Not impressed with myself.

A

anarchist_ns

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Beaver Bank NS
I lost my first buck this week. I shot at, and hit a nice 10 pointer at about 50 yards. I hit him right where I aimed, right behind the shoulder blade (where I always aim), but instead of dropping like they usually do, he bolted. I heard lots of crashing in the bush as he bolted through the chopping, and then a final crash which I assumed was him falling down. I climbed out of my tree stand, and proceeded the the point of shooting, and noticed blood on the ground, and a trail leading to the direction he ran. I followed the blood (there was a lot of it) for about 500 yards. Towards the end, it was getting spotty, and clotty, and then it stopped. He seemed to be running for a copse of trees near the center of the chopping. I was about 30 yards from it by this point. I cocked the bolt on my .303, took two steps towards the copse, he jumped up out of the brush, and bolted into the copse of trees. He moved so fast I never got a shot off. I went to the spot he was laying, found a big blood clot, and more fresh blood, I followed it for another 100 yards, before it too, dried up, and the blood trail went cold. I attempted to track him for another hour until it got dark, but I was eventually forced to give up. This is the first deer I have ever lost, and it gutted me.
 
Your shot did not go where you thought it did... No lung shot deer goes 500+ yards... But do go back and resume your search... We have found a few deer the following day.
 
It was probably grabbed by a grizzly, this was the crashing you heard. Sometimes they wait near your tree stand for a free meal.
 
Winnipeg Toymaker said:
go back in the morning and resume looking. he will either bleed out or coyotes will eat him.
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I did, and took a very experienced tracker with me. He lost the trail too. I can only surmise that either my scope was off, or I pulled the trigger instead of squeezing it. Still, I am very upset with myself. At least he will not go to waste if he dies. The yotes and blackies will have a good meal or two. I keep replaying the shot over and over in my head.
 
Hunt long enough and it will happen. Treestand shots can be tricky because of the downhill angle of the bullet's path through the animal. Hope you find him!
 
hoytcanon said:
Your shot did not go where you thought it did... No lung shot deer goes 500+ yards... But do go back and resume your search... We have found a few deer the following day.
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The longest I had one go was 30 yards. No heart or lungs. either I missed all vitals and major arteries, of I grazed him. Either way, I'm gutted.
 
sounds like it missed anything major, and it was a deep flesh wound. if he went 500 yards, and still had the energy to get up and run, i dont think you got a great shot on him and as others have said he will live or die over night.
 
Poor shots happen, he wasn't hit in the lungs if he went that far. Don't be one of those that blame the bullet or rifle. Admit it was a bad shot and move on!
 
hawk-i said:
Poor shots happen, he wasn't hit in the lungs if he went that far. Don't be one of those that blame the bullet or rifle. Admit it was a bad shot and move on!
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The thing is, I honestly don't believe it was a bad shot. It was at about 60 yards or so, no wind, good light, I just don't get it. I'm not blaming anything or anyone but myself on this, that's why I feel so bad. It's the first deer I've ever lost. It's a source of pride for me to take an animal cleanly, and quickly. I actually feel a little ashamed that I lost it. Oh well. Back to the stand this weekend.
 
A friend almost lost a small 6 last night. 35' shot with my 270 and he ran off. I couldn't find blood and it was getting dark fast. I found him about 100 yards off with a perfect lung shot.
 
A lung shot animal with leave a lighter coloured blood trail because the blood with have lots of air mixed in with it....dark coloured blood will indicate the lungs were not hit and may be hit further back in the liver or stomach area. Also a front leg wound will show a blood trail like you have discribed....lots of darker coloured blood but slowly tappering off to no blood loss. If the deer has bedding down a few times, quite often the bleeding will stop. It sucks to loose an animal but like others have said, it does happen from time to time no matter how hard one tries for the quick kill things can and at times do go wrong.
 
Have you sighted in your rifle this year?

Two issues I see, shot placement and immediately tracking after the shot. The amount of energy that bullet has at 50-60 yards is enough to completely destroy any vitals you hit and drop it within 100 yards, as it did with your other deer. You said it was 500 yards before you jumped him, so probably at the 150-200 yard mark it should have started to be an indication that something wasn't right. Gutshot deer can run miles before dieing.
 
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