With all that blood it should have been possible to track the deer in the dark with a flashlight.Besides with "blood and fur all over the place" he would have run out of blood in short order.

I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. The 243 is a nice soft shooting round for deer. Just don't try to shoot at or through the shoulder bones though. Lung/heart shot would do it.

Seafire: Your post did not relay this - did you ever find the big Northwoods Buck? I hope you did! If not then I share your disappointment!
I prefer the Pecan Pie myself but like you I only get to eat it 4 or 5 times a year!
In brief let me run this past you!
I have been in on quite a few Mt. Goat Hunts! A LOT of Mt. Goat Hunts! And this is one Big Game Animal that I firmly believe that less can be better in bringing them to the ground ASAP! My Hunting partner here in Montana last year accompanied his daughter when she killed a mature Mt. Goat with ONE SHOT from her 223 Remington! I once shot an Alaska Mt. Goat 4 times with handloaded 30/06 ammo using steaming 165 grain Nosler Partitions! It was still staggering toward a cliff but offering no shot to me! I was in a state! I have seen Mt. Goat killed virtually in their tracks with these calibers 257 Roberts, 270 Winchester and 308 Winchester. I have seen them take multiple hits from 30/06's, 300 Winchester Magnums, 338 Winchester Magnums and 7mm Remington Magnums! My observations lead me to want to use a quick expanding bullet in a moderate caliber for Mt. Goats when you want them dead ASAP! This keeps them from doing the long drop over cliffs!
My good friend from Seattle killed two Mt. Goats with his Remington 722 in 257 Roberts both with one shot! Each of his three sons have used this same Rifle to kill Mt. Goats and proudly he relates that all three were one shot kills! The Mt. Goat is one creature that needs to have an explosive like bullet performance in its boiler room and they will go down quicker more often than when hit with a Magnum that so often passes on through without imparting all the bullets energy! I have seen Deer shot with Magnums and heavier bullets that travelled long distances before expiring. These same creatures I think would have been put down much much quicker with more moderate calibers and proper bullets. Yeah if you spine shoot or double shoulder shoot a Deer with a Magnum and heavy bullets you will harvest them quickly but that is a messy waste most often!
I am not advocating using a 223 Remington on Elk but I would rather use a 270 Winchester with 130 gr. Ballistic Tips on Mt. Goat than a 300 RUM and 200 gr. Bullets!
I think you would have been better off with a 257 Roberts on that Minnesota Buck than with what you used! Again sorry if you did not retrieve it!
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Kent

I have experienced the same thing with the Failsafe bullet on deer size game. I've shot three big deer that showed no sign of a hit at the shot and found them dead within 50 yards. It apeared that there wasn't the initial shock as with a Hornady Interlock or Rem Core Lok.

Danny,

The Remington Core Lok bullet is as good a factory round for deer as one will find. If my gun shot them well I would use them.

Returning home after being gone for 4 days.

To respond to the questions about the Northern Minnesota buck.

Five people looked for 4 hours for it. It had gone into a swamped area and with the underbrush and the snow not making a very flat blanket of snow to try and track the deer, nothing was found.

The Swamp was also full of tracks of other deer going thru the swamped area. It was almost like trying to find a CERTAIN set of footprints at a stadium after the BIG game.

Stubble, Blood was found, but those searching with me could not put together a track or path it might have gone. We all concluded that it just laid down in a thicket and died.

For anyone who has tried to track something in some of those Northern Swamps, know that it can get to be almost impossible. Sometimes it is more luck than any skill.

It is totally different ball game than tracking something in the forest, or even thick brush.
If someone has not lost an animal in his hunting career, he has either not hunted long, or has been very very lucky.

Varmnint Guy: As far as what you bring up, I am not making this another invitation to have others rag on my ass again or question my family heritage, however for my personal hunting, I will carry a firearm in the 6mm to 7mm Non Magnum range for myself.

6.5 mm is my personal caliber of choice.

The three exceptions is for Elk; one will find me carrying an '06 at times ( 200 0r 220 grain bullet), a 444 Marlin ( 300 grain XTP, but not loaded to the gills) and my favorite a 338/06, with a 225 grain Hornady or a 250 grain Round Nose Hornady with velocities of 2800fps ( 65 grains of H 380) or 2650 fps for the 250 grainer ( 60 grains of H 380).

RuKid,,

in Ackley's books (i can't find mine to directly quote), col whelen has some notes on testing and penetration.... basically, the 30-06 was tested at various ranges for depth in sand... at ~300 yards, the 30-06 penetrated the most...

his conjector, and mine(like that matters) is that the bullet held together better at a lower velocity... didn't ballisticly deform, and had enough vel to go deeper... if i remember correctly, it was like 18" at the muzzle, ~22" at 100 yards, and 30+" at 300 yards....

why? because the bullet AND the velocity worked together...

if that had been a BT, it would have exploded within 5" at the muzzle... btdt.

for what it's worth, I haven't had the patience to dig deep enough to pull a barnesx shot into sand, from my 30 winnie

jeffe

Seafire,

Sorry to have misunderstood you. Glad to know a good effort was made to track the wounded deer.

I just thought that when you wrote:

quote:

---

Originally posted by seafire:
, just as the sun was dropping. It drops quick in Northern Minnesota in late November. No opportunity to track him.

---

, you probably meant that there was no opportunity to track it.

Anyway, I didn't want to "rag your ass", only expressing an opinion. Probably shows that I care about game retrieval being rigorously applied; especially in my back yard (I live in Northern Minnesota. )

Bog;

No Problem. This incident occurred east of Aiken and south of MacGregor, if you are familiar with the area.

I personally have no problem when a gentleman might misunderstand something and feels compelled to rag on my ass or anyone elses a little when it concerns hunting safety and ethics.

I compliment your concern about the animals.

Thank you.

Yeah Bog,

My first wife's uncle was the sheriff in Crosby for a long time, and later the Sheriff for Crow Wing County.

She had relatives up in Remer also. I remember then telling me how in Remer no one knew if they were coming or going, because it is spelled forward or backwards the same way.

Good hunting this fall up that way.