Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting DRT is over rated

I'll take DRT every time. I typically shoot for CNS or take out both shoulders. Lots of my hunting is in steep country and wounded deer just about always run downhill making recovery difficult.
The day before leaving on my first safari I took an 80lb buck with my 375 H&H. Since they always want you to do heart shots in Africa, I decided to do that with this little buck.He ran down into a canyon about 150 yards leaving a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could have followed. Dragging him out was no fun. DRT is AOK.

Hey Guys !!

What Happened ? Someone posted 2 (two) videos of CNS shots.
1 on a head shot of a feral hog.
1 on a hi shoulder of a WT.

I watched both of them and they were GOOD. I didn't catch the poster's name....... NOW the whole post is gone ? ? ?

What Happened ?

Jerry

For those of you that want DRT results, why hasn't anyone mentioned head shots? Yes it's a smaller target, but if you hit em in the head, I will bet nearly everything I have they will DRT. Opening day of doe season, we have a contest to see who can hit closest to the eye. Makes a mess, but, DRT and no meat loss.

Re: blood trails.

Whether you shoot them with an arrow or a rifle, there are no guarantees whatsoever that you will get a blood trail, whether it will last as long as the deer does or not. Out of the last 8 deer, one left zero blood trail until it tipped over. Not so much as a single drop. It made it maybe 50 yards and then at tip over it looked like a slaughter house. Everything within 10 feet was red. One did an excellent job of putting blood on the ground for 300 yards, at which time he ran out of blood and managed another 100 yards. One bled good for 250 yards and then quit for 200. She then bled enough to follow to where she tipped over 300 yards further. One bled very heavily for 300 yards to the point it was stopping every six feet and putting 1/2 cup of blood on each side. But he made it another 100 without further bleeding. All of those were hit with large 4 blade mech heads and double lunged but for one.

I shot one fawn through the bottom inch of both scapulae which turned both lungs into red soup but for a fist size chunk and shredded the top 2/3 of the heart. That damn deer bled for 3 jumps and then not another drop. That deer should by all rights have been DRT, but it departed like i never touched it.

I have had 3 DRT deer with an arrow. I will be damned if I could say why they didn't run, but the they went nowhere. Kind of like the deer just figured I been shot and now I am going to be dinner, and then laid down dead

I guess having seen so many die with such widely varied results after the shot is why I don't have even the slightest bias toward any caliber, mech or fixed heads, bow or rifle.

I will say though that I am just about certain that all of the deer I have killed with an arrow I would have clipped the brain stem had I been using a rifle. Roughly 1/3 of the deer I have killed with a rifle were either head shots or brain stem shots. All but one of them were very close, archery range or closer.

I've passed shots on deer because I wasn't 100% confident I could drop the deer immediately where it stood. Some of the country I hunt is pretty high up and if a deer runs off you might not recover it. I want it to die where it stands.

30 caliber 180 gn Grand Slams @ 3100 fps have dropped every deer I have shot, they don't even twitch. I have killed several with them. Never had one do anything but go straight to the ground.
I hunt with some other rifles and don't have the same result.
I like to shoot and see the deer drop dead. 2 of my stands are close to a boundary fence.

I don’t particularly care whether one drops. With a bow, I really like to be able to watch it go down even though that’s often not possible, but with a gun I’ve never had a super long blood trail. In fact, if I know I had a good shot, even if I have a pretty good idea where the deer is laying, I enjoy following the trail. IMO makes walking up on the deer even more exciting. Only ever had a few drop instantly. One was an accidental spine shot with my bow. One was a shoulder shot with a 270, not much of a surprise. The 3rd was an accident. I had already put one in the lungs, but the deer was hauling a$$ down into a creek bottom. Would’ve been hell to find and drag out, and there was a possibility of it crossing the property line. I went for a follow up and dropped it. Figured I hit shoulder or neck, but once I walked up to it I realized I hit it in the head.

The year after I dropped the deer with my 270, I sold that gun to my brother. He was using 130 gr ballistic silver tips and shot his first deer. It ran 30-40 yards but I don’t know how. Somehow that bullet ripped open the chest cavity to where you could see the heart and both lungs. No idea how that deer wasn’t “DRT”. Would post a picture if I could.

It's been my experience that a deer shot anywhere other than it's CNS is capable of running until it's blood pressure drops low enough to cause it to weaken and keel over.

Again, YMMV.

Head shots are seldom even attempted, when they go bad, they go horribly bad.
They haven't for me, thank goodness, but I have seen it.
Even bailed out of the car, stood in the road, and finished a doe running away with its jaw swinging. My best shot ever, just because of the circumstrances.

Szchit nevers go wrong – until it does.
I've had to burn a buck tag twice in my life (on deer I wouldn't normally shoot) because some yahoo-never-misses sniper shot the jaw off a deer.

Given Murphy's propensity, and the fact that I'm not at war with the animals, head shots are a hard pass for me.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ that is the reason I stopped doing head shots. I'm not saying it's wrong, it's just not my cup of tea.


Jerry

shrap, I'm not being mean spirited. I don't understand how both shoulders were destroyed when the buck was facing you. ?




incidentally, >>> there are ONLY front - shoulders!


Jerry

Several years back a local kid shot a little fork horn in the head with a .44 magnum that was eating acorns close beneath the tree he was hunting from. He climbed down out of the tree and as he was admiring it's rack the deer came to and jerked loose from his grasp and ran off. Apparently his head shot had only knocked the deer unconscious.

I was hunting on an adjoining property several hundred away and killed it with a neck shot as it walked past beneath my tree stand. As I was checking the deer out I noticed the fresh head wound. The kid's bullet entered right at the base at the back of the deer's skull, completely missing the brain and exited out an eye socket taking the eyeball out on that side.

At least 10 Deer shot in the shoulders or chest with a Barnes. Add it up and they all may have covered 20 yards total. I’m due, but it hasen’t happened yet.

I understand head shots aren't everyone's cup of tea considering they can look quite gruesome. Yes, we have had an instance where there was a misplaced head shot. Doe DRT, and as we walked over a minute later, she stood up, sans jaw, where we finished her. I look at it as a successful head shot puts down an animal with zero suffering, but like anything in hunting, nothing is a sure bet.

One of the dumber things I've heard.

I'd switch broadheads.

Agree.

Good enough for Does, then why not Bucks?

Answer: We don’t GAS about Does.

Addition: The number of people here who get their rocks off in showing mangled game never ceases to amaze me. Yet those who take a real trophy animal do their best to picture it in the best presentation as possible.

Do you understand the physics of splitting the atom and the resulting damage caused in a nuclear explosion?

Probably not, but that doesn't stop it from happening. Both shoulders were destroyed, bone and structure. I have seen many deer killed with all types of bullets and calibers. This isn't just a "hey what's going on here" happening...

I’ve shot a lot of medium and big fur. Distance and size of the animal has usually been a factor in how fast the game animal hits dirt.

Many collapsed on the shot. Some stood stunned and unable to take a step, just toppling over.

And others have bolted for 50-60 yards, falling dead in mid run...

A few months back a cow elk I smacked with a good first shot with a 7/08 right behind the shoulder just above her heart went a couple yards and stood there sick until I sent a second shot into her just above where the first shot hit to finish her.

My uneducated guess from actually hunting and shooting schit is placement and energy from what your shooting will usually determine DRT or a possible rodeo to collect a big game animal. 😎