Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Finally happened to me

Did you call Nosler yet? Maybe they can help.

I was in a box stand, the rifle was rested not free hand. Perhaps the deer took a step between when I shot and the hit. The hair was brown tips, white underneath about two inches.

Yep.low.

Never know unless you find it. No reason To guess for six pages..

Well as I said the rifle is one I know well, that load shoots 5 into 1" or less at 100 yards. I have taken perhaps 8 deer with that load and it works well. The fork horn I shot earlier that day never moved. One lung, top of heart and spine between the front shoulders. It was not the bullet or the load, perhaps the nut behind the trigger..

It can happen to anyone. The one thing I hate to see in a blood trail is a piece of bone. Seems like it never turns out to be a good sign as far as recovering a shot deer.

My Daughter in law shot a nice little buck a few years ago with almost exactly what you describe as sign. She shot him broadside, just behind the shoulder. We searched for 2 days and found nothing. Several months after the season he turned up on a trail camera with a big scar on his back just behind his shoulder. She had hit him above the spine, blowing out a piece of bone, some fat and muscle and very little blood. It was healing up nicely even though he had what looked like a dip in the line of his back. We saw him several times on different cameras in the area. A couple of years after he had been shot, my son got him. He was a healthy 8 point with a patch of skin with no hair in the middle of his back.

Its hard to give up looking for him, but he could pull through and give you another shot next year. Never under estimate the ability of a white tail's recuperative power!

Shlt happens

mr miyagi say always look eye, come tomorrow start earry

If you shoot enough deer, the law of averages will catch up and you will lose some no matter how careful you are.

A mule kick proves nothing .

A .270 will bust the hell out of a shoulder.

If it had been a Creedmire he'd have dropped to the ground already field dressed.

And backstraps in the cooler

Well a 6.5X57 is not a weak kneed round nor gay, not the current flavor a 6.5 Creedmoor. Just holds more powder.. However does not fit in a short action.

Bummer I'm sure. It can happen, regardless what the expert trackers have to say.

Highly doubt it. If you hit those fins, actually the spinal process, they drop as if struck by lightning, then jump back up and it’s off to the races. Mule kick......brisket hit.

Surely a clean miss.

Really hard to avoid losing one once in awhile. Things happen.
In 40 years of hunting, I can still recall each of them. It usually takes me about 3 days agonizing over what I coulda done differently until I finally get over it.
Last one I lost was with a damn malfunctioning flint lock. It went down at the shot at about 60 yards. I reloaded and smoked a cigarette, watching it for about 15 minutes.
As I walked down to it, it got up. I tried to give it another but the damn thing wouldn't spark.
Till I turned the flint and got it going again the deer crossed another hollow and I lost the trail.
7mm

Well which was it, high or low

We are all guessing based on info given, would have been nice with pics of stuff found, remember finding a piece of scapula from one moose my brother shot, it ran into some other hunters and they claimed it while we were trying to track it.


"Sounds like you hit the top and took some of the fins on top of the spine and some backstrap fat."

It helps the more information you get, wouldn't you agree?

Hopefully this won't turn into yet another campfire pissing match.

I watched my buddy spine shoot a doe with his bow. It went right down and never got up. A kick typically does indicate a hit , but not necessarily a fatal hit.