Well..Hunting this weekend on Ft. stewart Ga and blackpowder starts a week wealier on the nstallation than the rest of Ga. Well, i told myself i wasnt going to shoot a buck unless he was as big as the 8 i killed during bow season. Well...i fund a great spot deep in a swamp with nothing but water oak acorns falling down..I get in my api about 25 ft up and start to attch my safety belt when i turn around and this deer is walking by at about 60 yards. I thought ok i want a doe or a good buck..well he stepped into an opening and I saw the side view of another good 8 point. I set down in my stand..picked an opening and as soon as he stepped into it I shot. This is my first black powder hunt...i got a Thompson Center encore about 2 months ago shooting 100 grains of pyrodex pellets and powerbelt bullets(I think) well..i lost him for a sec in the smoke and when it cleared i saw he had made a small circle and he was running right to me..he was not running full blast..he was going kinda slow and limping the whole way..i thought he would go down. Well he passed right under my stand and i saw my exit hole..it was only about 4 inches from the top of his back..but lined up directly behind the shoulder..there was only a small amount of thin, almost clear blood ike fluid coming from the hole and it didnt even run down his whole side, and the hole was almost a white coler..as it was filled with fat or something??? well i am really unhappy id dint get the buck..i searched for 3 hours for blood or sign but all i could do was follow his tracks 100 yds in the swamp without a lick of blood. The buck did stop about 80 yds away for about 2 minutes in a thicket, then he just walked on. dont understand. is this posible? Do u think hell be alright since i dont think i hit vitals. There was no blood anywhere. I am sick.

There is that spot right under the spine and above the vitals where they can take a hit and run a long way. Whether he will make it is a hard question. No telling what shock power the projectile caused. Or whether or not it actually did hit something that will sooner or later lead to its death.

What you described is the one thing I always dread every time I prepare myself to shoot at an animal. As much as we hate to see that happen, that is part of hunting also. At least you attempted to recover the animal as best as you were able. That should make you feel a little better about the incident. I have seen people shoot a deer, make a solid hit on the animal, and because it ran off a couple hundred yards claim they were not able to find it.

All you can do is go to that area and walk circles and trails for a couple of hundred yards in the direction it ran, and see if you can spot it. Sometimes they will run and lay down if not chased too bad, and never get back up.. Better Luck next time, and good hunting to you.

i shot a doe one year iwth a 3006...my scope was broke and i didnt know it at the time...it came trotting by and i blasted it...it jumped and ran towards my dad seen him and turned around and went below me...we found maybe 30yds of hte same clear liquidy blood and that was it....nothin...searched for hours.....nothing....she was jumping big logs and running a steep hillside...i think she made it just fine.....and i also dont think the bullets were doing their job...my dad seen the hit and he hit a doe there the first day in the same spot and the ballisitic tip took out the top of the lungs and hte spine..too bad about the buck.....hope hes ok......i know lossing a deer isnt easy.....i almost quit hunting....and would have if it was my fault....but the scope was broke so i know it wasnt me....

Sounds like the dead spot, that some say is mythical and others believe in(yes I am one who believes this area of no mans land is for real!!!) I can' t say if he' ll make unfortunately, but you did what you could and can only hope that is the result. It happens, just learn from the experience and go get another crack at him!

While I hate to hear these kinds of stories, I' m a statistic of what you just mentioned as well. For the past two seasons, I have solidly shot two deer (one each year) with a Knight and tracked them for hours on end. I shot one last year across a field (on the way to my stand) and thought I missed as the deer ran off. I walked to where the doe was standing and _nothing_. I marked it off as a miss and then continuing on to my stand after searching for blood for an hour, I then found a HUGE puddle of blood about 150 yards away where the deer had double-backed in the woods and I crossed its trail (this has happened on two separate occasions). I then followed the trail for 4 hours and it was getting warm outside (55 degrees) to the point where the blood was drying on me and becoming harder to find in the brown leaves. After following the trail for 4 hours and what seems like 2-3 miles through the woods, I lost it. I was so mad at myself and couldn' t stand the thought of this happening again to me as a very similar scenario happened just a year earlier. I checked my gun and it was on so I' m coughing it up to the fact that muzzleloaders just don' t have the knockdown of a modern rifle. I' m using Hodgon 777 in my Knight pushing 90gr of powder and using a Hornady XTP 240gr sabot. One thing for sure, muzzloloaders leave large holes in the deer but don' t have the static shock.

About 5 years ago while hunting with my muzzle loader a good doe ran in front of me at about 50 yards. I took what I thought was a good shot. She never slowed down a bit but I kept my eye on her. She ran full bore to the other edge of my property and then ran head long into the fence without even trying to jump it. I went over there and she was as dead as a rock. When field dressing I found that the bullet had just crazed the top of the heart and took a little piece out. I could have sworn by the way she was running that I had missed her clean. I have killed about ten deer with the muzzle loader none went far but only one dropped in its tracks. I never did find the bullet hole in that deer. Maybe I scared her to death.

soon as i shoot, even before the smoke clears, i start reloading. never know when they will present a second shot. if they are hit any followup shot is acceptable wherever you can hit them.

if it' s thick and i think i' ll have a hard time tracking i always aim for the shoulder ...knocks them down.

I shot a doe last year in the late season with my T/C firestorm flintlock powerbelt 295gr. hit her just above the the lungs just nicked the top of the lungs. she stood there for a shot time , I thought I missed then she started to heeve like. then I thought it was a gut shot . anyway I got her . the powerbelt just blow straight through same size hole in and out. Maybe just wasn' t anything to make it expand. must not be as much shocking power Like a center fire.