There are few hunting situations where brain shots are considered common. One is with elephant. The older literature talks almost exclusively about the effectiveness of the brain shot on these huge animals. So much so that almost every first-time elephant hunter insists on trying the brain shot, and almost every experienced African professional hunter goes to great lengths to talk their clients out of trying it! The brain shot is always tricky, and it's especially tricky on elephant because a brain the size of a loaf of bread is concealed deep within a skull larger than a 55-gallon drum.

It sounds easy; from broadside just draw a line from eye to earhole and shoot about a hand's breadth in front of the ear on that line. Except that few shots are perfectly broadside, and shooting distance and slope of the ground radically affect the proper angle. I have done the brain shot perfectly, and its effects are awesome. I've also misread the angle and done it wrong. When you do this even a very large bullet has almost no immediate effect--but things happen very, very fast.

I've never lost an elephant when I messed up a brain shot--but this is pure luck, because if vegetation or other elephants prevent a very fast followup shot you will lose an elephant if you attempt the brain shot and fail. Unless the country is fairly open and you know exactly what you're doing it is much safer and far more sure to use the equally fatal but not so dramatic heart and/or lung shot. Elephant, the largest game on Earth, offers a fine example of the difficulty of the brain shot, but I feel much the same about it on game.

The neck shot is a bit easier because, on most animals, it is much easier to visualize. It remains very risky because a shot that's too high may only stun the animal for a minute or two if you hit near the spine, or create nothing more than a messy muscle wound if you miss the spine altogether. Most experienced hunters have stories about animals that dropped to the shot, then bounced up a couple of minutes later or were simply gone by the time you got to them. This is almost always caused by a near-miss to the spine. A neck shot that is too low is far worse, because it is likely to penetrate the esophagus and cause a lingering death. So the neck shot is also very tricky and must be sure.

Animals vary widely as to how low the spine dips into the neck at the point where it enters the body. So unless you absolutely know the anatomy of the game you're hunting, there are really just two neck shots that are absolutely safe. From any angle--and on any animal--you can shoot into the center of the neck for about the first third of the neck behind the ears, and you will hit the spine. Lower down, as the neck thickens, the exact placement of the spine varies considerably; the target is larger, but unless you really know the animal you're hunting the vital area within that target may not be where you think it is.

With dangerous animals like the big bears the heart shot is the best approach, because in most situations you must also take out one or both shoulders to reach the heart. This bear was taken with one 250-gr. Nosler Partition from a .340 Wby Mag.

The other sure option is on a frontal presentation. The spine will be in the center of the neck, which is extremely easy to visualize, but the target isn't large. On such a shot you are often faced with a tough decision: Take the small target, or wait until the animal turns. This means an instantaneous judgement call, because the animal may cut and run at any moment, and things will get worse rather than better! I usually wait if I think I have time, because I always prefer a large target to a small one. But if the rifle's accuracy, the range, and my shooting position all work together I'll take the frontal shot, and I'll also take a side-on neck shot.

Many hunters actually seek these shots and take pride in their ability to make them. Like anything else, the more you do something the better you get it at--so many of you are probably far more adept at these shots than I am. Me, I only take them if it doesn't look like there's going to be a better opportunity--and I'm very sure. Last year I had the chance of a lifetime at a really good mountain nyala, possibly the most difficult among all of Africa's major trophies. The bull jumped at fairly close range, but as he ran through the tall heather all I could see was horns and flashes of brown. He stopped three times, showing only head and horns, and then he stopped showing head, horns, and neck. I was shooting over shooting sticks with my wonderfully accurate 8mm Remington Magnum. The range was no longer close and the target was plenty small--but things weren't going to get better. So I held on the center of the neck about six inches back from the ear, and my very best African trophy dropped into the heather.

There's another thing about head and neck shots. The very largest game--which includes not only elephant and rhino but also walrus--must be taken with non-expanding "solid" bullets to ensure penetration. But in most cases with most game animals, neither cartridge nor bullet selection matter much on head and neck shots--but, as we shall see, both matter a lot with other shot presentations. So if you insist on using either light calibers for the game you're hunting or fairly frangible bullets, then neck and brain shots may be very sound options.

SPINE SHOTS
I like the spine shot even less than neck and brain shots. On most ungulates the spine drops fairly far down between the shoulders at the front of the body, as much as a third down from the back line. So a lung or heart shot that goes too high may well hit the spine. This shot will drop the animal in spectacular fashion, and will usually be almost instantaneously fatal.