Lost a deer. How did I blow it?

[Loyalist Dave]

turned to its left and ran about 40 yards up slight slope and turned to run along a ridge line.

Yeah I agree, a flesh wound, and depending on the slope, of the doe I've seen hit, they always went down hill, even when you wouldn't necessarily think it was that much of a downhill slope, plus they never ran along a ridgeline. So that sorta confirms what folks have said. A well hit doe looks for concealment, a stinging flesh wound, and she'll move.... The blood in the tracks does sound like the blood is running down the leg toward the ground.

Bucks are a different matter, and I've seen them move pretty far, not bleed even from a double lung hit with a .54 projectile, and then lay down in an open pasture in a clump of grass.... and me wandering back and forth looking for tracks, blood, or both for a couple of hours, then finally finding the buck 'cause I saw a white plastic bag left on the property and I'd given up on the deer, and figured I'd grab that piece of trash and head for the car as it was sundown, and OOOPS that's not a white plastic bag, that a dead bucks's tail... ....

So it happens sometimes.

LD

 

[wombat13]

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.

I wanted to keep tracking, but the deer ran onto neighbor’s property. The neighbor indicithat we could track only if we would be in and out quickly. Didn’t look like it was going to be a quick job, so we called it off. A dog would’ve helped.

 

[wombat13]

Yeah I agree, a flesh wound, and depending on the slope, of the doe I've seen hit, they always went down hill, even when you wouldn't necessarily think it was that much of a downhill slope, plus they never ran along a ridgeline. So that sorta confirms what folks have said. A well hit doe looks for concealment, a stinging flesh wound, and she'll move.... The blood in the tracks does sound like the blood is running down the leg toward the ground.

Bucks are a different matter, and I've seen them move pretty far, not bleed even from a double lung hit with a .54 projectile, and then lay down in an open pasture in a clump of grass.... and me wandering back and forth looking for tracks, blood, or both for a couple of hours, then finally finding the buck 'cause I saw a white plastic bag left on the property and I'd given up on the deer, and figured I'd grab that piece of trash and head for the car as it was sundown, and OOOPS that's not a white plastic bag, that a dead bucks's tail... ....

So it happens sometimes.

LD

Two years ago I shot a doe from the same stand. She ran uphill and then downhill into thick cover - almost the exact same path as the one I shot this year. We tracked that one with neghbor’s permission and found it about 300 yards from where I shot it. Bullet got one lung and the liver.

I think the deer in this particular area love that particular patch of cover and will run uphill to get over the ridge to it.

 

[LoonWulf]

I wanted to keep tracking, but the deer ran onto neighbor’s property. The neighbor indicithat we could track only if we would be in and out quickly. Didn’t look like it was going to be a quick job, so we called it off. A dog would’ve helped.

I've run into the same issue myself, tough call, but I think you guys made the right one not following. A lost deer is bad, a pissedoff hunting neighbor is worse.

As to what happened, I'd be inclined to say you may have missjudged the angle the dear was standing, and the bullet missed anything vitals or hard.
Or your bullets path was deflected, perhaps by a small branch etc that was in the way, or maybe even ice/snow or some other oddness.
Another possibility is that you had an issue with your optics, or mounts. The change in temp may have been enough to realign one of the lenses or cause flex.

I'm honestly just guessing without having been there. Also in my experience sometimes stuff just goes haywire, gun bonces the wrong way, we twitch and don't notice etc.

I've been lucky to have lost only a 3 or 4 animals, and only one can I honestly say I know exactly what happened.

 

[Citadel99]

My father in law was guiding a guy a few years back that shot a buck at 70 yards with a 300 Win Mag with a Nosler Partition. He hit the deer and it fell over, he failed to load another round, and the deer popped back up and was never seen again. Four inch chunk of fur and some blood but that was it at the point of impact.

About 40 days later we see a limping deer chasing a doe and I popped it. It was the same deer--had a 4 inch puss filled wound on one side and a .30" healed wound on the other. When we gutted it and skinned it we saw what happend. One in a million shot...Bullet entered, went between the ribs on one side, just under the spine, and between the ribs on the other. And he was still chasing a doe...

Sometimes it just doesn't work out and you'll never know the reason. I like shoulder shots as I'm willing to pass on some of the meat to know it's not going far.

Mark

 

[redneck2]

One in a million shot...Bullet entered, went between the ribs on one side, just under the spine, and between the ribs on the other. And he was still chasing a doe..

Actually, not one in a million. I’ve seen that at least four times. In every case I’ve seen, the deer dropped like a rock at the shot. After laying there for a minute or two, it will get up and usually take off unless you hit it again. One was a turkey, three were deer.

I’d much rather have a deer get hit and move a little, then go down as opposed to dropping immediately then get up. If they immediately drop, they’ve been hit either in the CNS or close to it. If it’s just close, the shock will take them down but they may recover. And they won’t bleed enough to track.

 

[alsaqr]

Yesterday i killed a big doe with a .50 caliber scoped inline muzzleloader.

Was seated at the shooting bench on my firing range while two friends hunted from a blind and a ladder stand. i've killed deer from that shooting bench before. Looked up from reading my book to see a doe standing broadside looking at me. Raised my leg and knee for an elbow rest and fired. Bullet was a 250 grain .452 Hornady SST in a sabot. Distance was about 70 yards. The muzzle velocity of that bullet is 1,800-1,850 fps.

The doe went down, tried to raise her head a couple times and lay still. Deer was hit just behind the shoulder and about 3 inches below the spine. When the deer was skinned there was a 3 inch bruise on the backstraps.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Two years ago I shot a doe from the same stand. She ran uphill and then downhill into thick cover - almost the exact same path as the one I shot this year. We tracked that one with neghbor’s permission and found it about 300 yards from where I shot it. Bullet got one lung and the liver.

I think the deer in this particular area love that particular patch of cover and will run uphill to get over the ridge to it.

Yeah deer will often do lots of things, until you expect them to do them, and then they change. I'll note that you didn't get both lungs, though....I've been blessed with taking out both lungs every time, so perhaps that alters things a bit.
I've also noted that bucks will sometimes on level ground do a 180 and go back the way they came when shot...even when a 90 degree turn will let them go downhill. I think it's because since they came that way they think it less likely a predator is behind them.

LD

 

[Random 8]

I missed a good one (thread) over Thanksgiving weekend! I concur with others, most likely a low shot grazing the brisket. The fat is heavy here, and hair is short, bristly and often white. Short, bristly greyish/brown would indicate shoulder, another possibility, but the fat leans towards brisket. I once hit a shoulder quartering with a .280 Rem and the bullet failed to penetrate, raking along the heavy bone rather than through it. Quick shot between trees, was tracking a walking deer, ambushing target, and it stopped just as I squeezed putting the impact a bit forward of intention. Ran that deer into the ground a couple miles in a 500 yard radius before I was able to shoot it as it doubled back upwind to watch it's back trail one too many times and a little too predictably to starboard. Fortunately I had fresh snow and boundless public forest land, no boundaries or deer highways to contend with and the deer was trailing the left front so it was easy to differentiate tracks between blood sign.

Cannot fault the gun and load, or your diligence in tracking. A deer without an organ hit is a tough nut, usually requiring a long chase and an ambush or a snap shot on the run if you jump it in the open.

Assuming your zero is good, my best guess is either 'buck fever' or a breakdown of your shooting fundamentals or concentration on the aiming point. See my thread in this section on the one I missed this year. I'm always leery of taking a rest on a hard object. Rifles do funny things when you rest them on something hard and bouncy. Also, in the off-season, practice your field position shooting. I dwell on this point when I teach hunter's education. There are no sandbags in the woods! Be confident on a 4" target from sitting in a chair with your arms propped on your legs and the sling wrapped. Also practice shooting off something to simulate your shooting rest. I'm assuming you had a gloved hand under the forend, so likely not a problem with rebound there.