Tough little doe

May I suggest a .416 Rigby?

You never know. This year I put a 165 gr Accubond through the top of a 6 points heart and it went 60 yards. A 300 SST from a 50 cal muzzleloader through both lungs of a 9 point and it still made it 100 yards. Last year everything dropped in their tracks.

They are tough.

This is a great example of why they say you always have to be ready to send a follow-up shot and/or track your critter. What happens when bullet meets flesh and bone is never the same twice.

Deer are tough. i've done some memorable tracking and dragging of deer that were solidly hit in the right place and just took off. For the last 13 years over 90 percent of my deer kills have been done with a .50 muzzleoader.

i believe with the proper bullet a .50 muzzleloader is more effective on deer and wild hogs than many centerfire rifle rounds. i get a remarkable percentage of bang flops and near bang flops where the deer goes less than 20 yards after being hit.

Friday i killed this doe. She was about 30 yards away quartering to when hit. i normally avoid quartering to shots like the plague: But this shot was done from a good stand; my shooting bench. The 250 grain SST bullet hit the deer in front of the right shoulder and exited to the rear of the left shoulder. The deer went down and did not kick. There was a stream of blood on the grass about 6' long where the bullet exited.

I shot a cull buck this weekend with a severe quartering away angle because he turned and was exiting the area and I wanted him out of the herd due to some pretty bad antler characteristics. The 30-06 165 grain bullet entered just ahead of the right hindquarter and the bullet travelled up the body cavity and was lodged against the hide right behind the left shoulder. The shot was around 100 yards from a tower stand so I had a good rest and felt confident I could make a solid kill shot. He dropped in his tracks but flopped around for about a minute trying to get up. I tried to get a follow up shot but just could never get the shot I needed before he stopped struggling. His insides were mush yet he kept trying to stand up. They can be extremely tough animals.

I believe, if the deer has it in its mind that it is about to take off -- just when the shot goes off, it will, in fact try to take off - not necessarily from the shot, but from anything, as it already had it in its mind to bolt!

On the other hand, if the deer is peacefully standing there without a thought of bolting, when the shot is taken, that deer most likely won't bolt, but will just basically stand there, then drop.

I've seen this with other animals as well. I've seen coyote and fox do the same thing.

wyohome said:

May I suggest a .416 Rigby?

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Can you imagine what you would need to kill an elk!