I was hunting last night and planned to fill my doe tag so shot a nice sized doe (round 170-180lbs). The shot was about 30-40yards on a slightly quartering away shot from a 15foot tree stand. I was aiming into the little "pocket" tight to the front shoulder linning up with the off shoulder for an exit. At the shot her whole front end locked up like she was under electric shock and she reared up completely falling over onto her back crashing down through some small fir trees. it was impressive to say the least. I gave her about ten mins. and watched some more deer move through.

Now the bad part... I go to where she stood and no blood, no hair, no deer. No problem she can't have gone far with a hit like that. Well last night I scoured the fir thicket in the dark looking. No deer. This morning my son and I covered all sorrounding area of the fir thicket and swamp, No deer. It has never stopped raining most of the fall so if there was blood it would have to be a lot of it to find. I had gone back to the place she was standing and spotted where the bullet had grazed the side of a stick on the ground and low and behold there was the bullet hole. I only had to dig about 4" into the mud to find the 210gr partition. In my mind if I'd missed the animal the bullet would have gone a lot deeper into the dirt, and like I said, the reaction to the shot was impressive. The woods were to thick to see what direction she went when she rolled over and the commotion of the other deer made it impossible to track the sound of her run away.

Anyway I'd like opinions on what others think I may have done wrong, for those who like bullet pics here is the recovered 210gr .338 cal partition weighing in at 126.6gr. Sorry the pic is a little fuzzy.

I shot a Buck last year that acted somewhat similar. I was over 200 yds. away when I shot, the Buck fell over and was kicking. I started back to the truck because he was on the other side of the river. As I approached the truck, he got up and started running and then fell end over end down a hill, I figured he had seen me moving toward the truck and adrenalin got him up. I expected to find him at the bottom of the hill. I put on waders and went across the river and found blood, but no deer. I followed a sparse blood trail several hundred yards and lost the trail. I killed the same Buck a couple weeks later; the first bullet had shocked the top of the spine but had not seriously hurt the deer. I suspect your doe had spine shock as well.

Top of the spine is what I was thinking as well.

The good news is that I would be willing to bet she survives (if that is what happened).

Well, it hurts the pride a bit to think I goofed a <40 yard shot but it would hurt more to think I wasted game. I'm sure whatever happened that she must be quite healthy because we covered so much area in search to find her and no sign. Most guys would ask opinions hoping people would tell them they did everything right. After losing a big game animal I was hoping someone would conferm that I F'ed it up. It's just that I never had a deer or bear react that way to a shot and I was worried she was laying out there rotting. I guess if the shot was so great she'd be laying where I shot her.

Thanks guys, I'll sleep better tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by NBHunter:
...The shot was about 30-40yards on a slightly quartering away shot from a 15foot tree stand. I was aiming into the little "pocket" tight to the front shoulder linning up with the off shoulder for an exit. At the shot her whole front end locked up like she was under electric shock and she reared up completely falling over onto her back crashing down through some small fir trees. ...

Hey NBHunter, The other guys might be correct, but that description sounds more like a perfect "Heart Shot" Deer to me. I'd guess she is within 200yds of where you shot her unless someone or something else drug her off.

My experience with shots impacting near the spine, but not actually making contact with it, are nothing at all like that. Everyone that I've had any dealings with dropped immediately and laid there for a few minutes. They eventually come to, jump to their feet and take off as quickly as possible.

It happened to me on a Doe right as the Legal hunting hours were ending. She dropped at the shot. I walked up to her and a buddy that had made a Silent Man Drive came out of the woods and over to where the Doe and I were. Told him I'd take the rifles and go get the truck so there wouldn't be any question about it being a Legal kill. I handed him a flashlight and off I went to the truck. As I came back, I could see the flashlight beam going all over the place and hurried up. The Doe had come around and was trying to crawl off toward a 12' deep canal and John had nothing but the flashlight. I eventually got her throat cut. The shot was slighty above the Spine at the withers.

My buddy Don has had it happen "4-times" to him and in each case, the Deer dropped at the shot. We recovered one of them(a nice 7-pointer) when it was "Grunted In" by another of our Hunters about two hours later and a bit over a mile away.

Don't let it get you down, it just occasionally happens. People that think loosing a well shot Deer doesn't happen just haven't hunted long enough to have experienced it.

DO NOT take this as bashing you, that is normally a fine shot, but Heart Shot Deer quite often jump straight up and then run off aways. They tend not to do that with Shoulder Shots.

I'd say you nicked right over the spine and the shock put the deer down for a bit. I neck shoot a lot of deer, and one time I had a doe looking right at me, about 140 yards. I put it at the base of it's white patch and squeezed. Bang...flop...another dead deer (so I thought), seen it many times. I wait a bit, and after a while realize that the deer moved it's head, and then it flops it's neck over and kind of tries to move. Now, I'm thinkin, what the heck. I should have just put a bullet in it's body, but I go for the head shot as it is laying with it's neck stretched out. That shot was a hurried one and the deeer decides that it can get up and starts hobblin across a field. I no longer had the anlge on it because the field kind of dog legged so I had to run out more into the field than be on the edge. My deer was getting away, and I really didn't know what the extent of it's damage was. I dropped prone and put a bullet behind the shoulder at about 300 yards. That tiny amount of time that it took for the bullet to fly it must have turned it's head, as I found a nick on the back of it's neck from the bullet. Also, it had two pierced ears at the base of the ears from the hurried head shot! I will say that NBT opened her up like a faucet at 300 yards and the amount of blood on the ground in the 7 yard span that she stumbled was impressive.

...it is a pity you didnt saw it after fall - as JD mentioned his buck fell over and was kicking - that is exact sign of high shot near the spine (the closer to the spine - the longer the time to get up again) - when ever you see that signes - SHOOT again as fast as you can, because it may be your last time u see the game...back to case - it could be a high (near spine) graze shot - tho those are mainly accompanied with LOTS of hair...did you check if you hit any obsticle in front of doe?

I have heart shot a lot of der, and some of them take off running at the shot, apparently unhurt. I've never seen one fall and then get up. If a 338 slug goes through the heart with an exit, there would be one hell of a lot of blood within feet of the shot.

What's this - PREMIUM-BULLET FAILURES! How can that be? Some posting on this board believe these premium-bullet failures are impossible, but they happen. Why? - sometimes they don't open up very much (i.e., they pencil through the animal). This is why I prefer NBTS and the like - they open up within the thoracic cavity, which is easy to penetrate and contains soft spongy organs.

Having shot an awful lot of game with the 210 Nosler in the .338 Win. from deer/elk to all manner of African animals, it has always opened up in a hurry without a single failure...and even if it didn't open up the .338 is large enough to kill the animal and leave a blood trail..I have shot Impala with solids in the .338 and they run about 75 yards or so and die leaving a good blood trail...

Sounds like to me you clipped a vertabre in the neck or clipped the top of the shoulder blade, just a guess.

Even with a heart/lung shot the deer could travel as much as 100 yards or so and since the rain ruined your blood trail its very likely you won't find her...

Its unfortunate but such things happen in the hunting world, and the more one hunts the more such things happen..Those who say they have never wounded and animal have not hunted enough to speak...

It sounds like you didn't get much expansion (if any) and the bullet penciled through. I bet she died w/in a couple hundred yards or so. Bad thing about some areas is the yotes can get a carcass pretty quick although, you'd have probably found parts of it.

Another thing I've seen is low hit deer will rare up sometimes. I shot a Buck several years ago and hit him terribly low right behind the shoulder and he rared up and crashed off into the brush. The only thing that saved me was a piece of bone low by the sternum deflected up into the bottom of the heart, he didn't make it far. Had I not gotten lucky w/ fragments, that deer would have gotten away most likely.

Another thing I've seen on strong quartering shots is the bullet passing behind the shoulder, down the side of the ribs, exiting, and never making it through the chest cavity. I've seen that happen w/ a Bow and Rifle.

There's a pile of things that could have happened. Makes ya feel bad, I know the feeling.

Reloader

I think it's pretty definite that the deer got its nervous system shocked. Any .338 bullet that penciled through, which seems to be pretty low probability of that happened, still would have left some blood on the ground. I also think if it was hit extremely low, it wouldn't have been "shocked" like it was. The bullet may have made enough contact with the top of the deer to slow it enough to cause the minimal penetration in the mud.

quote:

I think it's pretty definite that the deer got its nervous system shocked. Any .338 bullet that penciled through, which seems to be pretty low probability of that happened, still would have left some blood on the ground. I also think if it was hit extremely low, it wouldn't have been "shocked" like it was. The bullet may have made enough contact with the top of the deer to slow it enough to cause the minimal penetration in the mud.

Any of you that have shot a pile of game animals realize when an animal's nervous system is "shocked" they fall or drop down imediately. They don't rare up and over like this instance. Blood is not always left at impact either, the tissue can close off a small hole instantaneously and blood will not flow through the holes until the chest cavity starts to fill. Most of the time they do bleed at impact but, sometimes they can make it a ways before any starts to flow.

Reloader

Spine shot would have fallen not reared

Rearing up, falling over on back, vanished, little blood and carcass not found within the space of 200yards after a throrough seach says to me you shot a little far forward and put a bullet into it's near shoulder without getting anything the other side of the rib cage.

A deer shot thus will be mobile and if not allowed to rest up overnight by not following up till the next day will generaly not be recoverable without a VERY good dog.

Shit happens - who hasn't had something like this occur at some point.

Night time follow ups very rarely work. On finding the deer missing and not immediately in sight I would quietly leave the area and come back the next morning. A non mortaly wounded deer will stiffen, lose blood and might be found quite close by. A mortaly wounded deer will not be pushed further.