One of the deer I shot in November has been bothering me.

I shot this one with the rifle 18 feet off the ground, deer was 130-140 yards out quartering away to the left slightly. I placed the bullet low behind the diaphragm to run it 2" above the sternum. I saw the bullet hit and knew it went precisely where I wanted it. 85 grain Barnes TSX out of a 243 at 3200.

160-170 lb deer. The heart was laid completely open, all four valves and chambers exposed. Pulmonary vessels all severed remnants of the heart loose in the chest. Lungs not evident when I gutted it. The bullet took out two ribs on the way in, two on the opposite side on the way out of the chest and exited the body half way up the neck (the head was down feeding at the shot). An inch or so diameter exit hole.

At impact all four legs kicked out and the deer hit the ground like a semi fell on it. It immediately jumped up and ran 50-80 feet directly away. It fell, jumped back up and ran back to where it was hit and fell down and died very quickly.

Sounds like exactly what you'd want. Problem is, there was virtually no blood outside the deer and virtually no hair where it was shot. I shot it on the edge of a very thick willow swamp and had it run directly into it and not all that much further than it ran it could have been a very difficult recovery.

Here's the problem that's been chewing on me;

I blew up the pump completely and the only only place for the blood to go was inside the chest cavity. The small hole going through the diaphragm and the omentum being sucked up into the wound plugged that exit from the chest. The small exit high on the neck prevented blood loss there. Practically, the bullet performed perfectly and it would have made no difference if it had been 150 grains moving at 3500. Complete destruction of everything inside the chest is complete destruction. It might have made a bigger exit hole and it might not have with a whole lot more gun. I've seen some ferocious damage and the deer runs off 100-200 yards on the oxygen left in its muscles.

I realize that I probably won't get exactly the same result if I do the same shot again. But... when you blow up the pump like that the peripheral blood pressure drops to zero very fast, and even with a more favorable exit hole there is no real reason for a much blood loss outside the body as there is with a more broadside shot where gravity can do what blood pressure can no longer do.

I don't think I'll take any more of those shots in the future, quartering on or away.

i hit a smallish buck on a full sprint behind a doe at about 35 paces this last year.
the bullet hit him very low and was a perfect heart shot. he bled like i have never seen before. there was no heart and no spurting of the blood. there was a constant trail 4.5" across and 40 yards long before he piled up. i also killed a buck this year who too a high lung shot in stride and i had to track him on my hands.
every shots different, every reaction is different.

Hey Miles, The smaller a Diameter Bullet you use the Larger the chance is the Holes will get blocked by the innards.

Keeping the Entrance and Exit in the lower 1/3-1/4 of the Deer and directly through the Front Legs or Shoulders seems to help the 243Win - for me.

Best of luck to you.

While not a deer the principles are the same, I’m a firefighter/EMT and last summer we responded to a fatal car crash. The victim's injuries included 3 6in long lacerations that went to the bone on her lower leg, yet there was no blood. We concluded that her massive chest trauma dropped her BP so fast they she did not bleed. You could have shot your deer with a 50 bmg and still not have gotten a blood trail. Congrats on the deer.

I agree with Hot Core I shot a 7point buck with my 300 Win Mag using a 150 grain core bond through the front shoulder and out the other side it jumped up in the air about 4 feet ran another 20 feet and dropped dead. I am now a believer of the through the shoulder shot. If you break the shoulder they can’t run too far. Good luck and don’t beat yourself up heck you got the deer didn't you.

BTW the deer only left one drop of blood and a nickel size piece of skin with hair where it was shot. It bled a lot when it dropped.

Sounds like the heart muscle was so damaged it could not pump blood. If that were the case that would explain no blood trail or no blood pooled inside the body cavity.

quote:

Originally posted by Auke Bay LT:
You could have shot your deer with a 50 bmg and still not have gotten a blood trail. Congrats on the deer.

Thanks!

Had the deer's head been up the exit wound would have been low on the chest which is what I expected was going to happen. That twelve or so inches of travel after it left the chest cavity and before it exited the deer made for no blood on the outside. I have no doubt at all that such massive damage in the chest dropped the BP to zero in less than a second, and in this specific case like you say even a 50 BMG would have been about the same. That little Barnes just plowed right through in a very straight line and did its job perfectly.