bullet performance and hunter hell.

RoscoeT

RoscoeT

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A bit long but...

Man, you would never believe the hunt I just got home from.

Not that it was so super awesome fantastic. But how such an easy kill turned into a hellish struggle of man versus beast. The beast being gravity.

Went out for mule deer. Eastern Alberta.
It snowed quite a bit here yesterday and the roads were like glass about 4 am this morning. To top it off there was a horrible fog. At times while driving to my spot I could only see 20 yards. At one point the truck went sideways on the highway :eek:

So I get to my spot 60 mins later than planned. Just at sunrise rather than 1 hour before. I start walking in and lose sight of the truck right away due to fog. Dang it.

I go out on a point that separates to huge coulees. The bottoms are clear from fog. Finally some luck.

I spot a deer about 400 yards and drop in the snow to glass it better. It's a fawn... wait there are some more joining it.

I back track a bit to get a better position and a better look. I come in about 200 yards away, across from and above them. and check it out.

There is big daddy buck, big uncle buck, and cousin buck. Then I see 3 does on one side and a single on the other. Holy, I think what luck, i can take my pic. I have doe tags so I can't take the bucks. I choose the doe close to the top on the opposite side. Best shot and she is close enough to the top of the coulee that I can bring the truck around and haul her out with my rope.

My hunting partner and I have started trying only neck shots on meat deer. There is less waste no wounded animals. It's either dead or fled.

Well, i'm alone today. Partner could not make it. So, prone in the snow, I take the shot with my new savage in .243 win and my leupold jacked to 9x. BANG, flop right on the spot. The rest don't move they just look around. Well I'm out of tags so I just watch them for fun. Has to be a couple of minutes.

Then all of a sudden the doe gets up and tries to bolt down the coulee. I was shocked to see her move at all. She was t1ts up for several minutes. :confused:
But she does a somersault and rolls over and over and piles up about 50 yards further from the top. No big deal I think. I get a round ready and watch her to make sure she it done. Several more minutes go by and she is not moving at all. So I climb down my side and walk up to her. I get within 30 feet and I see her ear twitch... oh crap she jumps up and bolts, looking like there is nothing wrong with her at all. In 2 seconds she is around the corner and out of sight.... WTF

I decide I'm not going to / can't chase her, and since with fresh snow and shot she should be easier to track. I check the spot where she was laying for blood and I find 2 drops the size of peas. Now I'm really confused.

I start tracking her and come across her lying only a few hundred yards from her original place. She spots me and gets up and starts to run. I off hand shoot her at 50 yards and anchor her right there with a lung shot.

I go up and check out where she was hit. Shot clean through the neck :eek: but almost no blood. Wound is barely noticeable.

I was curious what happened and skinned up to the neck.
The bullet passed through like paper and hit nothing vital at all. The shock and muscle damage must have knocked her senseless.

By now she was at the very bottom of a very deep and steep coulee. The sides of which are covered in snow. I tagged her at exactly 9am. Around 2:30pm I finally had her in the truck. Man, am I sore from hauling her fat ass out of that spot.

The rounds were .243 100gr winchester power points. The bullet did a great job on the body. It went in but did not come out. Knocked her right off her feet. The way I like it. I guess that the neck is a bit thin and she was lucky or unlucky depending how you look at it.

Just a fluke I guess. Shot happens.

I need a beer.
 
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Mike Oxbig said:
5-1/2 hrs of dragging Dorris the doe? Damn that sucks. At least nobody can say that you don't work for your food.:D
Boiler room shot next time?
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Yeah maybe. I just hate wrecking the shoulders. You don't get much meat off a mulie as it is and if you blast a shoulder you're getting even less. But sh!ite, I would rather lose a shoulder than do that crap again.

It would be a lie to say that half way through this I wasn't temped to just pull the tag and say fogit. But I am a stubborn bastard.
 
Think it was a fluke. I've not ever heard of that before.
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It's not a fluke at all,that dead or fled crap is total B.S.

I have had to track three deer that other people shot in the neck because the deer dropped at the shot,and later regained it's feet and ran away.If you don't severe the spine,it can and will happen eventually as you have seen for yourself.
 
That is the danger with neck /head shots

Just today my buddy shot a deer at about 60 yards with his 300WM, aiming for the neck. Buck faceplanted into a bunch of overgrown branches, so he walked up, took off his pack and dug around for his knife...

Buck jumped up and looked at him- He had hit the jaw and it destroyed jaw and went out the back of the neck.

He tracked it (lots of blood) and the deer had bedded, only exposing his neck again. He shot and the buck dropped his head. He approached and the buck was making a wheezing, gurgling sound, but was still alive so he quickly finished it with a shot behind the head.

Both neck shots at pretty close range had failed to hit the spine.

He had taken neck shots before with success and was astounded at the results- He isn't a neck shooter anymore.

I've done it too, but it's a much lower percentage shot than a boileroom hit!
 
stubblejumper said:
It's not a fluke at all,that dead or fled crap is total B.S.

I have had to track three deer that other people shot in the neck because the deer dropped at the shot,and later regained it's feet and ran away.If you don't severe the spine,it can and will happen eventually as you have seen for yourself.
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I always try and do a neck shot as not to chance any lose of meat, especially since the deer in my hunting area are not very big. Using a 308 and also a 30-06, I have yet to have one get up after a shot in the neck. Keep in mind my shots are always up close, around 50 yards.
 
I cringe when I hear that. Three shots with a 300 WM to kill a deer because you're going for neck/head shots. That's giving the anti hunters what they want to hear.

If its a low percentage shot - don't shoot.
 
Finger Toes said:
You waste a hell of a lot less meat going in one rib and out the other. Old f**kers generally dislike neck shots for a reason.
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To each their own. I been doing it this way for over 20yrs. Yes I agree in one rib and out the other wastes no meat, but a deer does not always give you that perfect straight on shot.

As i mentioned, I am shooting from 50 yards a many times less. I would not attempt a neck shot on longer distances.
 
fugawi said:
I cringe when I hear that. Three shots with a 300 WM to kill a deer because you're going for neck/head shots. That's giving the anti hunters what they want to hear.

If its a low percentage shot - don't shoot.
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Yeah, he cringed, too. But he had pulled off neck shots lots of times in the past and was surprised as hell at the result this time.

I doubt if he will go for any neck shot again, other than straight on, which will either break the spine or hit the heart or both.
 
Please don't let this turn into an ethics thread. I hate how almost every thread turns into a lecture about hunting ethics.

I was not aware that this occurred semi-regularly as far as dropping them in one shot only to have that wake up and run off minutes later.

I pass on lots of shots that I am not %100 that I can make. I know that lots of guys will unload their guns and hit nothing. At least nothing they can recover.

Now me. If I shoot it I am damn sure I'm going to hit it. And I did, and she dropped as expected. I could have swore this deer was D.E.A.D no guessing if I could make the shot or if she was hit.

I was very surprised.
 
Silverado said:
That anchoring shot through the lungs you mentioned? That's the shot you should always take.
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Yeah, it's the one they teach. Myself and others I've talked to assumed that it was because it was easier for once a year type shooters.

I'm going to have to rethink the tactic.
 
always shoot at large concentrations of blood... brain or boilerroom. and when choosing between those two it makes sense to go for the target that is 4-5x larger (boiler room).
 
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