So far, I have never had a deer or an elk do anything but drop in their tracks. I have only taken main vital area shots, with the exception of one deer I shot in the spine, just above the vitals, there was a bush in the way and I did not want the shot deflected. Total; two deer, one antelope with a .243Win, two deer with a 30-06, three deer, two antelope (not drt), two elk with a .270Win.
Both elk were with a 270, a three year old cow I shot in the vitals; the bullet smashed a rib, clipped the heart, both lungs, deflected up, cut the spine and exited through a second rib. She was about 80yds. I helped anchor a young, rag horn, bull that had three grazing hits from a 30-06: it was at a dead run, left to right, at 50yds off hand. It tumbled head first about three times, landing on its back with a hole through the heart and a 270 bullet neatly caught in the skin on the other side.
I have shot, when young and naive, two antelope with a rifle that was not sighted in properly. One hit the brisket and it ran 30yds, the other destroyed a backstrap (frontal shot) it ran about 5yds and turned broad side to take one high and to the right in the spine.
