Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shot a good one tonight, but not sure what to make of it...

Hunted my best stand this evening, shot many good bucks there over the years. There's a 40 yard patch of timber contecting two big blocks of timber, where 3 properties come together. I own all of the funnel and all of one of the blocks of timer, and half of the other. I have a shooting lane at a 45 degree angle just past the funnel, that goes up to the property line about 90 yards away, and there's a pasture on the other side of the fence.

Bucks walk about 10 yards on my side of the fence down the line, and into my shooting lane. Today what will easily be my biggest buck ever stepped out right at about 4:30. I stopped him with my voice, steadied my thompson center omega as aimed behind the shoulder. It takes about 30 seconds for the smoke to clear. When it did, the buck was on the other side of the fence, and walking up hill in the opposite direction. He stopped for several seconds, then kind of galloped off across the field. I didn't know what to think. I shoot 250 grain shockwaves and though deadly, they don't expand and the blood trails can be bad, even with a well hit deer.

I went to look for sign of a hit. Yes, small bright/dark red blot spots immediately, about 15-20 yards down and then crossed the fence. Blood on the other side as well. A small puddle where he stopped. The blood was steady but not a lot for 40-50 yards across the field then I lost it. He was crossing the field at a downhill angle. I saw no sign of him along the fence at the bottom, which is bordering a small draw/branch. So he either jumped that fence, or ran to the far end of the field and jumped a fence into a small patch of woods. As I approached that patch, a deer ran up the hill out of those woods, couldn't see if it was the buck.

The blood looks like it's from the vitals. The deer hair at the place of the shot was brown, so not a brisket hit. But hard to imagine a well hit buck jumping a fence and running 3-400 yards, or even 200 yards and jumping another fence. I called the guy who owns the land on the other side of the pasture, who hunts the pasture, and we will go out in the morning to look.

Tuned in but I have to ask, if blood trails are spotty with those Shockwave bullets why keep shooting them?

If I shot one, maybe two deer with them and the deer was hit good but trails were thin I would be looking at a different bullet before I ended up with what you are describing what happened tonight.

Assuming you are shooting a .50 caliber muzzleloader that should be putting most of your deer down within 25 yards with many falling at the shot.

Best of luck and hopefully you find your deer close by in the AM.

Is it possible the deer was slightly quartering toward you? It sounds like a buck my son in law shot a couple years ago with a .44 Mag rifle. Shot placement was behind the shoulder but he didn't realize is was angled so it only took one lung and liver. We recovered the buck the next morning after a 3/4 mile tracking job.

I've had some chitty blood trails but not a problem with losing deer. Shot over 5 dozen with this gun and it is very accurate out to 200 yards.

He seemed to be broadside. I think this was user error and either low or back slightly. If he's dead I should be able to find him in the morning. He's somewhat boxed in by the geography.

Good Luck. Hope you recover him.

What’s temperature like tonight.

Jerry

Below the blue line is my property. 1. is where he jumped the fence. 2. is last blood. 3. is the deer I jumped 2 hours after the shot. If that is him....then he would have to have either crossed the road, bedded back down along a fenceline, or come back to my property. If it was not him, and he was fatally hit, then I expect to find him in the branch along the purple line, or in the block of woods by #3.

Temps in the high 30's. I've kept deer left overnight with lows in the 50's and never had a problem.



Here's a pic of the buck from last month.

Let us know if and when you find him. I'd suggest switching to 300 grain saboted xtps.

Glad to hear about the temp.

Good Luck finding him.

Jerry

That's a nice buck.

Hope you find him, be a real shame to waste a good one like that.

Good luck with the recovery.

IMO 250 grain 50 cal bullet does not have enough mass.

I like 460 grain no excuses projectiles.

Waiting for the report. Good luck.

wish you luck, but those bucks are sometimes tuff to kill , to me a rutting buck is in excellent shape ,because bucks have spent all fall getting ready for fights and the rutt just like a football player. bucks don`t die easy they have a will and luck to live.

Keeping my fingers crossed. I wish you had my last lab. That dog was a tracking machine.

I suspect that you hit him high on the near side and maybe only clipped that back lung with a bullet that did not expand well. He will lay up and probably better that you didn't push him. Watch and listen for blue jays, crows and red squirrels because they will likely find him before you will if he is down and out. If you hit him farther back, you should have seen him hunch and jumping a fence would be unlikely. They don't bleed to the ground well with a high body hit. If he could go a ways in your place I would check the creek bottoms because they will go for water and the thickest security cover that they can find. A tracking dog would sure be useful in your situation. A couple of buddies for more eyes on the ground too. They are really fit right now and fat and muscle can roll over a wound and they will drop even less blood to the ground. Hope that you find him.

If you hunt long enough, you see weird schit that you can't exactly plan for. Sounds like a good hit, and a tough animal, but it's hard to say until the buck is either recovered, or is observed doing just fine with a flesh-wound.

I was out at first light with some help in the pouring rain. We covered every inch of terrain along the branch, fields, pastures, brushy draws and the open hard woods and could find no trace of him. Any blood would be long gone with the pouring rain. Last night I followed the blood in the field, which was never heavy, until I could find no more. After the rain stopped and the sun came out, I drove around the surrounding area to look for buzzards and there were no circling.

With a solid rest, the shot should be dead on, but I can admit I was rattled. Maybe I pulled to the front and missed vitals in that direction. The shockwaves do tremendous damage to vitals and a deer hit in the vitals never goes more than a hundred yards, usually less than 50. In this situation, the hard to see places are small scraps of brush along the fence lines and easy to search.

One thing I didn't mention, yesterday at 5:30, about an hour after the shot, I stopped by the landowners, right up on the road on the other side of this 30 acre hay field. As I stepped out of the truck, a 4 point was standing on the fenceline 20 yards away. I knew something was up because he didn't notice me.
Then he started chasing a hot doe in a circle, and up comes a very nice buck, well outside the ears, after the doe....the buck turned and I could see the profile....this buck was not hurt and I could not rule out that it was the one I shot an hour earlier. This is the direction he took off after I shot, I just can't believe that he would be hit and chasing a doe an hour later. Do to the brush on the fenceline I only had a limited view before they were out of sight.

There's that 1 section on a deer thats above the stomach and behind the lungs that when deer are hit there they'll live on. I've done that with bow and a few weeks later get it with the rifle.

Last year I shot a buck during rifle At 100 yrds..... The buck went down on the spot....I got out of the blind and started walking towards the buck....When I got within 10 yrds the Buck got up and ran off....I tracked him for over 400 yrds and the blood trail ran out....Later that day about 2 miles away the buck ran across the road in front of me.... Hot on the heels of a hot doe....He had a big bloody spot very high on the shoulder.....He is alive and well.... I have been getting pics of him in the last couple of weeks ...

Hate to hear that. What part of VA are in? I hunted Carroll county, SW Va over the weekend and they sure were chasing does. Shot a nice 8 pt at a little under 100 yds. using 240 gr XTP's. Never had problem with that bullet and didn't Saturday either. Died within sight. Hope you find him, but I would certainly switch bullets. Poured rain on us Sunday morning also

Shot a buck years ago with a muzzle loader I believe it was a 250 powerbelt. Went back about two hours later and started tracking him it was December and we had good snow he was bleeding good. Anyways ended up jumping him after about three hundred yards. Well we were in the middle of a big nasty chunk of federal ground so I decided to keep following him, pushed him about a mile till we got to a road and left him till the morning. Went back in the morning and he was dead a hundred yards the other side of the road. Ended up he was quartered a little to me hit him behind the shoulder got one lung and liver. Hope you get him.