one for the record books

[HOSPassassin]

No, not those record books...

I shot a red squirrel this evening. These guys are about half the size of an Eastern Gray. He was a mature male, so about half a pound in weight. They're tiny but tasty.

He took a .22 Exact right in the dome from about 20 yards. He immediately stiffened up, started to twitch, and began to slowly tip over. I thought, "Cool. No worries about this one getting away."

A few seconds later he fell out and came to rest in a crotch near the ground. I walked over and noticed that he was still breathing. (!) I tapped his eye with a twig to check for reflex and there was none. At least he appeared to not be aware of anything. After waiting a minute and seeing no change I thought, "Maybe I actually got him in the chest. It's shooting about 525 fps. Maybe the pellet dropped an inch." With that I popped him in the head from an inch away. He commenced the typical death dance that ensues from a good brain shot. But at the end of all that he was _still_ breathing and making noise with his outward breaths. (!!)  What more can I do but shoot him again? The third one to his dome finally ended things after a few more seconds.

When I skinned him I discovered that ALL THREE pellets had hit the head and passed through. It was a completely jumbled mass of bone fragments, blood, and brains under the skin. There was no hole in the chest like I previously thought.

How can a half-pound tree rat soak up three .22 pellets to the brain!? The combined mass of the pellets might have equalled the mass of his whole head. I am again amazed at the sheer will to live of the squirrels we hunt.

[dk1677]

they are tough devils

[ranchibi]

Some critters are TOUGH! I had a similar thing with a rat I had trapped. The trap caught it's foot so I grabbed my Prod and point bkanked it in the forehead....tried running away! So I again point blanked it and this time it expired immediately....but the first shot should have ended it....crazy!

[longislandhunter]

Always amazes me how tenaciously some wild critters hold onto life.  It is amazing.

Jeff

[splitbeing]

Could be blood in the lungs being gagged up by reflex, kind like the death dance of hacking up fluid?

Had something like this happen with a grey squirrel. Three shots to the head, death dance, weird breathing and mouth movement despite the head shots.  Pretty disturbing.

[dk1677]

I forgot something that was encountered some years ago- zombie squirrels 

[JimD]

It could be that the brain stem was intact and causing basic bodily functions to continue.  A person can be "alive" without a brain.  After my wife's stroke a neurosurgeon actually proposed removing her brain so she could "live" in a nursing home as a vegetable.  We declined.  Your pellet effectively did the same thing as the proposed surgery.  Destroyed the brain but left the brain Stem intact.

I also saw something similar on a small raccoon I shot in the brain. Brain was coming out the hole but it's heart was still going.  I could see it's neck pulsing. So I put one in it's neck and blood spurted a few times and stopped.  It was dead after the brain shot (like the squirrel in question) but all bodily functions hadn't stopped yet.

[Blowpipe Sam]

It’s frustrating.  We talk a lot about foot pounds of energy, shot placement, and pellet effectiveness but some critters seem to defy all the experience, ballistics, and science.  At least once every hunting season I encounter a squirrel that I have to “shoot to pieces” to bring down.  The principle reason I’m gravitating toward .25 caliber for hunting is to give me a little more confidence in body shots but I haven’t yet had a head shot squirrel run far after being hit by a .25.

[only1harry]

It happens from time to time, and I think the chances are higher with a lower powered gun since I've had it happen to me a couple of times when I used low-mid power AG's.  I have shot more than a couple of Grey squirrels that were brain shot but still breathing, especially with my 500-550fps Crosman 760 (.177) pumper a few decades ago.  They are without brain function, but the blood is still pumping so the heart keeps beating.  They eventually expire, but a follow up shot is the humane thing to do. 

Actually most squirrels do not expire because they are shot in the brain, but because of the blood loss.  The bigger the caliber and higher the power, the faster they bleed out (internally & externally) and expire.  Shooting them in the brain with any caliber just ensures they won't run away wounded or hide in a hole before expiring.

[JimD]

I don't think it's completely correct to conclude an animal is alive because it's moving or showing other signs of normalcy.  Think of a brain shot squirrel flipping and flopping around.  Is it alive?  I don't think so, the neurons are just triggered and there is enough blood flow or oxygen in the muscles for it to move.  But when the brain is smashed it is dead.  I don't worry much about the brain dance or other "shutdown" behavior.  I worry about a mortally injured animal running off where I can't find it.  Brain shots stop that as do solid neck shots.  Side to side chest shots also do if you hit a shoulder.  Without a shoulder I've had squirrels run a few feet, especially with a 177.  Front of chest hits where only one lung is hit are worse.  I think fpe up to upper twenties/low thirties helps and bigger holes help.  But placement is the most important.

[HOSPassassin]

Neither am I that concerned about nervous twitches after the center of consciousness has been obliterated. They're not feeling anything. It just looks disturbing to humans who are watching.

Maybe I should have shot him right in the heart for the third one. Since I was already shooting from inches away I could have put it precisely there and not messed up his already tiny forelegs. That would have interrupted the delivery of oxygenated blood immediately.

[Blowpipe Sam]

Galvanic spasms and tetnic arches.  Unless the brain is severed from the spine a brain shot squirrel is going to twitch and flop until the last random electrical impulses have stopped.

[subscriber]

Another vote for an intact brain stem, causing breathing and heartbeat to continue.  The thinking part of the brain was destroyed, so the squirrel was not going to navigate a clever route back to its lair. Or attack you.

A faster pellet may have done more peripheral damage and prevented your distress at seeing "signs of life".  But that animal was already taking a dirtnap, despite appearances.  Ditto for shooting the head from the front to the back, or the back to the front thus more likely to damage the brain stem.  I assume this squirrel was shot from the side, between the eye and ear.  Or high up on the head.

If you chop off a chicken's head with an axe they tend to "run away" if you lose your grip on them.  Yet, no one thinks the chicken is still alive.  But the chicken's body "engine" still has air, fuel and spark.  Just like this brain shot squirrel.

[avator]

A few years ago I shot a Timber rattler in the head. I cut it's head off and planned to skin it. That snake was striking at me with no head. I thought it had turned zombie on me. 

[subscriber]

A few years ago I shot a Timber rattler in the head. I cut it's head off and planned to skin it. That snake was striking at me with no head. I thought it had turned zombie on me. 

Perhaps it was using wifi

[avator]

A few years ago I shot a Timber rattler in the head. I cut it's head off and planned to skin it. That snake was striking at me with no head. I thought it had turned zombie on me. 

Perhaps it was using wifi

Perhaps.. whatever it was using it still made me jump from pure reflex.
BTW.. I looked in the bucket and the head wasn't moving. I was real glad to see that. 

[Blowpipe Sam]

A few years ago I shot a Timber rattler in the head. I cut it's head off and planned to skin it. That snake was striking at me with no head. I thought it had turned zombie on me. 

Perhaps it was using wifi

Perhaps.. whatever it was using it still made me jump from pure reflex.
BTW.. I looked in the bucket and the head wasn't moving. I was real glad to see that. 

Snakes have pretty primitive central nervous systems and it is spread out over the snakes entire length.  Chop off the head and a snake still has quite a bit of “brain” left in its spine.  Remember, chop off its head and “a rattler will keep on shaking til the sun goes down” as we say down here.  Chopping off a venomous snake’s head is more about keeping it from biting.