Inconsistent shots on moose and bear!

[Leeanda]

Does anyone else have problems with shooting moose and bear? Today I shot a moose 3 times in the face whilst it was charging me and it didn't even flinch then just turned and ran off! Yet I have killed one running away into the fog with one shot! Same with the bears! I was practising my archery on a bear the other day and to my amusement they all missed or didn't draw any blood yet it was dead the next morning! Make any sense to anyone?

[Jimmy]

When you shoot an animal, every shot has a small chance to be a critical hit. Headshot criticals are insta-kill even on the biggest game, such as the bear and moose.

However, if the RNG isn't kind, it's possible to get multiple shots at a moose and still fail to bring it down. They have a lot of hit points, and at lower skill levels, your shots with your weapon don't deal much damage. Leveling up your weapon skill can help with this, since it'll add extra damage per hit, even if it's not a critical.

Regarding your bear, it's likely that you did hit the bear with a shot, causing it to bleed. Several hours later, it died from blood loss. You can find the relevant information about bleeding on the wiki.

[Leeanda]

I shot the moose directly in the face with all three bullets! And I'm on level 5!as for the bear I followed it briefly and saw no blood on his tracks!!

 

[odizzido]

Humans aren't very good at telling whether they're actually hitting stuff or not. I've heard many complaints over many games from many people that are similar to yours and when you watch the actual recorded gameplay they're clearly missing.

If I feel like a game is off I will sometimes record some of my gameplay to see if it's true or not. Perhaps you could do that too?

[UTC-10]

The animal model used in the game amounts to critical hits, which kills instantly, and bleeding wound, which kills eventually.  There was a third class of hit which basically would be trivial hits drawing no blood (even if, as sometimes seems to happen the shooter sees blood spatter).  Excepting the moose (which do not bleed) and rabbits (these latter tend to die if the character looks hard at them 😉),  every other creature that can be hunted will follow the described animal model.  

Certain locations on the animal would have a higher chance of a critical hit (instant kill) and more serious bleeding (if no critical hit) so placement of the hit does matter, but one could shoot a bear in the b**t and have it die on the spot while a precise shot to the head has it running off, maybe trailing blood drops. 

One tries for the best possible hit as there were no guaranteed kill shots in the game. 

The critical hit/bleeding wound model means that repeated shots have a chance of a critical hit but only the worst/shortest bleed out timer applies (no cumulative effects to bleeds).  Hence, the advice was shoot the bear and if it left a trail of blood drops, stay safe and do something else while it bleeds to death.  That said, there were certain things that a character can do that could result in the bear being "healed".  

 

The moose was the exception to bleeding out likely because bleed out was a standard fall-back tactic for any character to use against dangerous game and that the moose does not wander all over the region but sticks to a general location. It may have been seen as "too easy" for such big game.  

Note:  I have noticed that with a good hit on a moose (I aim for the head especially while it is facing me) that as it wanders back to its haunts, it would emit repeated noises where before it would be silent, except when specifically threatening the character, and another good hit seems to drop the moose with some regularity.  After taking several moose across several sandboxes, I suspect that the sounds represents the devs' substitute for bleeding as in the moose is hurting and another good hit can take it down.  Otherwise there would be no indication of the state of the moose. 

YMMV.  Good luck.

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by UTC-10
Edited for grammar

[UpUpAway95]

5 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Does anyone else have problems with shooting moose and bear? Today I shot a moose 3 times in the face whilst it was charging me and it didn't even flinch then just turned and ran off! Yet I have killed one running away into the fog with one shot! Same with the bears! I was practising my archery on a bear the other day and to my amusement they all missed or didn't draw any blood yet it was dead the next morning! Make any sense to anyone?

I'd consider yourself lucky that it eventually turned and ran off.  I have been stomped more than once when the game's RNG gods decided my shots weren't good enough to give me a crit.  Wasted bullets are nothing... broken ribs are horrible.

[hozz1235]

On 5/30/2021 at 10:15 AM, Leeanda said:

I shot the moose directly in the face with all three bullets! And I'm on level 5!

I'd have to tack that one up to really bad luck on the RNG.

[Leeanda]

Same thing happened this morning! 4 direct shots died on the last one!  I will have my revenge and a hearty meal! where's the kechtup!