Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What is the appeal of DRT?

Id say I am sbout 85% double lungers, a few that are shot from some situation where angle and timing don't allow very precise placement(like benoint style hunting) and a few that I shoulder shoot for a DRT.

I choose the behind the shoulder shot because it doesn't muss much meat, kills surely and reasonably quickly and has a good margin of error.

On the animals I try to DRT, some are shot on public land in the NY's southern tier and if a shot deer runs past another hunter you could loose it (hasn't happened to me, but its possible). or I am hunting next to a property line or in a heavy rain. As for DRT shots, I use the shoulder shot for its margin of error.

I have nothing against folks who like to DRT everything. I just see no reason for me to spend a little meat to get it. And my style of hunting probably wouldn't allow the precision that I would like to have to make a head shot.

In my area, tracking deer sucks given we get 120 inches of rain a year... A buck shot in a clear cut that isn't DRT is a nightmare. A buck shot in the alpine that isn't DRT is also a nightmare as you don't want to search for a wounded deer, wasting valuable energy and time.

Ummmm, look it up. Deer move well over 50 ft/sec at a run. I have had numerous deer run over 200 yards with holes through both lungs. My worse was a deer with no lungs and no heart run well over 200 yards, blood trail was virtually non-existant after 50-70 yards. No heart to pump blood out, and I have seen that happen many times, just not normally that far. Most well shot deer will not make 100 yards, but some still do go very far. I've killed well over a thousand in my life with everything from 22 lr to 50 bmg, and I still see them do new things now and then that I had not seen before. I even once had to finish one off that was double lunged with a 30-06 over 20 minutes after being shot, stuff happens. It wasn't going anywhere, but I did not want to stand around with it staring at me with it's head up while it finished dying.

In even the most remote parts of Michigan its hard to get more than 1.5 miles away from a road. Even harder to get that far off a logging trail or a fourwheeler track.
And I believe MI has more registered deer hunters than pa and is more remote.
I prefer to kill them in there trucks because many of the areas I hunt have thick tag alder swamps that the deer run for immediately after being hit. Drag a few out of a tag alder swamp and you will see the light.

I'm game. It's a slow Monday.

For me it is that they either drop like you cut the strings,melt, you get four feet in the air or they stand there numb and keel over on their side. Pretty dramatic. I can see the appeal.

That being said, I don't shoot for them unless that is the only presentation. I do bust shoulders if I need to keep them from going where they are headed. Behind the shoulder and 1/3 of the way up is my favorite.

Better to lose the shoulders than the whole animal.

It was pretty astounding. I was thinkin' my .358 was a death ray up until that deer. That's the exit from a 200-gn Hornady Interlock at 2625 MV by the way. The deer was about 20 yards away.

What happened was, he was with a pack of little bucks chasing a pre-estrous doe. It was the 2nd to last day of the season and I'd decided to kill anything legal to get some meat in the freezer. He made the mistake of forking his little horns <g>. Someone in that group of deer spotted me, and they scattered like flies... but he didn't know WHAT they were supposed to be running from and ran right in front of me. He saw me right before I shot him. So he had a pretty good adrenalin charge going. He went a solid 200 yards factoring in the terrain. But the blood trail was like... I don't even know... HUGE!

Talk about dead deer running...

In my book a DRT means the animal doesn't travel after the shot. And animal that simply drops at impact is more like a "bam-flop", but that's my literal way of thinking about the subject.

As for why or whether one can appreciate it the idea, I think that reflects what people have to deal with in their hunting. With deer-sized critters, an extra 100 feet means little in terms of work in packing. Tracking, even with blood trail, in the rain may be another thing. With "super-sized" critters, having them go an extra 100 feet can be entirely undesirable when it comes to the work involved - and that's assuming that it hasn't caused them to find a hell-hole to die in.

Some people like surprises. I don't especially like things that way. There are plenty enough of them as a given in what we do already, be they frozen(?) rivers, unforeseen mechanical problems, weather, etc. When I feel like playing the odds just a bit, I'll use less than a perfect cartridge or rifle. At least with that I have some control. Otherwise, give me "DRT" or I'll keep shooting. (I have tended to get less meat loss with a single good DRT shot than with 1-3 additional shots to accomplish that goal.)

Very well made point.

What's the appeal of DRT? It's NOT having to field dress a moose in the slough with tens of thousands of "no-seeums" flying all around you and into your nose & mouth. Or having to haul him out of the river that he ran into. Been there, done both.
Bear in Fairbanks

With all the deer that I have shot seen shot, I have seen exactly 2 DRT.

I have killed deer with .223, .243, .25-06, 30-30, 12 guage, 50 cal MZ. I have witnessed deer killed with .270 WCF, .30-06, 7MM RM. The two deer that were DRT were a doe killed with a 115g VLD from a .25-06 and a doe killed with a 12 gauge slug. Maybe two out of 50-60 deer killed/seen killed.

I shoot for heart/lungs and only get the shoulder if it is in the way of the heart.

This deer ran about 60 yards after this (160g Woodleigh WeldCore from 6.5x284 at 2800 fps)

Heart/lung area- top of heart missing/offside lung mushed



Offside shoulder- destroyed



IME, fast/slow, copper/frangible bullets, big/large calibers hasnt yielded reliable DRT, of course, I dont mind tracking and where I hunt that is a possibility.

From this post you've clearly a much heavier conscious than me.. which is funny. I've butchered hundreds of big game animals and on deer sized critters, the front shoulders typically don't yield a whole lot. At least not enough for me to feel badly about when I slug a piece of lead through them. I feel bad when I nail one in the ass, but as they say.. desperate measures ..

zeesh Greenie you gotta be desperate to nail one in the azz...grin

Dober

I know..

A most memorable THR/DRT. pronghorn buck, 440 yards, facing straight away - right up the leather cheerio, didn't wreck an ounce of the hams.. The 180grain bullet stopped just short of exiting his sternum. He buckled, did a 3 step circle, and dropped dead. It happened PDQ so I had a hard time regretting anything. I've learned the hard way on bears the double lung is a stoooopid shot, and you have to break shoulders if you don't want trouble. Of course it means those terrific bear shoulders might not yeild as much.. and for that I loose sleep. My favorite shot is the double lung broadside with the 200 grain accubond going light speed... except with bears..

Love learning new TLAs...

Hunting buddy's favorite line standing over a freshly killed big game animal... "You know.. it's never too late to shoot'm in the ass..."

For God's sake, what could possibly be wrong with.. "Crack" and instant hoofs up?? A shoulder roast and maybe a package of burger?? Spare me..

I've kind of always looked at over kill as, you walk up to the recently deceased and then you empty the gun into it...

Course it could make for some lighter packs out...grin

Dober

I prefer DRT for all the VALID reasons already explained. I make shoulder shots to accomplish this, and I don't apologize. I choose bullets that exhibit controlled expansion and assured complete penetration at the velocities my rifles obtain, and the meat loss is minimal. Some people eat the heart and liver and would consider a behind-the-shoulder shot wasteful. Some people mount the rack and would consider the head shot wasteful. Many people eat the neck meat and would consider that shot wasteful. We have to do damage to the animal to kill it. Call it "lazy" if you must, but not all of us are young bucks any more. Some of us have no cartilage where there once was cartilage, and just getting to the stand is tough. You choose your shots and I'll choose mine. In the end, it's the venison in the freezer that means anything to me.

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I don't get many DRT's, but they are the norm on lung shots with my buddie's 45-70 using a variety of loads.
Reasons DRT's are desirable: 1) quick humane kills 2) no tracking headaches (darkness, bad weather, thick brush, nearby private land etc. 3) less chance of a heart attack for us "experienced" hunters.