Best cartridge for putting down a horse?

[Oregonhunter5]

I've seen first hand what happens when a stallions castration goes bad.
A vet was giving the shot to knock out the horse, but before he could empty the syringe, the owner holding the lip twitch lost his grip and the stallion immediately reared up and then fell backwards into a plate glass window overlooking the owners backyard.
The owners wife was filming the event and wanted her house to be in the backdrop.
The horse went crazy and cut himself so bad on that plate glass that the vet ran over to his truck, pulled out a S&W 38 spl snubby and then ran into the house and managed to get the pistol near the thrashing and screaming horses forehead somehow and empty it to put him down.
My job was to use a front loading tractor with forks to lift the carcass out of the window and down the hillside to bury it.
I've never seen anything like that, as the living room was destroyed and there was blood everywhere.

That's about the craziest story I've heard in a long time. Holy crap. The lack of intelligence in this world in amazing. Wow!!!!
I've had my fill of horses the last month. I'm in a wheelchair for 2 more months. Can't walk. Busted pelvis. If I had a gun when that happened that sucker would be dead by now. But! You can get busted by the cops bad if they don't like why that horse was shot.

 

[Edhunds]

So, one of my wife's clients asked my wife what type of hand gun I would recommend to put down a horse (I'm assuming it's one of her own, ya I know about assumptions). I haven't provided an answer yet. I know if it were me I'd likely grab my .357 Marlin with heavy softpoints or if it had to be a handgun one of my .357 revolvers with the same load.

However I have no experience putting down a horse.

I'm looking for recommendations from people that have ranch experience as to what would work humanely for a couple that have little firearms experience. Presently the only firearm that I know of on their horse farm is his AR-15.

Ideas?

So, one of my wife's clients asked my wife what type of hand gun I would recommend to put down a horse (I'm assuming it's one of her own, ya I know about assumptions). I haven't provided an answer yet. I know if it were me I'd likely grab my .357 Marlin with heavy softpoints or if it had to be a handgun one of my .357 revolvers with the same load.

However I have no experience putting down a horse.

I'm looking for recommendations from people that have ranch experience as to what would work humanely for a couple that have little firearms experience. Presently the only firearm that I know of on their horse farm is his AR-15.

Ideas?

22 caliber, brain shot. If you used a large caliber the bullet will splatter the brains (and blood) and it will be messed. If the owner wants to see the dead horse (Or see's it) one more time it will not be a pretty sight.

 

[The Heretic]

Unless a vet is unable to get there in a reasonable amount of time (examples of being in a wilderness seem to apply) then call a vet, despite the cost, unless we are talking about a government sanctioned culling and use of a firearm is approved.

I think about this all the time when I hear about people charged with animal cruelty for shooting a domesticated animal (albeit, almost always the shooting incident is egregious, usually not their animal and IMO is indeed cruelty due to the reason and the way it is done). On the farm, it was not at all unusual to put down animals (usually either for meat or due to terminal illness/injury) with a firearm - but times have changed. One of my earliest memories as a child was my father putting down a dog he had hit with the car, in the middle of Cedar Hills (IIRC) back in the late 50s - someone local loaned him a shotgun. They could not find the owner of the dog. Today someone doing the same thing would most likely find themselves in serious trouble, and a large scandal in the papers.

I myself have put down several wild animals injured by cars and I used what was on hand; a handgun. If you read the laws in Oregon, they only recently changed regarding wildlife of any kind, especially game or fur bearing animals, struck by vehicles - you had to call authorities (who often did not come, or came hours later), you could not dispatch the animal, and even today it is an iffy thing that I am not sure of at all.

I also administered a coup de grace to a deer I shot (legally, with a centerfire rifle, during season). Did it with a .22 rimfire revolver - it took 9 shots to the skull before it expired, and even then it did not expire immediately afterwards. Before that I had just cut their throats if they were not dead - this one was a buck caught in a bunch of downed saplings and was kicking around, making it dangerous for me to handle it.

I was surprised that a number of smaller animals took as many shots as they did from a centerfire handgun.

Personally I am of the "go big" school of thought. In a handgun, .357 180 gr bullet with a heavy thick jacket and a stout load would be the minimum, and I would prefer a .44 magnum, and preferably a stout bullet - such as those designed for bears. I would not use a .22 rimfire unless that was absolutely the only thing I had - my experience with a blacktail deer convinced me of that - much smaller than a horse of any kind.

 

[Mikej]

What a gruesome thread. I understand that in a situation with a severely wounded animal you just do what you gotta' do. But in this case? For cripes sake, get a vet! Yeah, someone who's been dispatching animals on the ranch has a lot of experience, but you can bet when they first started doing it there was likely some pretty fugly, funky, dispatches. You hit that animal wrong and it's muscles go nuts when the brain is no longer controlling them. A few seconds of violent spasms from a 1000 # animal won't be pretty. Some body want to be near that? I just see ALL kinds of things that could happen I wouldn't want to see.

What's a vet cost? I'll chip in the first $10.00. Or can the owner get a vet to authorize a syringe with a lethal injection? Local FFA type group?

 

[The Heretic]

From what I have seen of hog hunting, the spasms are not uncommon, probably with brain shots - and yes it is reportedly due to the brain being disconnected. So if done right, then expect the spasms.

 

[FourTeeFive]

The guy we use most frequently drops 1400 lb steers all day long with FMJ .22 mag.

Two key points here: "all day long" and 22 Magnum

Shot placement (and experience) is everything with a small caliber, and 22 Magnum is a pretty serious round (especially compared to 22LR).

 

[trevi]

That brain is a surprisingly small target. Definitely can see where someone could mess up, especially using a 22LR.

View attachment 763725

I am surprised of their small brain in relation to their size, afterall, they are smart animals.

 

[DLS]

I don't have time to read this entire thread so I hope I don't repeat something here:

I never put down a horse but I have put down dozens and dozens of full grown cattle working summers in my Great Uncles custom butchering business.

A standard .22LR round nose bullet, fired from a rifle pointed straight into the skull aimed at the intersection of two lines running from the base of the ear to the eye put them down with finality. There was never a need to fire a second shot. There was no mess this way, you hardly could see the entry wound under the hair when done. Aimed this way, and from a rifle there will be ample penetration to pass totally through the brain and provide instant death.

Anything bigger will create splatter and may go off course and exit the skull. If there is any emotional attachment to the horse the "optics" of using something bigger might create some very unpleasant memories.

I hope this helps.

 

[CLT65]

Anything bigger will create splatter and may go off course and exit the skull.

I don't have the experience that you have, but I will add that the cow I shot with a 300gr 44 magnum dropped like a rock, and I could barely tell where it had been hit. Nothing exited and no blood that I recall. Same with my mom's old horse that my dad put down with a .357 mag. That's just my limited experience though, and doesn't mean it would always work that way.

My mom had very significant emotional attachment to her old horse, so I'm glad it worked the way it did. We had a backhoe and buried the horse. I think my mom wouldn't have been OK with seeing her old friend loaded onto a rendering truck.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

Both times I slaughtered my cows I used an AR15 and brain shot. They dropped on the spot and there was no exit wound or excessive gore. I didn't feel comfortable enough to use a .22lr on the larger animal. There was a bit of blood from the sinus, but it's nice to know that it was a humane and instant kill.

I used a .22lr on a 120lb pig and it did the trick just fine.

It's definitely not something I'd offer to do for someone. For one, it's not an enjoyable experience in the least bit, and for two, if for whatever reason you did not get a clean kill, it could put you in an awkward position.

 

[IronSights]

I was going to say that euthanasia for an animal as large as a horse would be rather expensive, but apparently it is not necessarily more than 150-300 dollars, plus the "afterwards" costs. For two of the horses my family had when I was a kid, that was the neighborly farmer who buried 'em for about $50 each time. I think we did have the "dead truck" come for one of them, which was more gruesome than burial.

Here are some resources (sorted by US state) for horse euthanasia - Resources for making a humane end of life decision for your horse

 

[OldPewPews]

I have seen cows being put down for butcher with a 22 LR in the soft spot behind the ear...Do not UNDERestimate the 22 LR at close range.

While I hear you on the last part - and I'm reminded of this great scene from one of TV's greatest shows - is it reasonable to assume that horse anatomy is going to be the same as cow anatomy in this respect? I don't know enough about either to say.

But if there's a soft way in and horse skulls are hard enough to inhibit an exit wound then yeah, I can see how a .22 LR bullet could do the job, bouncing around in there.

 

[DB is Here]

Closed per OP request.