Get it anchored! The difference between celebrating a trophy on the ground and endlessly searching for a blood trail often comes down to how the bullet performed when it impacted.

All serious hunters are concerned with making quick, humane kills on the game they are hunting. This is the main reason that we are all so careful to match just the right caliber and just the right bullet to the animals we are after. What happens when that bullet hits our intended trophy is extremely important and can be the most critical factor towards having a successful hunt.

Bullets kill in one of two ways. The first would be when they impact the central nervous system. A bullet to the critter's brain shuts down the machinery in no time flat. But brain shots are often quite difficult to make on a moving animal and generally can be expected to do serious damage to the trophy. As a general rule, we use brain shots only on dangerous game when the need to stop the animal is more important than what might happen to the horns and skull.

The second way that bullets kill is by impacting the animal's heart, major arteries, or lungs. In short, the bullet causes extreme trauma that shuts down the flow of blood to the brain. When this blood flow is cut off, the brain shuts down and the animal dies. This process can often take much longer than one would expect--sometimes lasting seconds; sometimes lasting several minutes.

Most seasoned hunters know that a heart-shot animal will nearly always give a little jump and then run a ways before it piles up. When the heart-shot critter in question happens to be a Cape buffalo, and he is running in your direction, a reversion to the brain shot might be indicated.

However, where many hunters vary is in just how much penetration they expect from their hunting bullet. One camp believes that the properly selected bullet should have enough force to drive deeply into the animal's vitals. While doing this, it should expand completely so that a maximum amount of tissue and vessel damage is accomplished. But the bullet should not completely exit the animal. In this manner, the bullet expends all of the energy that it is capable of within the animal.

The second view of bullet performance would also have the bullet expand dramatically and cause a good deal of tissue damage and bleeding; however, this school holds that the bullet should exit the animal's body. Having spent a lifetime of hunting, and seeing the effect of bullets on game animals and people, I have to say that this second theory is the one I value most.