The .45 Live

This may not go over particularly well with fans of the .45. What the heck. I'll speak the truth as observed.

I had occasion to shoot a skunk recently. The four-legged variety. The drought in this part of the world has brought out lots of skunks for some reason. Rabies is always a concern, and we've made it a point to kill any that stray too close to the house.

Anyway, I happened on one with my brother-in-law. Hilarity ensued. To make the story short, I ended up shooting the skunk with a Kimber Ultra Carry. Not wanting to waste a good hydra-shok on a skunk, I took out the hollowpoint clip and stuck in a magazine consisting of 230 grain Federal hardball. The distance varied between 10-15 yards, depending on who was chasing who during the little engagement. It's a long story. At any rate, I connected, and the skunk folded up. The hit was pretty much in the center of the body, from what I could tell.

Well, that's the end of that, I thought. I wanted to get out of the area, since the skunk had pretty much nuked the entire site, and my eyes were watering. Then, my wife pointed out the skunk was up and running again. Two more .45's put the animal down once and for all. I felt bad for having to let the little guy suffer, even for a minute or two.

This shook my faith in the mighty .45. The 1 shot, man-stopping round that we all know and love. Apparently, it wasn't a one shot skunk-stopper.

In hindsight, this incident illustrates a couple of points. The first is that a pistol is inferior to a rifle. This would have never happened had I shot him with even a .22 rifle. Certainly one of the 7.62's, or any other rifle cartridge big enough to shoot a deer with would have worked better. At least I wouldn't have been exposed to the bio-warfare the little sucker put out, and I could have put him down a bit more cleanly.

The second is: shot placement helps. Had I shot the thing in the head, we wouldn't have had a problem. I assume the first body shot just sailed on through without hitting anything solid. The target obviously was hit, but wasn't put down. It's just awfully hard to place a pistol shot into that precise an area on a small, moving target. I was lucky to hit the body shots. I need more practice. I have shot a wild hog with the .45, and had no problem putting down the target. I think it was easier to hit vitals in that case, since we're dealing with a much bigger animal.

Third: ammunition choice was a big factor here. I made the mistake of switching from a good hollowpoint to full metal jacket, just because I didn't want to waste expensive ammo. If I've made the decision to shoot something live, I had better do what I can to put the target down as quickly as possible. I think a hollowpoint would have worked much better. It theoretically should have transferred more energy to the target, thus putting it down more humanely. I think a hollowpoint 9mm would have worked every bit as well.

Fourth: I need better sights. Black sights on a black target aren't the easiest to pick up. I did paint the front sight white, but it still wasn't as clear and quick to pick up as I would have hoped. Meprolights would have been awfully nice. Even three-dots would have been better. Anything that helps get on target quickly would have helped out. Had this been at night, it would have been even tougher to hit.

Fifth: I'm never going to shoot a skunk with a pistol again. I never got directly sprayed, but the smell was simply horrible. My clothes smelled like skunk for two days, and my shoes really absorbed the odor. I thought I was going to have to throw them away. Again, I never even got hit by the little bio-weapons factory. They definitely have a blast radius.

At any rate, I guess I learned a few important lessons from this experience.