Quartering towards....rifle

[Physch]

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

 

I ran into an interesting situation this past weekend and wanted to get feedback on what you guys would do. I have been strictly an archery hunter for quite sometime and am stretching my learning into rifles. I was calling for mountain lions and had a big Tom come in. Initially, I passed on a shot that was straight on and only had to wait a moment before I got a quartering towards shot opportunity as I think the cat realized that something wasn't quite right. The cat was 50 yards away with an unobstructed view (maybe a little grass in the way) but still see very well. I was hunting with a .270 150 grain bullet. My questions for you are: 1. Should I have taken the straight on shot? 2. Should I have taken the quartering towards? 3. Wait for a better shot? 4. If you picked one of the first two, where would you aim? Thank you for your time.

[Red Rabbit]

I would have preferably taken the quartering towards, and aimed at the front point of the shoulder and 1/3 up.

Bet it was cool calling in that lion.

[trphyhntr]

I would have just put it on meat and squeezed

[452b264]

You could have taken either. The frontal shot would travel length wise most likely completely through. I have shot coyotes with a 243 that traveled 99% of body with a frontal shot. (100 gr.)

[Non-Typical Solutions]

Pictures.....very cool to call in the big cat.....hair raising experience???

[firstcoueswas80]

270 on a lion??? Any shot angle and BANG!!!!!

[Hoss50]

Either shot would have been fine.

[yotebuster]

With a rifle, especially at that range, I would take a front on shot at any animal. You would have dropped him in his tracks and likely gone nearly all the way through him. Its the ultimate shot for saving pelts as well as it rarely exits.

[firstcoueswas80]

In other words. Ya done f#&$*ed up A-Aron!

[Big Browns]

At close range you can get away with a lot more with a rifle than you can a bow. You would have been fine with either shot! You just learned a very valuable lesson. It's just to bad you had to learn it on a Lion:(

[GreyGhost85]

Lions are small. Any angle at that distance with a .270 would have been fine as long as there were vitals in the path

[Edge]

Great job calling in the big cat

Hopefully we'll be able to continue hunting them after the initiative vote. Otherwise we'll just be taking pictures.

[Will K]

Shoot.....

[Physch]

I did take the quartering towards shot. Here is an image from the web that I put a mark on where I had aimed. The only difference between the image and reality is the right leg was out farther than the left. The aim point was about an inch inside where I thought the shoulder joint would be. I thought this would go clean through the tops of both lungs. I was calm and softly squeezed the trigger. The cat ran up so fast to the call that I didn't have the opportunity to get really excited until the moment after I pulled the trigger and I saw it flopping around.

 

[GreyGhost85]

Sooooo, you killed it or wounded it?