Ultradog MN

Probably most, if not all of us have lost a deer. It happens.
What really hurts is you KNOW which direction it went and spend a couple hours looking that way and not find it.
Then a week later your cousin tells you about the dead deer he can see from the road which is in the opposite direction of where you looked. He made a big circle and died about 75 yards from where I hit him. Cry.
Oh, and I always bring extra shells - and now you probably will too. 😉

Champlain Islander

I have lost a few in my long hunting life and they always haunt me. My most recent was a similar situation as the OP. It was ML season and I had a standing broadside shot with a rest at slightly less than 100 yds. Took the shot and the deer dropped kicked a few times and stayed down in 6" deep green field grass seemingly dead. There were 2 of us and we had around 10 minutes of legal time so we just sat hoping for a double kill. I called the landowner and told him I had a deer down and he said he would come down and drag it out with his wheeler. After a quick 10 minutes nothing else came out into the field so we unloaded and climbed down the shooting shack ladder. We hit the ground just as we could see the wheeler lights come over the hill. We started to go towards where the deer was and suddenly it stood up and took off much to our amazement. Our guns were both uncapped and the wheelers headlights showed that deer racing for the swamp. 3 of us looked until around 11 that night and found only a little blood at the spot where it was and couldn't find anything else. I went back the next day and spent all day walking that swamp which was pretty thick and never found a trace of the deer. I kept an eye out for a few days and never saw any crows or ravens which would have found that deer if it died. No clue what happened but that one will stick in my memory banks for a while.

flags

Hit him too high. Probably clipped one of the bones that juts up from the spine. Hit one there and they drop to the shot but don't stay down. And only taking 2 bullets into the field when you're hunting is a very UNWISE move. Frankly that buck deserved better than running into you that day.

Cub Slayer

I'm not saying this is you, but consider that you might need to stick to superior weapons (i.e. rifles) until you improve. This is my seventh year hunting. So far, it's been rifles only (except turkey, but I've yet to seal the deal).

Next year, I'm planning to buy a bow, but I absolutely will NOT hunt with it until I am confident of my ability to correctly judge and execute 100% kill shots - even if it takes me years to get there. Sure, even a "perfect shot" usually means the animal will run off (EVERY animal I've ever shot ran off), but a good clean kill shots means its not going to go far.

I won't give you the "Big hole for better blood" lecture, because your .50 cal is obviously plenty big, but there is no way you made a good shot with that round and lost the deer.

Erno86

OP - What kind of bullet did you use?

Did you aim for the lungs or shoulder?

What was the color and length of the deer hair on the ground?

You might have hit him just below the spine and above the lung cavity --- Which is a non-fatal hit with a muzzleloader bullet.

I imagine that the bullet passed though and exited the body.

Whether he would eventually die of gangrene infection is a quandary.

rockport

There is no below the spine and above the lungs. That is a myth. The spine dips and "no mans land" is above the spine.

Oldtimr

Champlain Islander

I have been around for a while and killed many... many wild game animals and birds. Sad to say there have been a few that got away. I always prepared to the best of my ability and used top shelf equipment but killing isn't a perfect science. Sometimes the animal or mother nature wins and that is how fair chase works out sometimes.

Nclady520

Erno86

Did the deer's blood have any oxygen bubbles in it? If it did...you might have clipped only one of his lungs. If that was the case, you might want to have waited for him to bed down, stiffen-up an die; by not following his blood trail for at least 1 or maybe even two hours. You might be able to find him shortly after the kill...by looking for buzzards (black vultures) or turkey vultures flying around over a wounded or dead deer; including listening for a loud chortle call from a buzzard, that is flying over a deer's deathbed that he has just discovered.

How did the deer appear when it was knocked down by the bullet?

Did it jump straight up then fall down, just knocked straight down to his buckling knees? Or did it look like he was hit by a battering ram near his spine, with him falling down sideways --- away from you --- like a rock?