Headshots...not as effective as they should be

[lauren]

So, I just started playing TLD today and the first thing I noticed is...the wolves are clearly some form of god.

I had a hunting rifle and a wolf was walking straight at me, so I aimed down the sights and centred on its forehead and pulled the trigger...the wolf then ran off...'What?'. I followed its blood trail for a bit, but then gave up and stood still to contemplate the TLD world...'How is this wolf still alive?' I questioned.

Then I suddenly see it again running around like a madman; I walk to where it had just ran to make sure it was the one I shot, and sure enough there were drops of blood...'Forget that, I'm not chasing some God Wolf. If it survived a headshot...it doesn't deserve to be eaten' I decided.

This has happened twice to me in my hour of playing.

P.S.

TLD...where did your God Wolves come from?

[tsotha]

Eh... how can you be sure you hit him in the head?

[lauren]

Eh... how can you be sure you hit him in the head?

It was right in front of me walking slowly up. I aimed right between it's eyes. If you're suggesting that within a 10foot distance the bullet could stray so far as to not even hit the skull...hunting rifles are built for precision.

[tsotha]

Not this one. It's only good to about ten meters.

[elloco999]

If you aimed right between his eyes, the bullet probably went over his head and hit him in the back. I always miss if I aim at the head, but when I aim below the head they drop dead immediately. If you ask me, the sights are off.

[ChillPlayer]

The wolf's head moves up and down when he walks/runs towards you, so you have to actually aim slightly above the eyes and shoot when it's head is down. The same goes when it's devouring a deer, there's a rhythm to it's head movement you have to account for.

Having said that, my kill rate when I shoot from straight ahead when it's walking towards me is about 80% but when it's eating, more than 50% of the time the wolf will only be wounded when I shoot it straight ahead. Solution: shoot from the side, you see the head's movement and where to aim much clearer. Shooting an eating wolf in the head from the side kills it 95% of the time, usually only one or two wolves in an entire playthrough survive a side shot and they mostly are very severely wounded and will bleed out very soon. One wolf attacked me once after a near miss, he had about 25% left when we went into the fight.

A splendid and thrilling way to train straight shooting a charging wolf is to do it at night. All you see are it's glowing eyes, try several positions of it's eyes in your sight to get a feeling where to aim for a deadly shot, then adopt this to daylight hunting

[chanrobi]

Or the gun could just be more accurate/allow hip fire, or non aimed fire.

[elloco999]

You don't have to hit the head for an instant kill. It's head, spine and hart/ lungs. Aiming at the upper part of the chest from the front is you safest bet as you will have all the kill zones lined up.