Use enough gun for ...

How much is 'enough gun' for deer at 50 yards

  • any gun including pellet rifle, just shoot 'em in the eye

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • BP is fine, this is a fluke

    Votes: 14 30.4%

  • get with the times, smokeless powder is a must

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • any modern center fire pistol

    Votes: 1 2.2%

  • center fire pistol .357 minimum

    Votes: 11 23.9%

  • any rifle, 30-30 minimum

    Votes: 9 19.6%

  • 30-30 is obsolete, 6.5 CM is a must

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • .375 H&H to put 'em down

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Any drilling suitable for African big game

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 105 mm howitzer

    Votes: 1 2.2%

  • Nuke 'em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

    Votes: 10 21.7%
  • Total voters
    46
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I was told a story when I was young, I city Hunter came up. Shot a nice buck him and his buddy's prop the deer up and lay his new mark 5 wdy on the antlers. Deer wakes up and runs off with the rifle, it was never found or the deer. I have for head wanted to go and look around for it but its probably rusted to nothing.

Always poke the eye and cut the throat.
 
Your missing some big bore options on there.

I like .429-.458 diameter bullets most of the time. .475 and .500 are OK too.

I like quick second and third shots too. As many already know.
 
This actually happened about 45 minutes north of me. It seems to be a very odd occurrence, honestly. I can't recall anything like that happening previously. But, after this little incident, you can all rest assured that I will be toting my Springfield 30 caliber muzzle-loader from now on!

Mac
 
Animals don't always know they're dead right away, period. From prairie dogs and rabbits to bovines, growing up killing animals that is a lessen you learn quickly. Is a .22 hollow point or even 9mmhp, or even a 12 ga too small for a rabbit at 5 to 10yds with vital shots (confirmation with autopsy)? Because my brother took his first lickin from a dead rabbit......caused him a start and my dad and I a good chuckle! At the end of the day, insurance is cheap, and assumptions ate costly.
 
I have killed deer with .308, 3006 and 12 gauge. Never had one get up and run. The deer have always gone down on the first shot except one and I had to shoot it twice . Once when it was standing still and one more time when it reared up and started to run. Ran about 50 yards and pile up under a pine tree. I waited in the stand for another 10 minutes to see if the other deer would come back. Party hunting. It was very dead when I got there. If the deer drops in place I always wait.
 
troy fairweather said:
I was told a story when I was young, I city Hunter came up. Shot a nice buck him and his buddy's prop the deer up and lay his new mark 5 wdy on the antlers. Deer wakes up and runs off with the rifle, it was never found or the deer. I have for head wanted to go and look around for it but its probably rusted to nothing.

Always poke the eye and cut the throat.
Click to expand...
A friend tells this story about his grandfather:

He shot a deer and it fell. After he tied his tag to its antlers, the deer woke up, got up, and started slowly walking away. Granddad figured it'd drop again soon since it was walking slow and unsteady, so he just followed along, leaving his rifle behind.

The deer got a second wind and picked up steam. It trotted along over a hill, with Granddad puffing along after it, now a good ways behind.

<BANG>

When Granddad got over the hill, he found a couple of hunters standing over his deer, one congratulating the other over his shot. The conversation went something like this:

Granddad: Sorry to interrupt, but that's my deer.
Hunter: What are you talking about? I just shot it!
GD: I understand, but it's mine. It already has my tag on it. Look. My name is <name>.
<Hunter reads tag>
Hunter: I don't want to mess with any man that can tag a live deer, on foot, unarmed. You can have it.
 
Wounded deer can get very nasty. Not just the Antlers but with hooves when thrashing and kicking. You see a lot of crazy things around deer. When I was younger, my buddy shot a big Fat doe. Hot October day, we carried her for a very long distance. We stopped to take a break. While we were sitting there, she lifted her head up, looked around and bolted off. Then got wobbly legged and collapsed.
 
horsey300 said:
Because my brother took his first lickin from a dead rabbit......caused him a start and my dad and I a good chuckle!
Click to expand...

^^^^ Funny yes, but rabbits can 'strum' you good with those hind legs. Not something you expect the first time handling one that isn't dead.

Not that I would know 'personally' you understand. ;)
 
Mycin said:
A friend tells this story about his grandfather:

He shot a deer and it fell. After he tied his tag to its antlers, the deer woke up, got up, and started slowly walking away. Granddad figured it'd drop again soon since it was walking slow and unsteady, so he just followed along, leaving his rifle behind.

The deer got a second wind and picked up steam. It trotted along over a hill, with Granddad puffing along after it, now a good ways behind.

<BANG>

When Granddad got over the hill, he found a couple of hunters standing over his deer, one congratulating the other over his shot. The conversation went something like this:

Granddad: Sorry to interrupt, but that's my deer.
Hunter: What are you talking about? I just shot it!
GD: I understand, but it's mine. It already has my tag on it. Look. My name is <name>.
<Hunter reads tag>
Hunter: I don't want to mess with any man that can tag a live deer, on foot, unarmed. You can have it.
Click to expand...
thats a good one
 
My dad always had us step on the head off squirrels and rabbit's, my brother did not like doing it so one day he shoots at a squirrel and it jumps and falls off the tree, he picks it up and putts it in his game vest. About 5 minutes later I see him rolling on the ground and screaming, the squirrel woke up and tore up his back pretty good, I couldn't stop laughing that day.
 
Last edited:
I was being a good friend and I took an inept neighbor muzzleload deer hunting with me. Well, I checked that he had all he needed plus I gave him a snack to eat. In the confusion I forgot to check my stuff and didn't bring my possibles bag with extra powder and round balls.

I shot an 8 point about a mile from my neighbor's stand but aimed too high and just broke his back. He could still pull himself with his front legs. I went to reload but realized I left everything in the truck. I got down and tried to finish the deer with the only weapon I had, an Old Timer pocket knife with a 2 1/4" blade.

I jumped on his back and tried to lean forward to cut his throat but he wrenched his antler out of my hand and bucked me off. A second try ended the same way except an antler tip tore a cut in my arm. I then just punctured his lungs by stabbing the knife between 2 ribs and opened the cut more on 2 more tries.

The buck finally succumbed but I felt real bad that it lived so long in that condition, all due to me forgetting a reload.

FE6pt3web.jpg

You can see where the ball clipped the spine. The stab wound is on the deer's left side.
 
I've heard stories like this. But I've never personally seen a dead animal get back up.
 
Bfh_auto said:
I've heard stories like this. But I've never personally seen a dead animal get back up.
Click to expand...
Obviously if they're dead they don't get back up. But, I've seen a number of hogs go down and stay down for a while and then decide it's time to be somewhere else.
I shot a couple one morning a few years ago. Checked 'em both, they looked to be down for good. I walked back to where I had my truck parked to put up my rifle and get my knife and cleaning gear. When I returned one of the hogs was gone!
 
"He apparently went over to the buck and it got up and attacked him," Stephens said.

This is a case of uncautiosouly approaching wounded game before having certainty of its death and the safety of so approaching the game. Hunters using traditional methods like black powder or archery which are more likely to wound animals and require longer for them to fully expire, should especially be aware of the need that applies to all hunters to approach downed game cautiously. Game should not be rushed upon immediately after it goes down. If it is only wounded, not only can the game hurt you, it is even more likely to flee, leaving you with a difficult tracking job and possibly lost and wasted game. It should only be approached after sufficient time as to ensure the certainty that it is fully expired. Even then it should be approached with caution from the rear of the animal while being careful to observe for any signs of life like movement, breathing, and the appearance of the eyes.
 
I had a wild hog and a watusi reanimate. I was trying to load the “dead” hog into the bed of my truck on a night hunt in North Carolina. It essentially jumped up off the ground. Scared the hell out of me. I stepped back and shot it multiple times with my .454 Redhawk. It didn’t reanimate again after that. The bovine was a different story altogether. It was knocked down and apparently killed by a hunting partner. I cautiously approached it with my .500 Maximum drawn when it rose to its feet when I got within spitting distance. It whipped around and before it could run me over I put two 525 grain bullets into it, ending its bid to gore me. I didn’t have time to be scared until afterwards... reanimation is unsettling.
 
MaxP said:
I didn’t have time to be scared until afterwards... reanimation is unsettling.
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Isn't it though? I had a similar incident occur myself, only it involved an Angus cow. She was hurt, baby brother shot her with his new .357 and all was good, right? Wrong! That wench got up when I was hooking the chain to her to pull her off! Thankfully my old '06 was close to hand, and one slug between her eyes did the job. Apparently, brother was using solid lead bullets, and they didn't penetrate her skull, simply knocking her out. We live and learn, don't we.

Mac
 
I have seen deer knocked over by shotguns get up and run. That's because big slow cartridges just punch a hole with not much tissue damage. That's why I prefer to hunt with a high velocity expanding bullet and shoot them in the heart. Heart shot deer can run a few yards but they will never get up. Head shot , neck shot or slug shot deer can and do.
 
I you wait long enough, they will die of old age in the wild the average life expectancy of a buck is only 2.9 years according to who ever wrote this.

https://www.uwsp.edu/wildlife/Ungulates/Pages/White-tailed Deer/White-tailed-Deer-Life-History.aspx

If you shoot a wild animal with a bazooka, unless it’s in two pieces, I still wouldn’t suggest running up to it to give the carcass a hug.

The guy essentially killed himself just as if he had walked in front of a truck that had not yet come to a complete stop. Certainly a preventable mistake we can learn from. I agree with #18.

It does remind me of a time years ago I was hunting with a friend in the same blind and he shot one at first light that dropped in its tracks instantly, not a single step. About a half hour later I see it’s head raise up above the grass. I told him “I think your deers head just popped up.” Because I too had seen that it appeared to get turned off like a light switch. I think he thought I had too much to drink the night before. About 15 minutes after that, it did it again, I asked him if he had seen it that time, at that point, I think he started wondering if I had already started drinking again that morning.

About an hour after he had shot his deer, another group came up and I picked out one fired and it ran in a 20 yard circle before falling where it started (because it only had one functioning shoulder). Another 30 min or so after that we decided we were getting hungry and would head back to camp.

So and hour and a half (at least) after he shot his deer, we exited the blind and were headed towards them and I told him to “watch out” (despite not having seen it move recently) and as he closed to about 20 yards his deer made its best attempt at getting up it could with a severed spine. It didn’t make it on all fours but it certainly wasn’t dead and he was shooting a rifle plenty capable of killing even larger animals, if they were hit in the right spot. His reaction might have been similar to the guy’s in the subject of this thread, because the fact that his deer could still be alive was so outlandish to him, to not be worthy of consideration. And that’s with someone telling him 3 times....
 
Back in the '90's one of the "city boys" on a local police department happened across a "road kill". The deer wasn't too badly damaged on the outside. It seems the large doe had tried to jump over the hood of an approaching car, as the doe was crossing the paved roadway. As it completed its leap, the back legs were hit by the windshield of the car, doing no damage to the vehicle, but sending the doe careening out of control onto the ground. There the doe lay when the officer happened upon the motorist and the doe, in the early light of dawn. The officer loaded the "fresh venison" into the back of his cruiser (they were all vinyl in the back seat area, back then), and asked for another officer to bring him a "road kill tag", which Maryland used back in those days. The fellow officer gave the first officer the tag, and didn't really look at the doe, since she was already loaded up inside the officer's cruiser. The first officer and his doe departed for home as it was shift change, and his midnight shift was done

Minutes later the oncoming shift heard the officer with the roadkill radioing for help, and yelling so loud they could barely understand his message. When backup arrived, one of the rear, side windows was shattered in the officer's cruiser, and there was some blood on the door below the shattered window. When asked what happened, the officer explained,
"I loaded a dead deer from a roadkill into the back of my cruiser. THEN, the deer came back to life, started thrashing around in my back seat until she stood up, and went right through the side window."
An officer who had arrived as backup, who was a country-boy and a hunter asked, "Was the dead deer's eyes closed when you loaded it into your car?"
"Of course its eyes were closed. It was dead!"
The country-boy officer laughed, and said, "When deer are dead their eyes stay open wide"
"They do?"
"Yep..., you put a knocked-out deer into your car, and from the looks of it, she wasn't too badly hurt when she came-to. Probably cut herself a little bit on the window glass as she jumped out."

The paperwork the officer needed to complete, to explain how the window got smashed was apparently EPIC.....

LD
 
Loyalist Dave said:
Back in the '90's one of the "city boys" on a local police department happened across a "road kill". The deer wasn't too badly damaged on the outside. It seems the large doe had tried to jump over the hood of an approaching car, as the doe was crossing the paved roadway. As it completed its leap, the back legs were hit by the windshield of the car, doing no damage to the vehicle, but sending the doe careening out of control onto the ground. There the doe lay when the officer happened upon the motorist and the doe, in the early light of dawn. The officer loaded the "fresh venison" into the back of his cruiser (they were all vinyl in the back seat area, back then), and asked for another officer to bring him a "road kill tag", which Maryland used back in those days. The fellow officer gave the first officer the tag, and didn't really look at the doe, since she was already loaded up inside the officer's cruiser. The first officer and his doe departed for home as it was shift change, and his midnight shift was done

Minutes later the oncoming shift heard the officer with the roadkill radioing for help, and yelling so loud they could barely understand his message. When backup arrived, one of the rear, side windows was shattered in the officer's cruiser, and there was some blood on the door below the shattered window. When asked what happened, the officer explained,
"I loaded a dead deer from a roadkill into the back of my cruiser. THEN, the deer came back to life, started thrashing around in my back seat until she stood up, and went right through the side window."
An officer who had arrived as backup, who was a country-boy and a hunter asked, "Was the dead deer's eyes closed when you loaded it into your car?"
"Of course its eyes were closed. It was dead!"
The country-boy officer laughed, and said, "When deer are dead their eyes stay open wide"
"They do?"
"Yep..., you put a knocked-out deer into your car, and from the looks of it, she wasn't too badly hurt when she came-to. Probably cut herself a little bit on the window glass as she jumped out."

The paperwork the officer needed to complete, to explain how the window got smashed was apparently EPIC.....

LD
Click to expand...

Hahahahaha! That’s hilarious!
 
Well, I had to vote .357 Handgun (although I would add the caveat of at least 5" of barrel) as I could only cast one vote. BP with appropriate charge and projectile will absolutely and effectively kill deer. I'd consider the range there to be at least 60 grains equivalent with a .45 roundball, or some of the modern bullets moving a bit faster to slightly smaller calibers.

I have witnessed 2 "dead" deer jump up and run off with surprising vigor. Both were shot with high powered rifles and appropriate soft point bullets. One was a buck my dad shot, somewhere in the neck with a 30-06. The blood was visible, before having a chance for closer inspection, he jumped up and ran off at full speed. Apparently the shock of the initial impact knocked the deer unconscious or temporarily paralyzed, then it recovered after a few minutes.

The second was a large doe I shot with a .300 Savage and a 150 Hornady SP. Deer came in at a trot from the direction of a volley of shots. I fired once with no apparent effect, fired again and deer dropped apparently stone dead. While I climbed down from my stand, she jumped up and ran off another 100 yards. Recovered that deer, first shot went through the front of the liver/back of lungs. It was the second shot that produced the strange result. That shot hit a front shoulder very low at a steep angle, causing the already running deer to collide head first with a sizeable yellow birch. She was briefly knocked unconscious by the impact, you could see where the bark was dented/scraped and blood from the fresh shoulder wound was smeared at the base. She also had a third bullet hole from the neighbors grazing the top of the neck just forward of the shoulder.

Deer can be tough, but good shot placement is key.
 
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