Since early on, I have use the corneal reflex to verify that the hogs and coyotes that I have shot are in fact dead, and not simply unconscious. Basically, the process is that you touch the surface of the eye with an object such as the tip of your shooting sticks and see if the hog's blink reflex engages. No response and the hog is dead. Response, hog is alive, even if unconscious with eyes open. Some people will poke the hog in the butt, 'nads, or belly with their rifle muzzle or shooting sticks to see if they get a response and that is helpful, but I had found that method delivered too many false positives. Sometimes, you can poke the hog or grab a leg and it will kick, even if the brain has been destroyed. The hog isn't alive, but the the neuro-muscular system hasn't shut down fully, yet. So I use the corneal reflex as it seemed to always shut down with dead. All the hogs that it confirmed were alive got a coup de grace shot and those that were dead never showed signs of life again. I have used the corneal reflex to verify death after lack of movement, no sign of breathing, etc. for nearly 15 years. That is a long time for something to work without fail, hundreds and hundreds of tests.

One of my early hunting buddies shared the corneal reflex with me after he had an incident whereby he and his partners were collecting hogs from a field to take to the dead pile. They had loaded up the 7 or 8 'dead' hogs and were taking them out one at at time at the dead pile when my buddy turned to grab the next hog and it was on its feet. Then the hog jumped out of the truck and my buddy ran it down with his pistol. It really bothered him that he could have reached back and ended up with his hand in the mouth of a 200 lb live hog. So he used the corneal reflex and it had worked well for him.

Until Wednesday, I had never had a problem using the corneal reflex. Pig Popper and I were hunting and we each shot hogs and when we when to check his, it had stilled. Before trying to attach the drag, I checked the corneal reflect twice and receiving no blink/eye flinch response which Pig Popper confirmed. No corneal reflex/blink response = DEAD. We were good to go. We attached the drag and dragged the hog back over to mine.

While getting set up for a photo, I saw the ear on Pig Popper's hog perk up. Muscularly controlled ear movement isn't very common on dead hogs. Upon closer inspection, the hog started agonal breathing. This is usually something they do before they die and is a life saving response by the nervous system to a lack of oxygen to the brain, the last few gasps, may go one for a couple of minutes or so in my experience. The agonal breathing quickly stopped and now I figured the hog was dead, but the ear was still up and upon closer inspection, breathing was more regular.

It was like the death process in reverse. So I attempted a corneal touch to see if I got a blink response and not only did it blink, but moved its head away from my touch. Our rifles were unloaded for the photo op. After seeing the hog move its head after I touched the eye, Pig Popper said, "It is like dragging it stimulated it back to life. Gimme your pistol," and he promptly put one into the brain.

I still like the corneal reflex to help verify that a hog is most likely dead as it seems to work better than other simple observational assessments, but it is NOT 100% reliable.

After shooting one in the brain I watch it 'watch' me. Got another 40sw in the head. Ya never know.

This whole situation reminded me of one of my favorite lines from a movie:

Woah! Looks like when they made this fella , they forgot to put in the quit . “Ballad of Buster Scruggs”

DNS has seen a lot of dead/dying hogs and he is pretty thorough in his checks and process, I vouch the hog didn’t initially blink and did after being dragged.

Note: the bullet impacted a bit high on the neck - it was a 300 Blackout Jacketed Hollow Point (120 Gr) w muzzle velocity of 2175 fps (shot was approx 100 yards).

Those dang hogs are really tough.

Every Afican PH I've been around touches the eye. The phrase "It's the dead ones that will kill you" also comes from over there.

Corneal Reflex is generally a good 'test' and has served me reliably over the years.

Fixed and dilated pupil when shining a flashlight into the eyes can be helpful as well.


But strange things happen out in the field on occasion. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Interesting…
I've used the "Eye Touch" technique a number of times, but I guess nothing is absolutely certain.

Man, you two gave it cpr while dragging…was the pasture potted a little so as to give the effect of some circulation with the bumps?

In all seriousness, this is a pretty cool story. I know you both would have confirmed dead and know what you are talking about. Really makes you wonder what that hog was doing “acting” all dead and stuff….

So Pig Popper shot his hog just behind the ear and above the spine. After doing some reading, damage to the fifth or seventh cranial nerve can result in no corneal reflex. Maybe his shot did some nerve damage?

Wow! That reminds me of a time when I drove my atv down in the pasture to set waiting on pigs. About sundown they show up and I shoot one about 100yds away. It goes down and I wait several minutes and then get on the atv and drive over to the hog. As I start to step off the atv it gets up and first move is towards the atv. I have a gun rack on the front of the atv and had placed my ar in it. As I was about to get off I had retrieved the ar and had it in had when he made his move. I immediately applied 4-5 " DNS" quality assurance shots to the hog. This took care of him. I was so glad I was on the atv, but many times I'm afoot. I will follow the lead of Y'all,

This also reminds me of a man I knew and worked with about 40 yrs ago. He had hunted all his life and was in his 50s at the time. He had shot a buck deer and when he went to retrieve it, it came up and gored him. He was gored in the femoral artery and bled to death in the woods by himself. He was found the next day when family started missing him form the evening before. Like Creekrunner said " It's the dead ones that kill you "

Stay safe and check em before you load em up.

Technically, corneal sensation comes from CN5, and facial muscles movement is CN7, but when it comes to reflexes there may be some efferent and afferent pathways I have long forgotten about in each of those nerves.

The interesting things, physiologically, is the lack of any response in the form of signs of life. It wasn't just that the corneal reflex was gone, but there were no other signs of life. Even a person completely slumped from going unconscious will have some other signs of life.

My guess is the close but not complete hit to the CNS caused a nervous system overload, similar to a person getting shocked with electroconvulsive therapy. It iwll make you appear lifeless for a bit and then come back to....it is entirely possible the close ear shot might have damaged some CN functions, as that area (at least in humans) has quite a few well established foramens for CN exits from the skull. But even f the reflex was "intact" it still may have been shut down from the CNS shock. Hard to know. It is interesting it took such a while to show sign of life though. Crazy story and in most it would be hard to believe...I know you guys have the experience to quench any doubt in my mind!

Thank you for the medical insights!

We've shot one in the field and the next day it was gone.