Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Running dead…

This has been discussed before…


Shot a buck last evening.

He ran about 75 yards or so.

Plenty of blood to track. Steady stream of spurts..


I usually dont gut a deer, but was curious since it was the first Ive shot with 130gr TSX. Normally i shoot the 127gr TTSX.

Dug into the chest, half the heart was gone….

I like bang flops, but dont mind tracking a deer, but dang..

What was powering him? Adrenaline?

I'm probably not going to explain this right, but a heart shot will do that. Heart sits low and the angle and direction can change things, but most times when you take out the heart it's not the same as center punching the lungs. The lungs are still intact and working, providing oxygenated blood to the muscles. I'm sure that's not a medically accurate way of describing it, but lungs fully taken out and not working will dispatch a deer much quicker than a low heart shot.

I’ve seen them flop DRT with a “broken heart”…I’ve also had em run with one. No rhyme or reason, other than some of them just don’t know they’re dead until they fall. Not an expert(or deer doctor) but most lung shots lead to deer “drowning” from their own blood. Adrenaline seems to work against a lung shot deer, but seems to help a heart shot deer. Of course every deer/shot is somewhat different to a degree. Just my opinion. 😎

Damn tuff critters! Amazing how they keep on going.

Wife shoot a buck last yr with her dirty 30 at 10yds he ran up a mtn 150yds surprised the hell out of me

Doc, I probably shouldn't of said will, but can. I've had heart shot deer not make it far at all but other than bad hit deer, the dead runners here and there over the yrs have all been heart shots. Not hard to follow the blood trail but seemed like there was no stopping until they were drained.

All good Shade…my % of dead runner heart shots vs DRT’s is fairly parallel to your’s. Will/can, no sweat or shade. 😎

I once watched a doe run 250 yards across a pasture after I punched her broadside through both lungs from 30 yards with a 12 gauge Foster slug.

IMHO they always almost run. They have to lose close to 50% of their blood to die.

Makes sense..

Every one has different shoot placement.

Ive always been the crease behind the shoulder.

Every shot and animal is different. Just gotta shoot vitals and see what happens.

They all die, just some do it different.

Sometimes they just don't fall like we think they should, regardless of what they're hit with or where they're hit, unless it's a CNS shot.
Shot a big bodied 9 pointer on Thanksgiving evening, 308, 150 Hornady (3031 bullet). Exactly 99 yards, since he was standing 1 yard directly in front of my 100 yard target stand.. dead broadside, center punched both shoulders. Two "pushes" with his hind legs, went about 20 feet. About what I'd expect with that shot placement.
Same location, yesterday morning, granddaughter double lunged a 90 pound doe. Same distance, same rifle and load. This one ran...and ran...almost 200 yards, before piling up. An inch back from the shoulder "crease", about a third of the body height from the bottom, in and out. Classic double lung shot. Biggest piece of lung left when we gutted was about the size of a black walnut, but still made it that far.
Sometimes the will to live is amazing.

Just a part of deer hunting
They don't think and reason like humans.
I've bow killed deer through and through that
just flinched and continued their leisurely
walking and sniffing and grazing while pouring
blood, then just toppled over after the brain
couldn't make everything work.
And like others, I've shot deer in and out
that turned and tried to flee. Some just made
a couple of feet, some several yards. Did
it with a body cavity full of red goo.

JMHO- I think if they're already working on
an adrenaline shot, they can make those
legs work for a while and flee.
I guess it's good that ropes are relatively
inexpensive these days

Try a high shoulder shot and they just go down; they can't run. You have to try it and you will see. DRT is the normal result.

The shoulder shot is the down now. Most of what I hunt is mountainside and usually my hike in is uphill. I'm happy to lung shoot and let them run downhill...in the few spots I walk around or down the mountain I'm shooting shoulders.

I have been amazed at how similarly placed shots heart/lung shots have resulted in different distances traveled.

I've had lung shots run and get a ways off before dying, but I honestly can't say I've had one get any considerable distance when the lungs were destroyed. Not just hit in the lungs but uber trauma. But I know deer react differently and you can never say never. I've been along on a couple 1 lunger's that we almost didn't find them. Went a heck of a ways.

Shot a doe yesterday right before dark with a Speer 165 gn SBT out of a 30-06. In the shoulder muscle clipped the heart and out the back of the ribs on the back side. She took off like the devil was after her. She was in a field that was smooth. Ran 100 yards and she crashed as soon as she got in the woods and hit uneven ground. Most does go down shot through the ribs with an 06. You just never know. After 25 yards she was spraying blood all over.

A similar thing happened to my uncle many years ago. He followed a trail of, blood, pieces of lung for a pretty long time……not sure exactly how far, seems it was around 400 yards or so. Had the deer not tried to cross a small pond…..it may still be running! 🙂 memtb

About 10 years ago I shot a doe with my muzzleloader. It was about an 80 yard shot. After 20 minutes I pick up the trail and a great blood trail straight down the hill. I was surprised when she jumped up and took off. I kept a slow steady push. She jumped up a couple more times before expiring, I could never get another shot in the thick stuff. Altogether 35 minutes from shot to death, and at least a couple hundred yards. When I feild dressed her, it was clean heart shot and the heart was shredded. I don't know if it came apart at the time of the shot, or pulled itself apart as she exterted herself running away.

A few years after that I shot a doe through the heart with a bow. I jumped her 30 minutes later while tracking. Came back several hours later and she was freshly dead. Low in the heart but a heart shot.

I think sometimes it’s adrenaline and the instinct to get back to cover where they feel safe. The farthest I’ve had a double lung shot deer run was double lung and top/back part of the heart shot with an arrow. He ran about 100 yards through open woods on a straight course dead run but dropped within 6’ of getting back into the cedar swamp and security cover that he had come from.

He seemed hell bent on getting back into cover but as soon as he got there he dropped mid stride.