Former sister in law was the gutshot queen. Don't think she ever shot a deer that was not gut shot. Always gutted asap and rinsed meat was fine. Don't think I would of ate the inside tenderloins if they were offered though.
She made a real mess of several deer. Used a Ruger 44 carbine. Brother told her to shoot until it went down or ran away. Well they never ran away and it took awhile for them to go down. Don't think she ever hit a deer in the ribs or forward either the guts or the hindquarters usually both. Last one she shot we found after dark. Smelled it before we saw it. Apparently a mountain lion did as well. Nice to hear a mountain lion scream so close you can't tell which direction it came from. In the dark with no gun. Thank god she is former sister inlaw.
That takes me back to Jr. high school. My dad and I were hunting with my dad's friend and his son, about my age. We were driving in a Jeep with us boys riding on the fenders. We found a doe by the road at all of 20 yds and stopped. It was on my side and I lung shot it with a 30-30. It ran a short distance but it was dead on it's feet. Meanwhile, the other kid was using an M1 carbine with a 16 shot mag. He emptied the mag on it. He literally hit it with all 16 (we counted the holes) which wasn't hard as close as we were. He gut shot, neck shot, shoulder shot, and hip shot it. It was a stinking mess. My dad gutted it while he winked at me to keep my mouth shut and congratulated the kid on his 'fine' deer.
