Deer Are So Tough
 

I got a doe today. Shot her at 75 yards with 100g of BH 209 and Barns Tez 250g all copper.

As soon as the smoke cleared I could see she had her head down as she ran. I could see blood coming out her side but she kept going. She went about 60 yards then she flipped end over end.

Then she thrashed for about a minute. After getting down I could see The blood trail from a helicopter. It was 2 feet wide leading up to her.

As soon as I got to her I could see that it was a good shot. There was a small entrance hole and a small exit hole dead in the honey hole. So I figured must be lungs only?

Well after field dressing her I could see her heart was blown in half (like a v sign).

How in the world can a deer still run that far with half a heart and two blown lungs? No human could take that.

It makes me feel uneasy about hunting them. First, they are hard to get close to. Then you have to shoot them almost perfectly. And its tough to be super accurate when your blood is pumping.

I was so glad I moved my stand wayyyy away from a neighbors property. He started blocking me off with shooters so that deer would not make it to our woods. So I went deep in the woods for two reasons.

1) I did not want to be shooting at each other (within 60 yards of fence line) face to face.
2) If I did pop a deer good and it managed to go 60 yards it could cross property lines and become theirs.

The move paned out.

But again, I am still in awe of how tough deer are.

D

They are tough for sure. About the only thing for sure I can say after 30yrs of hunting them and shooting well over 100...expect the unexpected.

Buddy of mine shot a doe a couple years ago with his Hawken, and a patched round ball. 40yds broadside. He nailed her perfect, she ran down the mountain about 100yds and laid down. 5 mins later he jumped her, she ran another 100yds and laid down. He waited a bit, and I caught up with him. 10 mins later, we jumped her again...she ran over a rise and disappeared. We followed the blood (looked like poured from a pitcher the whole way) and found her laying dead just over the rise. She went 300yds, and was alive 15 mins plus. His shot went right through the heart. When he dressed her, I put my finger right through the hole....couldn't even believe it. I would NEVER have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. They are amazingly tough.

Congrats on your doe. And sorry to hear you have such a crappy neighbor.

That is typical of a heart shot it releases all the adrenalin in their body. Normally a good double lung shot will stop them faster.

Wow. 300 yards. I would have thought I shot bad. I must confess. I probably have lost more deer because I either thought I missed them or the blood trail looked weak. The last 4 years I have been finding allot of my deer 100's of yards away even with solid shots.

It makes me sick that I gave up on many of them (in the past) because I was not experienced enough to know how tough they are. I just figured I stunk at hitting them.

I wish I could go back in time and strip the meat away from the yotes.

Well, at least my son is learning from me. Hopefully he wont make the same mistakes as I did.

Anyway, I give a lot of credit to you guys for opening my eyes on deer hunting. This forum has changed the way I think. Deer are...well...Just Tough.

D

Keep using those banes and lost deer,even on marginal hits will be a thing of the past:happy0001:

I shot a buck one time through the heart that ran 200+yds befor he piled up, and I wont tell any more stories as this would be too long.
But I will tell this one as it still amazes me to this day
2 years ago on the day befor our gun season closed I came accross a blood trail in the snow just befor dark, the track was big and I told my buddy about it and we were gonna get on it in the morning.
To try and fill you in My Buddys Farm is close to the NYS Thruway and many a big bick and deer are killes every year crossing it, this buck that I found the tracks of just happened to be one of them.
We tracked and jumped this buck many times during the next morning, we never even got sight of him on any occasion, we heard him crash off, found his tracks but that was it. Many times I was on this buck and had him in the thick stuff at 10-15yds but could'nt see him, he always got up and ran off, this went on for hours.
Once we has him cornerd by the Thruway, he jumped the Thruway fence stopping cars and trucks as he made it accross both lanes to then jump the Thruway fence on the other side and keep going, we could'nt catch up to him.
Long Story Shor we did finally catch up to him as he laid dead, a lucky hunter shot him as he was comming at him at the last few minutes of the end of Hunting Season.
The Buck was a Giant Non Typical 17 Pointer with a rack you only dream of, both of his back legs were broken from being hit by a car or truck on the Thruway. After 10 hours of chasing and jumping this buck he still could out run and out do us, we never even got sight of him or his rack the whole time, just bit's and pieces of him.
This buck made us look like fools, he jumped 5ft fences, crossed creeks, went through stuff we could only crawl through and did this for 10 hours. Tough....you have no clue how tough a Whitetail Deer can be, and this was only with his front feet, his back legs were so mangled that they were just dragging, or so it seemed to be. I'll never forget that Buck and his will to survive.
(BP)

Shot a buck with a 3" mag deer slug and blew the heart into 3 pieces and watched it run 100yds out through a cut bean field and died in full stride.

Ever killed a chicken by wringing it's neck or cutting it off on a chopping block???

Deer shot in the lungs are running dead, if you want to put them down faster go with a high shoulder shot...

I prefer this shot as well.

My experiences w/ heart shots mirror the ones already related-just amazing. I've read that deer have significantly fewer nerve endings than we do & therefore experience pain very differently. Just look at the life they live where injury or death is a daily reality even beyond hunting season whether through autos/trucks or predation, starvation,etc. If a deer were to break a leg, there is no 6-8 week recovery time, they must keep going or perish.
It is their will to survive, like all wild creatures, which keeps them fighting to the very end and leaves me in awe.