Reactions of deer when hit?

Seems like there were a few people who followed a bit of a trend on the first page of this thread that I would like to add to.

I went out deer hunting for the first time this year. I had a doe come out at 110 yards.. I have a .270 with 130 grain win-powerpoints loaded, and I aimed for the high heart/lung shot.. I saw the shot through my scope, and she didn't take a step, she just fell over, dead on the spot.

When I went over to look at her, I saw that my bullet had hit higher then I had thought, more in the upper front shoulder. It was still a double lung, and the lungs were destroyed.. The shot seemed to work.

The doe was a decent size, I got 93 pounds of meat out of her. I was wondering if anyone could estimate how much she weighed before field dressing?
 
Not all animals react to a double long shot the same and part of the reason may be, what part of the lungs did the arrow or bullet go through? Look at both lungs and see where the hole is in the lung, was it off to the side, in the middle, etc, etc? This may have a lot to do with how fast the animal dies?
 
Slipery said:
Seems like there were a few people who followed a bit of a trend on the first page of this thread that I would like to add to.

I went out deer hunting for the first time this year. I had a doe come out at 110 yards.. I have a .270 with 130 grain win-powerpoints loaded, and I aimed for the high heart/lung shot.. I saw the shot through my scope, and she didn't take a step, she just fell over, dead on the spot.

When I went over to look at her, I saw that my bullet had hit higher then I had thought, more in the upper front shoulder. It was still a double lung, and the lungs were destroyed.. The shot seemed to work.

The doe was a decent size, I got 93 pounds of meat out of her. I was wondering if anyone could estimate how much she weighed before field dressing?
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You got 93 pounds of edible meat????:eek::eek::eek:

That would put her close to 225 pounds!
 
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One of the most interesting theories I have read regarding why some deer drop and other run on broadside shots came from a cardiologist who posted on an American forum I belong to.

He speculated that if on a low broadside shot the right ventricle was full of blood and just starting to contract as the bullet entered the lungs an over-pressure wave would be created which would effectively cause the deer to suffer a major brain stroke and drop on the spot.

I have no idea if this is logical or not but I found in interesting anyways.
 
I've shot deer and deer-sized game with muzzleloaders, .22 centerfires, "deer rifles", magnums, hyper magnums and what most people would describe as elephant guns. I've seen them run, drop, drop and get up, stand and take a 3 shot group through the ribs, stand and kick the wound then carefully bed down and die and just about anything else you could think of. Some looked hit, some didn't. There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the reactions, but across the board the highest numbers of animals that dropped to the shot were hit with high velocity, comparatively soft bullets or were hit through the shoulders or both. This is not to say the premium bullets shouldn't be used, or that elk bullets won't kill deer, or that exit wounds aren't desireable. I'm just saying what I've seen.
 
I gave up trying to guess what they will do.
Double lunger on a small buck - dropped like the hand of God had smacked him. Shot 7 or 8 with a .270, all lung or lung hearts and they all ran 60 - 100 yards. The 3 I have shot with slugs dropped right there.

Did take a neck shot ( was peeking around a tree at me ) and yes although he dropped right there he required a follow up.

Has anyone ever noticed a sort of circular motion in the hind quarter as they run after a fatal hit? Sort of like they think something is on their back??
 
Slipery - is that 93 lbs bone in?

Tracker - the big deer that dropped was shot high, but behind the legs and solidly through the lungs. The little deer was shot quartering on through the on-side leg, and the bullet went through the top of both lungs exiting just forward of the diaphramon the off-side flank.

RG

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Dogleg said:
I've shot deer and deer-sized game with muzzleloaders, .22 centerfires, "deer rifles", magnums, hyper magnums and what most people would describe as elephant guns. I've seen them run, drop, drop and get up, stand and take a 3 shot group through the ribs, stand and kick the wound then carefully bed down and die and just about anything else you could think of. Some looked hit, some didn't. There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the reactions, but across the board the highest numbers of animals that dropped to the shot were hit with high velocity, comparatively soft bullets or were hit through the shoulders or both. This is not to say the premium bullets shouldn't be used, or that elk bullets won't kill deer, or that exit wounds aren't desireable. I'm just saying what I've seen.
Click to expand...

Voice of experience :agree:
I've seen them fall dead with a .223 hardball through the vitals & run 100yds with a .300WM in what looked like the same shot :confused:
 
I can't think of one deer that dropped with a double lung shot through ribs only, not shoulder or spine. That's out of several dozen shot with .308, 25-06, 7x57, .356, .35 Whelen, .250 Savage, .243, .270, 30-06, .358, 7x64, 7mm-08, .338, .303 and others. A very high speed frangible bullet sometimes does it I'm told, but not in my experience.
One of the things that really ticks me off is once a year shooters who blaze away at deer from the truck and won't even go check the tracks when they don't fall over. Many fatally hit deer show NO sign at all of a hit. They just run a short ways and then die.
 
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I too have seen the exact same shots result in drastic differences of running distance even when using the same firearm. Different deer have different stamina I guess. I had two tags this year, one antlerless and one buck and filled both. Both were double lung shots at 60 yards or less and the doe hit with a 140 grn 6.5 ran 80 yards and piled up and the other was a buck tonight that went only 20 yards with a 240 grain cast lead fired from my inline muzzle loader. Bigger hole equals faster blood loss. GRIN I always either shoot behind the fore shoulder or neck as I hate the destruction resulting from a direct into the fore shoulder shot. It destroys too much meat for my liking. The neck shots always result in an instant drop and they are definitely my preferred shot.
 
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