Hunters, have you ever heard the “whack-boom”

[bigmoose]

Interesting thing happened the other day while deer hunting with a couple of friends. We set up quite a ways from each other with plenty of topography between us. Around 9:15 am I heard a "whack boom". "What the heck?" I say to myself. That sounded weird. I knew who shot. He was carrying a Remington in 7mm SAUM. I hadn't heard that particular caliber's sound in the deer woods before.

Then it dawned on me…that whack sound was the bullet striking the main body of the deer. I can often hear a boom-whack when I shoot deer or antelope at distances beyond 100 yards. You need to listen closely and know what it sounds like.

Some of you have already figured out this conundrum. The deer was 200 yards closer to me than the shooter. The bullet traveling much faster than the speed of sound, caused the whack to reach my ears before the boom of the rifle did.

At the designated time I made the prearranged circuitous walk to the guy who shot. He thought he missed after searching awhile for blood. I told him no, that deer was hit. He didn't believe that you can hear a bullet hit an animal. Anyways, I found the deer after a short search. Shot right through the front shoulder, deader than a door nail.

 

[Sevens]

My experience is different then what you describe but I think they are closely related. When I hunt Prairie dogs, a good COM hit at distance makes a noticeably different sound than a miss... and the fact that I'm using decent electronic hearing protection means that I'm getting a really good sample of the sound.

 

[arjay]

An arrow to the chest makes a whomp sound

 

[lihpster]

I've more often heard the dreaded click-damn.

 

[Eric300]

When hunting with my muzzle loader I usually hear the 'boom' first then the 'whack'. And like Arjay said, a broadhead hitting the chest makes a 'thud' noise.

 

[max503]

A 22 rimfire going up the nostril of a deer sounds like whacking a pumpkin.

 

[Miracle Man]

I've heard the whack-boom shooting ground hogs back in the day. But that was with a 22-250 shooting 50 gr. bullets at near 4,000 fps.

 

[Rudi]

Sound does very strange things in the field. I remember my first deer. I could hear his hoof beats, but did not hear my 30.06!

 

[cracker57]

I have a couple of friends that were paid to shoot deer, One of their gang recently Passed, he told me he had shot over 4000 whitetails. Many years ago when it was not so easy to get silencers they were given the go ahead to can their rifles, they had to send them to Arizona I believe to have their barrels threaded and cans added. They did not use subsonic rounds but could hear the bullet smack the deer, they said when they first heard it it was hard not to laugh, funny sounding I guess.

 

[NYlakesider]

I suppose a lot depends on the acuity of your ears. A slow moving round like a 30.30, 32 special 35 Rem (typical lever guns) to me make a very distinctive thump/whack sound. All that water in the animal getting displaced sounds off quite well.

 

[Wyo]

I've heard it on many animals but most especially on big ones like elk. You can sometimes hear a bullet hit an elk a mile away.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I remember on deer trip where two jeeps stopped to let the hunters out to
try to get a deer on the hill side.

I walked up the road and took a sitting position and hear my gun go off three times
boom, nothing, boom nothing, boom nothing.

I was around 24 and in my "Prime". How could I have ever missed?

A fellow hunter walked up to me picked up the brass and handed me three live rounds.

"Buck Fever" at its BEST, for my first and only case.
I never pulled the trigger, just worked the bolt of the rifle, in all of the excitement.

 

[walnutred]

The sound that always worried me was the crack (or snap) boom. Depending on how you describe the sound of a bullet going past.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I've never experienced the whack-boom but I have experienced the boom-whack-squeal-squeal-squeal whilst feral hog hunting.....