Mr. jwp475;
I hit a small mule deer with a 180gr Hornady out of an �06, while it was running. I assume I must have hit the withers, as it went down immediately. I was on horseback with another chap that day. He was having a bit of trouble with our horses when I looked back at him, so rather than go to the buck as I normally would have done I went to help with the horses.
When we got to where the deer had been, we found one drop of blood and a piece of meat the size of a pencil eraser. We looked for it on foot and then on horseback for about 4 or 5 hours without finding another trace. I searched the area for ravens later to no avail.
As a by the way, that particular load had a string of something like 18 one shot kills on deer for me up to that day, so it was all me that failed that day.
I hit another small mule deer with a 165gr. Hornady BT out of a .308 Norma that got away. I know where I was aiming, but as the buck was lost, can only guess where I hit. My rest for the shot was less than perfect and I believe the barrel of the rifle was touching the Saskatoon tree I was using as a rest and not the fore end.
I looked for several hours that day and returned the next morning to look for several more hours but found nothing beyond the original small bit of bone and two small drops of blood. Again this load had proved to be very effective on deer both previously and subsequently, so it was my error yet again.
I hit a large mule deer with the same load, that is a 165gr Hornady BT out of a .308 Norma doing somewhere around 3150fps. The buck was a long ways off, judging from how much the bullet dropped and he knew we were there and was leaving. I was prone with a good rest, but pulled the trigger as he jumped to run and immediately regretted doing so as I well knew from the buck�s body language he was leaving.
We followed him for over two hours into a blow down shin-tangle canyon with a small creek at its bottom. I finally ended it after first missing an easy shot at it at less than 50 yards and then making good on the 2nd shot. The first shot was a foot back of the lungs where I'd aimed, it was a gut shot.
We packed out 144lbs of boned meat- including leg bones- uphill in a blinding greasy snow storm that afternoon, making it out to the pickup at the edge of a remote cut block long after dark.
After all these years I still get mad at myself thinking about what I put that grand animal through because of my desire to get a �good� mule deer when I knew the shot was marginal. He was indeed a good buck and I really didn�t deserve him that day, nonetheless we thankfully did eventually find him.
Well, there are my lost big game animal stories. It is my hope others can learn from my errors and I hope I learned from them too.
Regards,
Dwayne
