elk, shot by high power rifle bullets and once thought to be stone dead, are re-awakening. (A conspiracy by PETA and other animal rights groups may be responsible this; a secret, undercover Guns and Shooting Online investigation into this possibility is underway.) The .30-06 rifle cartridge is now considered marginal for killing elk, and is close to becoming totally inadequate. See Bruce Rutherford's interesting article "Adequate Elk Cartridges," which can be found on the Ammunition and Cartridge Articles index of the Rifle Information Page for more on this subject.

An increase in bore diameter of a lousy 0.01" to 0.05" is simply inadequate to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating indestructibility of big game animals. That is why, as a public service to our readers, Guns and Shooting Online has developed the .825 G&S Online Express Magnum cartridge. Proportionally similar to the .44 Remington Magnum in shape (see the approximately life size photo at the top of this article), the .825 could be described as a .44 Magnum on steroids--lots of steroids!

We at Guns and Shooting Online refuse to be victims of big game animal indestructibility! The .825 G&S Online Express Magnum, with an actual bullet diameter of .823", provides a realistic 0.323" increase in bore diameter to kill elk and other North American big game animals and keep them dead. This is the cartridge that separates the girley men from the he men.

The new .825 is based on a rimmed, straight sided case. Here are the .825's vital measurements:

Bullet diameter - .823"
Case material- "High tension" steel
Maximum case length - 2.2105" (nominal case length 2.210")
Rim diameter - 0.925"
Rim thickness - 0.095"
Head diameter - 0.865"
Neck diameter - 0.860"
Overall cartridge length - 2.850"
Barrel twist - 1 turn in 18"
Primer type - Large Rifle Magnum
Maximum average pressure - 82,500 psi
All .825 cases are being made of what is known in the steel industry as high tension alloy (or mild) steel. Steel cases are required because the operating pressure of the new cartridge would melt brass cases.

The new 750 grain bullets developed specifically for the .825 G&S Online Express Magnum have ballistic coefficients of 0.180 and sectional densities of 0.158. One of these new bullets is a lead core fully-jacketed hollow point (JHP) design. The Premium bullet is a monolithic gilding metal hollow point (MHP) designed for deep penetration and virtually 100% weight retention in any creature up to and including a T-Rex.

There will be two initial .825 G&S Online Express Magnum loads. The "Standard" (or medium velocity) load will drive the 750 grain JHP bullet at a MV of 1280 fps for a ME of 2724 ft. lbs. It is hoped that this load will suffice for hunting the smaller species of deer. It can also serve as a mild practice load. This standard load can be recognized by its brass-plated case.

The "Premium," full power load drives the 750 grain MHP bullet at a MV of 1610 fps and ME of 4300 ft. lbs. This is power on a par with elephant rifle cartridges and it is hoped that the Premium .825 G&S Online Express Magnum load will serve to keep elk shot with it dead for years to come. The .825 Premium load can be recognized by its nickel-plated case. The ballistics of both loads were measured in a 10" vented test barrel.

Of course, a new, larger revolver is required in which to chamber the .825 G&S Online Magnum cartridge. It is far to large--and too powerful--for the puny Smith and Wesson "X" frame revolvers developed for the .460 and .500 S&W Magnum cartridges.

The Guns and Shooting Online Technical Department is developing an innovative new revolver based on the 9-lug Weatherby Mark V action. Despite certain minor pre-production snags, we hope to have a review of this new revolver available soon. The new revolvers, as well as factory loaded .825 Mag. ammunition, will be sold exclusively though the Guns and Shooting Online Store.

Preliminary testing of the new cartridge has been conducted using a single shot, closed-breech pistol with a 10" barrel, and has yielded excellent accuracy results. 5-shot, 100 yard groups have averaged 0.25 MOA, with the largest groups measuring 0.5" and the smallest groups measuring 0.1", regardless of who on the Guns and Shooting Online staff has done the shooting. Seldom, outside of the pages of print magazines, has the shooting world seen such a consistently accurate cartridge.

Early on we were afraid that recoil might be an issue for some individuals, but this has not been the case. We consider the recoil to be "not unpleasant." We consulted Charles Atlas (through a medium) and he reported that the .825 pistol was "controllable." In any case, there are no wimps on the Guns and Shooting Online staff. Shooting the .825 Express magnum has been described as, "a piece of day-old cake." And comments like, "I can't wait to get this pesky cast off my hand so that I can shoot it again" were common.

Calculated recoil in our 5.25 pound test pistol amounts to only 92.9 ft. lbs. for the Standard (1280 fps) load and a somewhat more interesting 125.6 ft. lbs. for the Premium (1610 fps) load. We feel that any experienced handgunner with hair on his or her chest should be able to handle that level of recoil energy without complaint. After all, recoil is what puts the kick in shooting!

This, then, is the .825 G&S Online Express Magnum cartridge, the most powerful handgun cartridge in the world. Not available in stores.

Taken from here:
http://www.chuckhawks.com/825_magnum.htm

I don't believe in the "Super Critter" concept. Some animals certainly have a lot more fight in them than others. However, in my experience, the Super Critters that I have shot have had an anatomical explanation found on field dressing when closely examined.

Here are two things I'm willing to stake my life on:
1. Any animal no matter how large or small that takes an appropriately sized bullet injury to the brain/cervical spinal cord will be instantly incapacitated.
2. Any animal be it a shrew or a whale that takes a wound to the cardiovascular system resulting in a near instantaneous drop in cerebral blood pressure to zero (severe aortic disruption, left ventrical being torn open, double carotid artery transection, etc) will be dead in ~5 seconds. The problem is is that many animals can cover quite a distance in 5 seconds but are still dead animals walking.

Its as simple as that. If the brain is jellied, or the brain isn't getting blood flow, the animal shuts down. No amount of adrenaline can overcome that. Know your target and place your shots carefully when conditions dictate. Just my thoughts and experiences though.

Wes

I once shot a warthog at what may have been around 35 yards with a .375 H&H, 300 grain Nosler Partition. I was accompanied by of course the PH and one of the very best trackers I have ever had the honor to hunt with. Not one of us had a doubt that we would find him about 5 yards from where I shot him. PH had seen the good hit, the tracker was already lighting a cigarette before we got even close to the spot he was hit. No animal. Tracker walks over to the game trail he knows the warthog has taken. Huge blood spoor on both sides of the trail, entrance and exit wounds with blood blowing one meter to each side of the trail. He can't be far.

Well, we never found him. We tracked for four hours, until it was too dark to continue. Blood trail gets smaller and smaller, tracker is sure he is almost bled to death. Tracker doesn't want to give up, his pride is at stake. Theories start to be developed: pig zigged when we zagged, pig went into a hole, leopard grabbed pig, this pig had wings, and then, last but not least, they are tougher than you think.

i shot a deer a few years back with a .35 rem at approximately 50 yards. we saw him drop in place. when we went to get him we couldnt find a single drop of blood, so we got the tracking dogs. after just over one mile the dogs found him. i had hit the heart and the tip of the right lung. i couldnt even begin to explain why he traveled so far before droppping.

geoff

OOORAH!!!

On a deer this last november. Guy shot it as it was quatering away from us, dropped it and all was dandy.
Went over to take pictures. Got the deer all set up, and ready for pic's, when it jumps up and runs away. 50 yards down the cutline it dropped dead...