Lost a deer. How did I blow it?

[wombat13]

Please help me learn from this lost deer. Since there is no carcass to inspect, I don't know how I blew it.

Firearm/Load: Savage Axis II XP in .25-06 shooting Nosler Custom Ammo, 100 gr. Partition

Conditions: 10 - 15 Fahrenheit; snow on the ground and new snow falling fast enough that visibility was somewhat reduced. Wind was maybe 10mph right to left.

Shot: About 75 yards, certainly no more than 100 yards. Deer facing into the wind (but short enough range wind shouldn't have been a factor). I could clearly see the front 2/3 of the deer at the shot (back 1/3 still behind a tree).

Deer's reaction: The good sized doe jumped (but not like a heart shot), turned to its left and ran about 40 yards up slight slope and turned to run along a ridge line. I saw it pause in some thick stuff. I could see it raise a front leg. Then I couldn't see it again. The deer appeared to be running with all four legs while I could see it.

Tracking: There was about a 4' diameter spread of hair at the point of impact, but no blood. It was chest hair according to my buddy's hair chart. Some of the hair had skin/fat attached (hard to tell which since everything was frozen). The blood trail began about 20 yards up the slope. Most of the time, the blood appeared in a hoof print. The blood was bright red. There were two spots along the track where the deer apparently paused and there was a larger area of blood, maybe about a square foot.

The deer ran across the line onto our neighbor's property (mighty inconsiderate). We texted the neighbor and he gave permission to pursue, but requested that we be "in and out quickly" since he was going to be arriving shortly to hunt.

I was hunting on my buddy's property, and after we had tracked a total of about 200 yards he called it off. The deer had headed downhill into the prime bedding area on the neighbor's property, so he didn't want to ruin the neighbor's day of hunting. Also, there were so many deer tracks that it wasn't like simply following the one set of tracks on the ground (the snow had been on the ground for at least a week).

So, I felt good about the shot until the deer took off running. I wasn't breathing heavy and I had a clear view of the chest. I clearly hit the deer! My question is, how did I lose that deer?

Edit to add: I sighted in the rifle about 2 weeks ago. The air temp at the time was a little below freezing. I chose the ammo because it had grouped about 1" at 100 yards on a previous trip and I was looking for one "do-it-all" load.

 

[BigBore45]

Sounds like a flesh wound. So you didnt hit it well or the bullet didnt make it through the shoulder or bullet did not expand. Any good vital hit and it should bleed out enough to pass out Relatively soon. If the hair was chest hair I'd say you caught the bottom of ribs and missed vitals or front of shoulder area.

 

[243winxb]

What position to fire the shot? Free standing. Using a tree for support. Shooting stick.

Open Woods or some brush?

 

[wombat13]

I was sitting in a ladder stand and used the shooting rail for support. It was kind of open woods. The area it ran toward was dense brush, but I could clearly see the deer when I fired. There are pretty much no totally clear shots because my buddy does not clear shooting lanes yearly.

 

[CarJunkieLS1]

That shot sounds exactly like one my wife made a few years ago. It was a flesh wound and she just grazed the shoulder. There was a bunch of hair and little blood. The next year on our camera we saw a doe that had a large scar on it's left shoulder.

 

[Captcurt]

I concur. It sounds like a low shot through either the brisket or behind the foreleg. If it had been through the chest the deer would probably not have made it 200 yards. The bullet may have hit a limb or it may have been pilot error. If you haven't lost or missed a shot you haven't hunted much.

 

[Axis II]

Was the deer broadside, quartering away, quartering too? I don't know much about that bullet but it appears to be some sort of ballistic tip based on the pictures. I would think maybe you jerked and hit the shoulder and the bullet either didn't pass through or grenade. Seeing how most of the blood is in the hoof print its probably running down its leg which makes me suspect a shoulder shot.

Did you recheck the gun for zero? I had a shotgun scope break during sight in and didn't know it. Caused me to shoot a deer square in the rear end and the SST bullet it was using blew into a billion pieces and just broke the back leg bone. Last year I had a perfect 100yard broadside shot and ended up hitting the deer square in the neck! I was steady, sitting and rested and have not a clue how I hit him in the neck! Only thing I can think of is he turned on me or moved when I squeezed a round off. Crazy things happen we don't see cause I would bet 99% of us close our eyes when the gun goes off.

Some guys may not like this but I prefer shooting a heavy hitting rifle with a nice soft point so if I do come in contact with bone then it will blow right on through it. 100gr bullet maybe too light or the bullet maybe the wrong thing. I cant tell if that things a ballistic tip or soft point so if I'm wrong forgive me.

Also, don't get down and track so fast. If your unsure then hang out for at least 45min before even getting down. I sat and watched a doe my buddy hit with a 2'' cut broadhead quartering too shot, arrow going all the way through and intestines hanging out walk around, bed and get up and walk again. Hit a doe with a 300gr HP doing 1800fps and she ran almost 150yards cause I climbed down too fast and began tracking. These animals are tough.

 

[243winxb]

The bullet hit a limb or some brush before it got past 25 yards. Just enough to deflect the bullet off course a bit. Happens.

 

[caribou]

Did you hear a distinctive ''Thump!" ???
Chest shots taken in mid chest (not shoulders) make the whole chest shudder from impact, a chest shot is pretty easy to call when you do it, because you hear it as well.

An animal hit low in the chest will usually lose its footing and stumble noticeable like.

A hit above foreleg to the shoulder and it would have most likely slew around in a circle if it didnt fall a bit first.



Sounds....ah, reads like you hit low. LOL! It happens to the best Hunters.

 

[mustanger98]

Just my thoughts, but as we know, I wasn't there, so...

Not to just blame the rifle, but I see it's an Axis II XP... is that the synthetic stock? I've heard of some of those being too flexible for anything less than perfect form across the bench... I hear a good hardwood stock is a much better bet. And be sure the action screws are torqued evenly. Those two factors can make a huge difference in accuracy across the bench and in the field.

On the shot itself, I see it's described as bright red blood... IIRC, this is arterial blood and I've heard it's been known to clot on pavement. I hear this type wound, while not what a hunter wants to see, is quite survivable. I see in post #5 another deer survived a similar shot. I've seen deer that'd been shot similarly survive it.

I see in post #4 the OP was using the ladder stand's shooting rail for support. My thought... is the rail cushioned? Reason I ask... I've heard you need a soft layer between your rifle's stock and the hard rest. I know when I only rested my rifle across blocks on the bench, accuracy wasn't great and I really wasn't able to tell in which direction. Since I started using a seat cushion on most rests I use, accuracy improved to a much more dependable level.

There was mention of a bullet being deflected by a tree limb... I recall an old game warden saying you won't see the limb that caused it. For some reason, it won't show up in your scope. How much deflection is anybody's guess.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

So, I felt good about the shot until the deer took off running. I wasn't breathing heavy and I had a clear view of the chest. I clearly hit the deer! My question is, how did I lose that deer?

Edit to add: I sighted in the rifle about 2 weeks ago. The air temp at the time was a little below freezing. I chose the ammo because it had grouped about 1" at 100 yards on a previous trip and I was looking for one "do-it-all" load.

Did you re-verify your zero after missing? What you did two weeks ago is nice, but does not necessarily mean your rifle is still zeroed. A verification shot might be quite illustrative.

You might do well to purchase a small shot cam to put on your rifle. It may not give you the greatest view of the kill, but can tell you about flinch and trigger jerk which will often go completely unnoticed by the shooter at the time of the shot.

 

[MidRoad]

Sounds like you grazed it, maybe dipped a bit when ya shot. My dad did that two years ago with me standing right next to him. About 80 yardsyout. He took a shot. The deer reared and arched like it was a good shot. Lots of hair and fat tissue but no solid blood trail. Walked about 20 yards behind where the deer stood. Found a set of tracks and more blood . Fallowed those tracks and it was a little tiny yearling. We both where like that is definitely not the deer he shot at. Wayyyy to small. Went back to the impact zone, and fallowed the big does tracks again to verify. A few more specs of blood is all that was found after fallowing her tracks for a little bit, but we were confident atathat point she was just grazed, and the little one was the only one mortally shot.

May be a good idea to double check your rifles zero. Including resting it in the same matter in which you shot. Ya never know , zero could be off . Or if you shot off the stands rail (assuming you had one) maybe you put to much pressure on the forend leaning on the stands rail and changed your poi/poa. Ya never know.

 

[Captcurt]

The bullet hit a limb or some brush before it got past 25 yards. Just enough to deflect the bullet off course a bit. Happens.

I missed one of the biggest bucks that I have had a shot at. I was shooting a 243 that prints Sub-MOA all day from the bench. I spotted the buck feeding in a field and stalked within 135 yards of it. Took a good rest off of a cedar limb and squeezed a round off. The buck turned and went into a thick cedar hillside. I just knew that he was dead. Found no blood, no hair and looked for an hour searching back and forth along the hillside. Nothing. Went back the next morning and after looking for another hour I finally retraced my steps. 5 feet in front of my rest was a limb about the size of my little finger cut in half. Just enough to send the 95 gr. pill into LALA Land.

I doubt if your bullet went to pieces like Ohiohunter's SST. The Partition is one of the most reliable bullets on the market for deep penetration.

 

[Picher]

The bullet was a 100 grain Nosler Partition, which is a pretty tough bullet for deer. It may also have been tipped by a branch on the way, minimizing, or eliminating expansion, or deflected away from the intended spot.

When you see a deer, do you focus on the antlers, the whole deer, or the heart/lung kill zone area? If you don't focus on the kill zone, you may find your sights wandering off and especially with any deer movement, out of the quick-kill zone. I've hit small trees when following a moving deer and had bullets deflected. One was a 3" tree on the edge of an old haul road that wasn't apparent as the deer moved toward the woods. It was about 5 yards closer than the deer and splintered on the back side, deflecting the bullet just enough to cause a low miss.

 

[T.R.]

My favorite excuse for missing a deer is, "the bullet was deflected by brush."

TR

 

[Double Naught Spy]

My favorite excuse for missing a deer is, "the bullet was deflected by brush."

TR

It is a great excuse, isn't it? It is virtually never verifiable so it is non-falsifiable. It is right up there with "He winded me."

Some times it is a valid claim, but then again the problem isn't with the brush, but the shooter for pulling the trigger with an occluded target. The often unsaid corollary to "Know your target, backstop, and beyond" is "Know your target, backstop, in front of, and beyond."

Here is one of my favorite videos. It is a thermal video of my buddy as he stalked a hog in dense woods. A lot of the brush does not show well because it is ambient temperature and so does not stand out on thermal. The half rotted tree branch didn't just the bullet, it caught it!

 

[buck460XVR]

Conditions: 10 - 15 Fahrenheit; snow on the ground and new snow falling

Deer's reaction: The good sized doe jumped (but not like a heart shot), turned to its left and ran about 40 yards up slight slope and turned to run along a ridge line. I saw it pause in some thick stuff. I could see it raise a front leg. Then I couldn't see it again. The deer appeared to be running with all four legs while I could see it.

Tracking: There was about a 4' diameter spread of hair at the point of impact, but no blood. It was chest hair according to my buddy's hair chart. Some of the hair had skin/fat attached (hard to tell which since everything was frozen). The blood trail began about 20 yards up the slope. Most of the time, the blood appeared in a hoof print. The blood was bright red. There were two spots along the track where the deer apparently paused and there was a larger area of blood, maybe about a square foot.

Sounds like to me you hit low. Chest hair, with fat attached sounds like a grazed brisket. Ain't no fat on the front shoulders of most deer unless you hit real high. High shot would've broken a shoulder or the spine. Ain't no fat on the upper part of the front legs either. But you could have hit both brisket and leg. You said the blood was in the front hoof print. Was it on the side you shot it or the opposite? Snow on the ground would have made it obvious if the deer was hittin' the ground with all fours, hittin' on three or draggin' a useless leg. Hittin' with all fours means no broken leg and generally just a flesh wound. Common to wing a front leg on the opposite side when shooting from a tree stand or any other elevated position, especially with a low hit. Snow exaggerates even the minutest amount of blood......one reason deer hunters love it so(besides making it easier to spot deer). Take one of those restaurant packets of ketchup sometime and splat it over snow. Looks like a pint instead of a teaspoon. The reaction and amount of blood from the deer would tell me it wasn't a boiler room hit, nor a "grenaded" bullet. Bullets blowing up on the outside of a shoulder create significantly more blood. The running uphill and going for over 200 yards while only pausing briefly(and only limited amount of blood on the snow) tells me it wasn't probably hurt bad. Lifting the leg means the leg operated but the deer was trying to figure out what happened. The amount of hair(4' circle) would tell me it was a grazing hit as bullets impacting squarely generally don't cut much hair unless it's from a large exit wound. Again, odds are unless she's been shot by someone else, that doe is resting peacefully with only minor wounds that have little or no impact on her welfare.

 

[Glockula]

I have trailed a fair amount of deer after being shot. Most but not all boiler room hits put deer down within 50 yards. The two notable exceptions for me are decent bucks, both 8 points. One was hit high in the heart at 200 yards and walked off as if nothing happened . I found him dead 125 yards away. The blood trail was 30 yards from the POI.

Deer can do all kinds of miraculous things with a gunshot. If it's gut shot or a bit far back they can go a ways. Same with the brisket or front leg as mentioned already. I killed a small buck in front of the hounds last year that someone obviously tried to take a Texas heart shot on. His left ham had a recent( last month or so?) gunshot wound. The whole ham was pink and pussy with little blood in the meat. Very thickly wrapped with tendon around the hip socket . I am not sure he would have made it.

Point is all kinds of things can happen. If you are not certain of the shot and have blood it is best to give it time to die and follow the blood until you find a deer or can't find anymore blood. That is the learning I would take away. All the rest is just speculation with no dead deer to examine and no trail cam evidence .

 

[WestKentucky]

Long and short of it... you weren’t using the six and a hayuf creeeeeeeed-moooooooower.

Sounds like you hit low, or hit brush. Be glad it wasn’t a trophy deer... done that myself. Found a month later...

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Found a month later...

Bummer........

 

[redneck2]

used the shooting rail for support. I

If you rest the firearm of the gun directly on the rail you will shoot high. My wife and I were watching a hunting show a few years ago. Guy put the firearm of his rifle on the window sill of the blind. Before he pulled the trigger, I told my wife it was gonna be high. He shot over the deer and couldn’t figure out why.

If the firearm is on a hard surface, the fore end will buck up at the shot. Put your hand over the rail and Rest the gun on the back of your hand

Or, as noted, you hit a twig. Maybe five years ago I had a shot at a huge, and I mean huge buck at maybe 40-45 yards. There was a small Bush in the way. I shot four twelve gauge slugs from a super accurate shotgun. Thought there was no way I could miss at that range.

 

[wombat13]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Good food for thought. It sounds like I hit low in the brisket. The deer did not appear to be favoring a leg and the tracks appeared normal. The blood was in a hoof print on the side I shot.

I’ll certainly check zero when I can, but I doubt there is anything wrong with the rifle or ammo. I’m sure it was operator error. As far as exactly what error, Pilcher’s comment about needing to focus on my aim point seems likely. I’ve only been hunting for 12 years, but the first 8 years every deer I shot was a one shot kill firing the same way I did yesterday (resting rifle on the shooting rail). The last few years I’ve had to track deer or a couple I’ve had to shoot more than once. This is the first I’ve ever lost. Somewhere along the way my shooting fundamentals have slipped. In answer to Pilchers question, I can recall seeing the whole front half of the deer as I fired. I think I have to work on focusing.

 

[FL-NC]

Inspect your rifle- is the action tight in the stock? Scope rings and base tight?

 

[Skoghund]

From experience many deer shot at and missed or go off wounded lay dead not to far away. Finding them is the problem. Several years ago i shot a roe buck on one of my clear fell area's at about 120 mtrs. When i shot the deer just trotted of with no reaction to the shot. i could not believe i had missed. I knew the exact spot where the deer was standing and on inspection of the shot site could see no blood or fur.
I came home had a cup of tea and then got my tracking dog, a Slovensky Kopov, and went back to the shot site. I put on the dogs harness and long tracking lead and set him on the track. The dog went strait to the deer laying dead about 80 mtrs away in some thick cover. A good lung shot on the deer that would have been very difficult to find without the dog.
In Scandinavia you must have a trained dog suitable for the game you are hunting, available within 2 hours. Tracking wounded game is taken very seriously here.
Using a tracking dog teaches you a lot about how deer react when shot and even with a well placed shot deer can travel a long way.
Training and using a tracking dog is a hunting sport in its own right.

 

[Axis II]

From experience many deer shot at and missed or go off wounded lay dead not to far away. Finding them is the problem. Several years ago i shot a roe buck on one of my clear fell area's at about 120 mtrs. When i shot the deer just trotted of with no reaction to the shot. i could not believe i had missed. I knew the exact spot where the deer was standing and on inspection of the shot site could see no blood or fur.
I came home had a cup of tea and then got my tracking dog, a Slovensky Kopov, and went back to the shot site. I put on the dogs harness and long tracking lead and set him on the track. The dog went strait to the deer laying dead about 80 mtrs away in some thick cover. A good lung shot on the deer that would have been very difficult to find without the dog.
In Scandinavia you must have a trained dog suitable for the game you are hunting, available within 2 hours. Tracking wounded game is taken very seriously here.
Using a tracking dog teaches you a lot about how deer react when shot and even with a well placed shot deer can travel a long way.
Training and using a tracking dog is a hunting sport in its own right.

Had the same thing happen with this guy! 45 yard shot broadside with a 250gr muzzleloader standing in the snow. I fired and he trotted off and stopped and just stood there and then trotted off like nothing happened. I began following his tracks cause I was adamant I hit him and found him laying next to a log 100 yards away! Only blood was 20ft from where he laid when he slid down the hill! They now tease me my the deer on that side of the farm have anti freeze for blood!