It's especially like a box of chocolates with cup and core, you never know what you're gonna get
You definitly "know" each and every time you hit an animal.....they do all different things apon impact; "Thump", twich, fall over, stop, slowdown and fall to the back of a herd, etc, but any animal with a good hit (not a graze) is going to show it
I shot a buck standing broadside in an open field and looking in my direction just behind the shoulder from about 200 yds with a 7mm08 and he never even twitched his ears. I couldn't believe it, but chambered another round and fired again and still no reaction.
Before I could fire a third time, he made about 3 long jumps forward and entered the woods. I couldn't imagine how I could have missed such an easy shot, so I went to where he was standing and saw blood had sprayed out 10 feet on the off side, and there were bits of tissue also. I went to where he entered the woods and found him just inside the treeline.
When I skinned him, I found two entrance wounds less than 2" apart and a single exit wound about 4" in diameter, even though he gave no indication of being hit at all.
Most will react, but not all will.
I always try to figure out what the bullet did, and the generalization that I have is that they do all kinds of stuff depending on how they hit. It's especially like a box of chocolates with cup and core, you never know what you're gonna get My sample size is smaller but for me a bonded or monolithic bullet is more consistent than cup and core. You never know what a cup and core is going to do. I've had bonded and monolithics deflect but they still held together and none of them have blown up. I've taken to paying for a more consistent bullet, and since I favor broken bones to tracking jobs I buy the ones that are supposed to retain weight and penetrate. Results so far are extremely positive.
Every animal is different unless a CNS shot is executed. Have seen big bull elk drop in their tracks from a .243 behind the shoulder yet see them run after a perfect placed 300WM in the same location. Deer are no different.
My favorite reactions to witness are from archery kills. One deer may take off at a dead sprint with its tail tucked. But I have killed several deer that after being shot, jumped, looked around, and went back to feeding until they fell over. Never had any idea they had even been hit.
My first choice is double lung.Second choice shoulder.Third choice brisket.As a watcher in the woods on a deer drive I took a shot at a broadside trotting buck.Lead him too much,creased the brisket.He turned toward me on a run.It was a dead on hold center chest about 50 yards.The second shot took him off his feet and pushed him backwards without falling.He ran past me into a tree and collapsed.The 100 grain .243 did not penetrate the diaphragm,it blew apart in the chest cavity.
Right over the top of the heart through the "spaghetti" junction. There simply is no getting over that.This is the last buck I took.
Shot him with a Hornady 75 grain BTHP at about 65-75 yards. He was chasing some does, stopped to look at me for a sec and his body was angled off to my right. Hit him on the shoulder, angled down through his lungs, down the barrel of his torso and out on his right side. Fell as though pole axed with all his legs sticking straight out and then relaxed after about 15 secs.
About as quick as you could ever hope for.
That's the exit.
Makes really good spaghetti and fajitas.
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He was is this sort of position.
The few deer I've shot usually run off a ways and quit, he was DRT. I'm not much of a deer hunter though, hunted way more hogs.Right over the top of the heart through the "spaghetti" junction. There simply is no getting over that.
This is the last buck I took.
Thank you.What a great series of pics! I love that you included his "burger" pic!!!
I read an article that theorized about heart shots. The author's premise was ...
But I can tell you that I generally get one of two reactions to heart shot. They either flop over pretty quick or they do a fairly long death dash. If the heart has just contracted and sent a fresh load of oxygenated blood to the brain I can sure see how an animal has enough O2 left in it's system to do a death run. If the heart is full of bloods when it's hit that freshly oxygenated blood doesn't get delivered and you get the added benefit of hydraulic damage when hitting a heart full of fluid (blood) versus an empty heart which is simply a muscle at that point.
To try to add something to it I'm an EMT by trade and from the anatomy and physiology portions of the course (animals aren't much different from humans) I think you're on to something, but I don't think it's necessarily oxygenation that you're looking for, but adrenaline...epinephrine.
Like I said to begin with, I'm not much of a deer hunter. Few does and a buck, but I've seen much the same thing on hogs when they're pushed. When they get startled by something, they start to move away as a sounder, that lazy walk becomes that hurried little trot and then after that it turns into a full on run.I'll agree with you on that one. The first two deer I shot were both Aorta shots; The first one never knew I was there-he was lazily trailing some does that I let pass by me. He stopped at a perfect 50 yard quartering away shot, so I put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder and- he dropped right over on his side. Never moved. The second one, same rifle (.30-06 742 Carbine) same load (43 gr. IMR 3031 with 165 Partition) but another hunter had pushed him through a swamp, he popped up on the logging road I was walking back to my stand on, stopped broadside to look at me, and I shot for the same spot. He took off like a bat outta hell, ran 75 yards, and tucked himself under a deadfall and died. Took the top of the Aorta off of both of them-two polar opposite reactions.