This past season I shot two Bucks with a semi... both were walking on the first shot and running fullout after. I shot the the first one three times and two of the hits were vital zone and one hit was a little forward and broke the leg and cut the brisket. Even though though this deer was dead on the first shot I had no way of knowing. The funny thing was the one bad shot that dropped him was the non-vital leg hit. This shot caused him to drop right at the edge of cover and possible saved me a long tracking job.
The second buck was a tough one because it was very low light and he was in very long grass. I felt the first shot was good but he showed no indication and ran in a circle back to where he had come from.... a huge fricken swamp!
I lead him and when his vitals cleared the grass I pulled a second shot... he covered another twenty feet in the air as I put the crosshairs back on him but he folded into the grass and never got up. The third shot was still in chamber and the gun on my shoulder as I walked the 150 yards to where he lay. If he had raised his head I would have shot him again.
Neither of these instances was longer than a few seconds and both were during a heavy snowfall. Am I glad I was shooting a Semi?... you betcha!
Was a semi neccesary... I can't say for sure with either of these kills, but for many more it was and I am not about to quit carrying one anytime soon.
Wanna see the pictures walksalot?
After reading this I wonder , and then just decided it would better to paste the info again so folks could read it again and come to their own conclusions on follow up shots.Its pretty clear in the text above.
My goal , even as a trophy hunter part time, depending on time left in the season,bag limit, and such, but in all cases ,to save as much meat as poss. on a critter.
One example , ref. bag limit , was hunting a quarter section that was partly cleared , remainder in the process, ie brush piles. My buddy spoted 2 does about 600 meters away. I said , Iam gonna put the sneak on them, had a Ruger #1 with a 6x42 leupold. Anyway I snuck up behind the closest pile of brush 225 meters from the feeding deer. A decent rest and took the shot.
My buddy was watching through bino's from his position.
Well at the shot , up comes the tail flagging left and right as it went outa sight in a dip in the large field. I could not beleave I had missed even at that range from a rest.
I walked up to where I could see the rest of the fields edge, and there was a deer looking back towards me, still in the field. I thought my buddy had knocked my scope showing the rifle to a fella that came by the camp the night before so I passed on another shot.
He came up to me and said, what happened?, you missed! I don't know man, I figured it was a great shot, but that deer did not even flinch, tail flagging. Then I ragged on him a bit about knocking the scope.lol, He took offence to that ,LOL.
As we were wondering what had happened , and to go the rest of the way and check where they were standing, he said , whats that , a magpie flew down and was sitting on something. A closer look through the bino's and it was my deer. It had the top of the heart , and both lungs messed up, with a pass through , very little expansion of the bullet , did not hit bone.
Had I shot the other deer I would have been in a mess a trouble with a 1 deer limit.
What am I getting at , that first shot may be better than you think, and the deer may not show signs of being hit. Putting follow up shots into a deer that may be gonna die anyway, will only result in more meat loss to the hunter.
Frank
