I've seen some weird stuff in my hunting career that I would not have otherwise believed. Once I shot a deer which was perfectly broadside in a clear shooting lane with a 180 grain roundnose core-lokt with my '06.....50 or 60 yard shot in the woods. I hit the deer in the crease of the shoulder but the bullet hit a rib and deflected 90 degrees towards the guts and I found it perfectly mushroomed under the hide on the OFFSIDE HAM! Entrance hole tight behind the shoulder right where I aimed.
I essentially was dealing with a gut and liver shot deer that I thought I had double lunged, and my expectation was to find blood all over the woods. He ran well out of sight, got on a dirt road and ran down it about 300 yards without spilling a drop of blood. I looked for a couple of hours down all the trails I could find in briar choked planted pines that I thought the deer may have taken in the general direction I saw him run, not knowing that when he came to the road he ran in the opposite direction....a LONG way! Later I got my Dad to help me look and finally called off the search. Dad said I had missed which was a totally reasonable opinion based on what he was seeing....no deer, no blood, no sign of a hit. But, I had a solid rest on the rail of my climber and a "chip shot" and saw the deer react. I knew I had hit it.
I was despondent over losing the deer which is still the biggest 8 point I have killed to date but I would have felt the same had it been a doe. I strongly considered quitting hunting. I mean come on! If you can't kill a broadside deer with a heavily loaded 30-06 with a solid rest at 50 yards, maybe the sport is not for you right?
Anyway, Dad decides to go on a nature hike, probably because he got tired of hearing my bitching, and he walks down the road the deer took and finds him laying in the middle of it!
That experience caused me to have mercy on people with outlandish tales such as yours and mine. I can tell you that while I was looking for that deer, I was cussing me some core-lokts, 30-06's, life in general, considering the purchase of an elephant gun to deer hunt with and maybe quitting hunting. I'll never forget that day. Nothing but absolute sheer dumb luck found that deer. Had my Dad walked out of the woods with me he would have been buzzard food. My best hunting story to date by far!
Usually, the sad tales of lost deer are caused by a guy who gets feverish, shuts his eyes, flinches, bitch slaps the trigger and misses his "chip shot", but poop can and does occur. When it does, no caliber, bullet, or hunter is immune.
