Do deer drop when you shoot them?

I shot three deer last month with a 180gr interbond out of my 30-06. Two of the three dropped on the spot and the other who had been shot through both lungs, and heart ran 150-200 feet!!!
 
Not one of the two dozen or so deer that I have killed with the 140gr ballistic tip out of my 7mmstw rifles made 50 yards.The vast majority dropped at the shot or within a few yards.I use lung shots,although a shoulder does get hit occasionally.
 
open-sights said:
I have shot only a few that come to mind that dropped. Most are boiler room shots and make it less than 60-70 yards, only once have I had to track a deer for any time, only went 220 or so yards but it was early without snow and little bloodtrail, hit him high between spine and lungs but was still enough to get him to lay down. Elk is another story, never seen one drop yet, in fact never seen one that didn't get less than 2 shots into him before dropping.
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Dad must have shot a whimpy bull elk! He droped his with 150 grain boattail soft point from his 270 Win at 373 yards! The whimp was pretty tastey!
 
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took a cow moose on a leh last year, northern b.c.
was shooting with my win pre64 mod70, 7mm rem mag, 165 gr nosler at 200 yards. the first hit was a good clean heart/lung.... my partner watched the impact with the binos.... she just lifted her head, still chewing swamp grass and looked across the swamp at us. I did not hesitate to make the second shot count and aimed 6 inches above the shoulders for a solid neck shot. She dropped like a fricken stone.

all the deer i have shot have been heart/lung shot placement. None have gone down instantly. Some have taken a few slow steps and dropped and some have bolted 30 yards tops. either way they all ended up dead.... quick.
I have heard from a biologist friend of mine who works for alberta's fish and game, that most large animals still have approx 8 seconds of oxygen supply to thier brain/muscles and if the signal from the brain says run while the 8 seconds are expiring..... they will do just that.... this is not fact as far as i can prove.... just comes from a reliable source.
either way... shot placement is key to a clean kill with little wasted meat.

This is how i learned shot placement for moving deer. we set up a white circle of cardboard, 2 feet diameter. then at 50 yards... then 100 then 150.... started with the rifle pointing 4 to 5 feet to the right of the target and started a steady swing to the left, when the circle came into view during the swing, the shot is fired... but you do not hesitate with the speed of the swing.
once we got good at getting bullseye-ish hits while practicing this technique... we made the circle of cardboard smaller, with a 6 inch target center. Find a safe place to do this and be sure your backstop will accomodate a the entire distance of the swing. shot placement will become a trained manouver.... worked wonders for me
 
It's not just shot placement, cartridge used, bullet construction, distance, etc.

It also depends a lot on whether they're grazing unconcerned, or if they're looking at you tensed up and ready to bolt.
 
I shot a whitetail the other day that dropped instantly on the spot, like struck by a bolt of lightning. Bang, flop - lights out, not even a twitch, he just collapsed on the spot. Straight down, not a kick out of him. I shot him at about 60 yards or so with a 7mm08 and a 140 TSX through the top half of his lungs, just barely behind the shoulder and a couple inches below the spine. While there was no visible damage to the spine, I suspect that the bullet passing so close to it probably had something to do with the absolutely instantaneous drop.
 
I've had a couple out of 17 deer drop in their tracks.They were both neck shots.I try as a rule to take a lung shot.They go 50 yards at most.Same with the moose and black bears I've taken.
 
I've had deer run, bolt, stop, stare, drop immediatly, everything imagineable after the shot. I even had one drop stone dead, son & I drug him out to the road & threw him into back of the truck, drove 5 or miles around to camp, pulled him out onto the ground & it jumped up & ran 100' into the brush where it expired :eek: probably from the fright of me chasing it :cool:
There can be a lot of factors dicating whether a deer drops immediately or not!
Caliber, bullet speed, bullet type, whether the deer is hit unaware, or if it's nervious & ready to bolt, or already full of adrenaline, & probably other factors I just can't think of right now like size of animal etc.
 
Elk is another story, never seen one drop yet, in fact never seen one that didn't get less than 2 shots into him before dropping.
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I must have been lucky,as of the nine elk that I took with my 300 ultramags,all were shot only once,and not one covered 50 yards.Most dropped on the spot,or within a few yards of being hit.However,I did have to shoot two bulls the second time when I was using other cartridges.
 
I notice a lot of deer in video's run after being hit, often after leeping into the air, a classic sign of gut shot. We never know what kind of follow up is required before all the trophy shots.

I must be lucky. Very few deer I have shot have gone more than a couple of body lengths (if that) before expiring. With few rare exceptions, I go for heart lung shots, regardless of range. I have dropped a couple with face to face throat shots.
 
I shot a doe feeding on a cut line several years ago at 398 yards (range finder). At the shot she trotted off into the wood and then reappeared seconds later and began feeding again. I lined up again and shot and again she trotted off a few yards and then again began feeding. I'm cursing to myself now because I figure my scope is frigged. Five seconds after the second shot she suddenly starts the "backwards stagger two step" and collapses. On field dressing we found that both bullets had passed through the lungs but remarkably neither had struck a rib going in or out. The lack of broken bone basically made it so that the doe had never realized she'd been hurt.
 
bisonhd said:
I notice a lot of deer in video's run after being hit, often after leeping into the air, a classic sign of gut shot. We never know what kind of follow up is required before all the trophy shots.

I must be lucky. Very few deer I have shot have gone more than a couple of body lengths (if that) before expiring. With few rare exceptions, I go for heart lung shots, regardless of range. I have dropped a couple with face to face throat shots.
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The "leeping into the air" is the sign of a heart shot. A gut shot animal will hump up.
 
About 50/50 for me as well, sometimes you anchor them when you didn't thonk you should have and sometimes they refuse to die whan you make a good shot.

But normaly a lung shot deer is only good for 100 or so yards, sometimes farther?
Broken shoulders they go down in short order!
Heart shot deer that have gone 30-100 yards. and if on a dog a bit further!
Head shots LOL! well?? enough said.

A head shot will stand them up on there hinds at times to
 
Stopped counting "numbers" years ago, but do remember a number of "Bang/Flops" (maybe a dozen) on Deer, Black Bear & Moose. These with a 44Mag, 270, 308, and a 35 Whelen. One bear took a hit behind the ear at maybe 50 yards with the 44 - dropped so fast it just seemed to disappear. Three moose, 3 shots, no flight (dropped in their tracks) with the 35 Whelen with 250 gr. Hornady handloads. So far (Knock knuckes on wooden head for continued good luck) haven't lost one head of game ... and of the furthest, a "heart-shot-out" spike buck went maybe 75 - 80 yards (leaving a blood trail like an open bucket of paint) - before it crashed into a tree. Most recovered inside 40 yards or so.
 
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I saw my bow deer go down and the heart shot out button buck last year went about 5 yards, hit it with a 12 gauge slug.
 
This year marks 50 years of hunting for me. During that time I have had the privilege of shooting a fair amount of game. As far as the cervids go, I believe that Deer & Elk are more "high-strung" than Moose, and are more likely to run after the shot unless it is a CNS hit. That being said, about the farthest I have had any animal run after a solid double lung hit was a Whitetail buck, and he made a large circle of 125 yards. This year's moose went 10 feet after one shot through the lungs. Many moose I have shot just stood still for about 20-30 seconds and then tipped over without a kick. Furthest run for an Elk (Shot with the 30-06 and a 180 Partition) was 80 yards. Last year's Elk was double-lunged at relatively long range, slightly quartering away. It went 30 yards and collapsed. I occasionally am told about lung-shot game that travelled miles after the hit. I don't believe it! Only possibility is a bullet that did not expand at all, or a miss on those lungs. Two things happen to an animal shot in the lungs with a bullet that expands and does massive tissue damage: It can no longer breathe, and it quickly drowns in it's own blood. When oxygen is shut down to the brain, death is very quick. I like it when an animal drops in it's tracks at the shot, but I don't expect it and am not disappointed by a short run after the shot. I try in every case to make the shot properly. Bullet placement and a decent bullet do the job well. It's all over but the work. Regards, Eagleye
 
I finally droped one where it stood at 75 yards. He was quartering away. I hit him on the last rib before the stomach. It hit the liver and one lung before going threw the ribs on the front near the shoulder. The 140 grain Ballistic Silvertip stopped before exiting the hide. You would figure that a 7mm WSM would go threw. It didn't hit anything major other than 2 ribs, 1 lung and the liver. He droped, got up on his front legs and turned to face me. By this time I had the red dot between his eyes. He fell over before I had to finish it.

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The furthest I've had one run is about 75 yards from a field into some woods. The shot was about the same distance too - I did an "oh sh#t" and then after 10 minutes tracked her into the woods. Easy to find. That's the furthest. Usually they drop really quickly if you get your shot placement right. And using a .30-30 doesn't hurt especially at short range. Bang/flops seem to happen about half the time. It may be getting the shot higher up on the shoulder.

The buck I had this year was trotting at the time I shot so I couldn't be too picky with shot placement. Through both shoulders and down he went after a bit of a lurch - and not a gut shot! And he stayed down within 5 yards. There may be something to theory that a calm animal will go down quicker when it's not real alert.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that a deer is a light bodied animal and even a bullet that is the appropriate calibre and weight may possibly pass thru the vital area without the opportunity to deliver all of it's shocking ability.Angle of entry and range of a shot being some of the factors.A heavy animal such as an elk may provide more resistance,allowing for a bullet to perform as it was designed to.....Just a thought?
 
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