ORIGINAL: hunting junkie
ORIGINAL: hometheaterman
ORIGINAL: teedub31
ORIGINAL: hometheaterman
gh you might not loose much meat! I lost an 8 point this year, I found him the next morning and the only thing lost was the tenderloins! Luckily, it was cool and the 'yotes didn't find him before I did!
I know how you feel. I've lost a few deer in my life. Just this year the day before hunting season ended I had a deer creep out to me and look around before coming into the field. He was about 35 yards from me and I shot him in the head and chest with my 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 000buckshot. I'm pretty sure I hit him good from the way he acted when I shot. He then turned and ran and I shot at the side of him but I'm not sure if I hit it or not. I found blood where I shot and also found blood in a few other spots but never could find the deer. Somone else had shot one earlier in the field next to where I was about 20 minutes earlier and said he knocked it down and it layed there for a few minutes but when he went to get it it jumped up and took off. We think it was the one I shot so more than likely it was already wounded. I looked and looked and had a buddy come help me look and we never did find it. I was pretty upset the whole day. I really just hate not finding a deer and just having wounded it. That's why I'm not crazy about shotguns as it seems to do that a lot. The next which was the last day of hunting season here I ended up shooting another doe this time with the rifle and it just fell over in it's tracks. Didn't move 2 feet from where I shot it. This made me feel a little better as I was happy to get another deer this season but I am still dissapointed I couldn't find that one.
Hopefully he can find his. I think losing them though is sometime we all go through at one point or another.
More anecdotal evidence as to why 00Buckshot is a poor choice of ammo to use on deer!
I don't disagree. I don't really like shotguns a whole lot for deer hunting but the spot I was in you just could not use a rifle. I was shooting 000 buckshot as it's what my shotgun seemed to pattern the best when I shot it target practicing. Grouped a lot better than 00. However, quite a few guys I hunt with seem to have no problem killing deer with buckshot so not sure why I have such bad luck. I suspect he didn't go far it was just super thick and while I went though most of it I could I suspect he just got somewhere I couldn't find him. It was wet and a fair bit of water too that kind of messed us up.
I think he was talking about slugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He said 00 buckshot was not a good load. I thought about it and want to add that I've seen quite a few deer get away that have been shot and hit good with rifles with lots of blood. I shot one last year with my 30-06 and he instantly dropped. Since he dropped I got down out of the stand right then and when I got there he was gone. A buddy shot one this year with his .270 and shot it 3 times before it feel. All 3 were good hits. One a little far back but the other two were perfect. It was running when it went past him and he shot it and it didn't slow down. So he shot again and it slowed a little but kept running hard. He thought he missed so he shot a 3rd time and it didn't run much further.
I know quite a few more stories of deer that are hit with bows and run off never to be found. IMO bow hunting is the worst way to to just injure a deer.
I don't know while I personally don't like buckshot I don't think it's as bad for wounding deer as people make it out to be. I've wounded deer with it and never found them but I've also wounded a deer with a rifle and never found it as well as seen quite a few others get wounded with a rifle never to be found. I think it more has to do with the person shooting it.
So all in all I don't think buckshot is a bad load and I've seen quite a few and I mean quite a few deer get killed with it no problem where the deer just dropped right there. However, I haven't had that kind of luck with it. I've had bad luck with a rifle at times too however as well as seen others have bad luck with both. I've probably seen just as many deer killed with buckshot as I have rifles and in some hunting spots shotguns are just better.In others rifles are. I don't think any load is worse than the other really. You have to realize with buckshot you can't shoot a deer 200 yards away and as long as you realize that usually it does pretty good at close range as in 30-50 yards. I just got unlucky with the deer I shot with it.