Shot Placement Guide

So you want to take down your Trophy animals and you want to be able to do it reliably. Hopefully, this guide will help you do just that.

Introduction

theHunter: Call of the Wild has several key components and 'rewards' to its hunting mechanics.
One of these, and arguably the most important, is the 'Integrity' bonus.

Integrity refers specifically to the condition of the animal after it's shot and has died.
This value is affected by the time it took for the animal to die, the number of shots on target; as well as the 'Weapon Class' of the Firearm used to shoot it.

I'll be updating this guide in the near future with more information on Weapon Classes and to which animal and munition type they correspond. For now, however, you can refer to the in-game Lexicon for more information.

Factors to take into consideration before making the shot

So you've put yourself into a decent position and you think you're ready to take your shot.
Have you considered the following:

1. Your elevation.
2. Your distance
3. Your angle relative to the target.
4. Your targets speed (if not stationary)
5. Your targets behavioural state.

Now, I know this seems like over kill for a game, but it's important to think about if you're serious about wanting to take down an animal Quickly.

Elevation

Your elevation (or depression) to your target will directly affect the angle of the round as it enters the body of the animal and where you should be aiming to achieve maximum effect.

Distance

Whilst "Call of the Wild" has bullet drop, you will not notice it's impact until you start to shoot outward of 200 meters. At the time of writing this guide, we don't have hard figures in regards to bullet drop or projectile speeds. Therefore, Hunters will need to largely get a feel for the amount of drop purely through shooting.

Personal, anecdotal information, is that at ~200m, aim your cross-hair slightly above where you want it to hit (about the width of the cross-hair itself). 300M, you want to aim half a mil-dot above your target.

This is, of course, also affected by the weapon itself.
The .223 has a reportedly flatter trajectory, meaning that the amount of compensation will be less.

Any feed-back on this topic is welcomed and I will update this section with your input.

Angle to Target

This is the factor that will trip up a lot of Hunters.
Shooting at an animal angling toward or away from you, is a much different beast to shooting one broadside.

Typically, an animal moving away or toward you, is going to present a much lower chance of hitting a double lung shot. Instead, it will often result in either a single lung + other organ (liver, intestines etc); or a flesh wound.

The below image serves to illustrate this point:



To give another visual aide; this is a good indication of the different spots to aim for, when the animal is broadside, moving toward, or moving away.

Target Speed

When shooting, the ideal is to ensure that your target is stationary, for maximum accuracy. Any hunter will tell you however, that reality doesn't always present you this option, and shooting a moving target is sometimes necessary.

If the target is moving, it is a good practice (to use sniper jargon) to "ambush" your prey. This means, placing your cross-hairs in front of the animal, keeping it stationary, and firing when the target reaches the desired position.

Another option, is to "stalk" the prey, which is to actively move your crosshairs to match the animals speed and trajectory, before taking the shot. In my opinion, this option has a lot more margin for error.

Target Behavioural State

Shooting an amimal that is leisurely taking a drink at a watering hole is going to present far less challenge than the Buck that you've accidentally spooked into the next field over.

A spooked animal will be far more cautious and it's movement sometimes more erratic, making for a harder shot. It will also not respond to callers until it has calmed down; and is more likely to flee again as its senses are heightened to your presence.

This only strengthens the argument of a slow and steady approach to stalking your game.

Choosing Your Shot

So you've made it this far, nice!
Now that you're in place, you've factored in distance, elevation, angle and animal state, you are ready to make your shot.

If you've played a hunting game before or have hunted in real life, you will know all about the "boiler-room shot" - through the heart-lung area with the deer standing broadside. Even if you're a couple of inches off, you still hit vital organs, and it usually results in a relatively fast kill.

Despite that, lets take a brief look at the options available:

Heart

Pros: Instant death.
Cons: Very small target to hit. Missing can result in a flesh wound at worst; and a lung shot at best.

Lung / Double Lung

Pros: An ample target provides some forgiveness, meaning you don't have to be pinpoint accurate to kill a deer. This shot creates massive hemorrhaging, so the blood trail is typically easy to find and follow.
Cons: Medium to large sized game don't always go down immediately with this shot, meaning that you often have to follow a blood trail. Smaller calibre rounds also don't garuantee a double lung hit, due to lower penetration. This will result in a single lung shot and longer bleed-out times.

Brain

Pros: Instant death..
Cons: The brain is a tiny target, and it's easy to miss the deer entirely or, worse, to only wound it.

Neck/Spine

Pros: A correctly placed bullet will kill instantly.
Cons: The vital area on a neck shot is quite small. Hit low, and you will only wound a deer, resulting in long tracking times.

Animal Diagrams

I have also found the following images from across the internet, to serve as a Quick reference guide for lung / heart locations. All credit is due to the original content owners.

Elk


Deer


Coyote



Black Bear



Hog/Pig/Boar

[f0rer]

the .223 gun was a good weapon?

[Simon Bradford]

good work ! thx

[Lenko]

@Devlin - Yep! If you can reliably make the shot, then you can drop them on the spot with a solid spine shot! :)

[Devlin]

Tried and managed to get insta-kills shooting the spine of deer, 10 cms from the top (backspine) right above the leg, right above the lungs (imagine a T-shape of the spine and leg, aim on the leg | of the T, just below the ---)

[sppj19]

Wow!! Excellent article. A lot of effort and thought has gone into it. Thanks

[Lenko]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Road to 2k!: Spine shots are great, once you learn to hit them consistently. I was taking down Bison with my .243 pretty early on - good money!

[Master_Walker]

Great guide, I'm really looking forward for more guides from you. 👍

[smurf]

I always trying shoot in neck spine, it works well if you know how the animal will behave. All i have to do is just wait till it's stop. Or when it goes straight on me. Also, shooting in thoracic spine gives you the same result - instant kill.

[PicSoul]

Great guide! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

[Shadow_777]

Thank you! Very helpful guide. Well illustrated and explained.