Miracle Buck or defective ammunition?

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Mr. T

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I was with a friend this last weekend in Wisconsin for their deer season and I saw him punch a 180 grain BTSP from a 30.06 right through the lungs of a 14 point monster Whitetail. Normally you would all be thinking that this was all she wrote for the Whitetail, but sadly it is not. The deer runs off and we track this thing for over a mile...finding chunks of lung a lot of frothy blood on the trail and even chunks of fat. I in my 30 years of deer hunting have never seen a lung shot Whitetail go more than 25 to 50 yards. This deer went for more than a mile....how can that be? Was the ammo defective? Was this deer just "the" super deer of Wisconsin? Dunnnooo, but it's a first for me in over 30 years of deer hunting. I would appreciate comments from others.:)
 
I've seen this very thing. About 30 years ago my ex brother-in-law punched a large buck ("with horns all over it's head") through the lungs with a 30-30 at less than 20 feet. We followed a wide blood path (after we finally found it!) of bright red frothy blood. Found where he lay down and should have bled out but didn't. The blood trail went over a ridge and down to a swamp. The blood stopped before reaching the swamp and we never found the buck. We did hear a truck leave out on the other side of the small swamp so his deer MAY have been stolen. Either way that deer went a VERY long way while loosing a LOT of lung blood.
 
Too high or too far back may only clip the lungs or a lung, and it they don't completely deflate the animal can go quite aways before dying. It sounds though like it was a good hit with all the blood and what not. They are tough animals for sure, must have somehow not hit enough vasculature and lung...they do weird stuff sometimes.

I hear this story time and again with archery elk hunters. Seemed like a good lung hit, they bleed like sieves for a distance, then the blood stops but the animal doesn't. If you don't hit the aorta and/or you don't get enough lung so that they have partial use of them, they can get away. Bummer man, that's always tough.
 
I lung hit a big 10 point on opening morning about 5 years ago, I found chnks of ribbone and bright red lung bood where the deer was standing. Tracked it to a drainage canall and wasnever able to find it even waded around in the chest deep cana for a half hour in 35 degree weather. Amo was Reington core lokt .270 in 130 grn. Switched to Winchester Sillver Tips after that weekend, so what if they cost 3 times as much? What does a dolllar or two mean when it comes to bulet performance on a deer? Btw, I've been super impressed with the silver tips dropped 2 of the 3 deer I've shot with them in their tracks, the other ran 20 yards.
 
IME heart lung shots are best left to the bow hunters when using a rifle given the opportunity I'll try to take out at least one shoulder for the VERY reason the op outlines.

I've seen a deer run almost a quarter of a mile into the deepest brush that after recovery showed to have had a big part of the heart shot away with a 50caliber powerbelt

Almost every deer I've shot that was purely a heart lung shot has run NONE of the deer I've shot where a bone other than ribs was hit has made it more than 10' from where shot
 
IME heart lung shots are best left to the bow hunters when using a rifle given the opportunity I'll try to take out at least one shoulder for the VERY reason the op outlines.

I've seen a deer run almost a quarter of a mile into the deepest brush that after recovery showed to have had a big part of the heart shot away with a 50caliber powerbelt

Almost every deer I've shot that was purely a heart lung shot has run NONE of the deer I've shot where a bone other than ribs was hit has made it more than 10' from where shot
I like the shoulder too. A 165gr Accubond out of my 300 WSM has taken 6 deer. 5 hit on the shoulder DRT. One behind the shoulder went 20'. Years ago I popped a doe a little high with a 130gr Nosler Solidbase out of a hot 270 and she went 300 yards with a hole the size of a golfball thru the top of her lungs.
 
I have posted several times here and believe it is true....those big bucks are TOUGH.

My son lost a big buck this season. He hit him with a 12 ga 3" sabot @ 81 yds. We tracked for over 3/4 mi and lost him in an open field.

Unfortunately over the last 33yrs of deer hunting, I could share several "lost deer" stories.
 
could be if the bullets went straight through soft tissue it just didn't expand, but I would expect to find a corpse with that amount of damage. Sometimes they'll keep moving if you chase after them right after the shot... but... that's a tough a deer.

I shot a whitetail with a .30-30(170grn power point) right behind the front shoulders a few years ago. He went down like a sack of potatoes, kicked a bit... I figured he was done for and then he gets up and takes off. No blood, no hair... nothing, just tracks.

Kinda has me wondering if deer are smart enough to play dead
 
I hit a monster buck this year with my bow that looked like a very good ''lung'' shot and never did find it. Looked like someone had a garden hose flowing blood for the first half mile and then the blood just stopped. We even have it on video were the arrow goes right behind the should but he was a real tough SOB. pretty disappointing when it happens but they are extremely tough animals. I sure hate when I wound them but I guess when you feel like you made a good shot its even more disappointing!
 
I personally have shot deer that have played possum on me. The last one was just three years ago. I nicked him right behind the front leg and he dropped like a ton of bricks...he even did the "death twitching" then all of a sudden he got up and started running...the next shot I put right through his spine and he was done. When I looked him over there were only two marks on him the one on his leg and the one through his spine...he totally played it up and it almost worked for him if it wouldn't have been for my 10 year old son keeping an eye on him and alerting me to him getting up again and running. He did cost me a 200+ class buck though that ran out as I was focused on him.
 
The deer runs off and we track this thing for over a mile...finding chunks of lung a lot of frothy blood on the trail and even chunks of fat. I in my 30 years of deer hunting have never seen a lung shot Whitetail go more than 25 to 50 yards. This deer went for more than a mile....how can that be?

Finding chunks of tissue on the blood trail tells me the bullet did expand. There needs to be a big enough hole to emit the "chunks" and enough tissue damage to create "chunks". The chunks of fat would indicate to me that the deer was hit somewhere other that squarely in the chest. Mature bucks, during the gun season here in Wisconsin, have run off most of their fat reserves due to rutting activity. All mature bucks I have ever shot during the rifle season in Wisconsin had fat left only in three places in quantity enough to produce "chunks"....over the rump in front of the tail, inside the body cavity next to the kidneys and over the brisket area. IMHO, If the bullet did hit the deer in the chest, it must have been at an angle to hit one of these areas. The angle from the chest to one of these areas may not have hit enough lung to do a clean kill. I have never seen enough fat on a mature bucks front shoulders or rib area during rifle season in quantity enough to produce "chunks". One thing I have learned over my years of deer hunting is, you never really know how well you hit them till you skin 'em out. Sometimes what looks like a bad hit drops them in their tracks. Sometimes what looks like a well placed bow shot produces a phone call from your neighbor, three weeks later, telling you he found your arrow after shooting a perfectly healthy deer. Big bucks do die hard, but no buck, even shot with a non-expanding FMJ or a fixed blade broadhead, will run a mile after being hit squarely in the lungs.....you've said so yourself.

I in my 30 years of deer hunting have never seen a lung shot Whitetail go more than 25 to 50 yards.
 
Mature bucks, during the gun season here in Wisconsin, have run off most of their fat reserves due to rutting activity
It may be regional or it may have been the age of my bucks but the last several I killed(late December-late January)have ALL had thick layers of fat on them. Not as much in the chest area but still more fat than normally found on deer in my neck of the woods.
 
I'm unclear; you recovered him after a mile? or you lost his sign after a mile?

If you recovered him, what did the hole look like? and the organs?
 
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