Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many deer have you

I do “high shoulder” where the neck meets the shoulder. They drop right there. I’ve instructed my son to shoot there on the two deer he has shot (both with a 6mm), and they have dropped RIGHT THERE. Basically one third to one half of the way down from the top of the neck, where it meets the shoulder.

KY Whitetails. Predominantly does for meat. Heart/lung shots through the ribs to minimize meat loss. Over a 10 year period I had 17 of 18 DRT's with a .243 shooting 95gr Nosler Partition handloads. Switched to a .270 Win shooting Nosler Trophy Grade 130gr NAB's when I started going to Colorado for second rifle. Over last 5 years, 5 or 6 deer shot with .270. All one shot kills. Zero DRT's. Minimum 30 yard runs. This year 100 yard run at last light into the thick stuff. Same herd of deer. Same farm. Same shooter. Same shot placement. I started shooting the factory NAB load out of convenience. This year, switching back to hand loads with either 130gr NBT's or NPT's.

On deer, I have used a .22 Mag, .243's, a couple of .25-35's, .300 Savage, .30-30, .308 Winchester, .30-06, .338 Win Mag and .35 Whelen that I recall at the moment. Oh yes 20 gauge and 12 gauge slugs.

About one in four of the deer I have killed dropped in their tracks. Most of those were not pure heart and lung shots. Most were CNS hits of one kind or another or hits that included a shoulder blade or two. I tend to hold a bit high.

I have gotten more quick kills when using lighter for caliber bullets, especially boattails. I actually quit usung 165's in my '06's and .30 magnums to reduce the amount of bloodshot meat.

I did drop a couple of deer like I cut strings with chest hits. In gutting them I discovered the top of the heart had been hit. The only elk I have dropped in place was a small bull hit the same way with a 150 gr Power Point from a .308 Winchester.

Center punching the heart hasn't had the same effect. In several cases they have run. Usually 40+ yards. I once shot a deer through the heart with my .35 Whelen. It ran forty yards spraying blood out both sides and making the grass hay red.

I have shot about 20 deer with slugs 20 and 12 gauge, Sabots and Foster slugs. I only recall one that fell at the shot.

The first deer I ever killed was with a 50 caliber Hawken and she dropped in her tracks. I had it happen again a few years later with a 12 gauge slug and then another a couple of years ago with an inline shooting a 250 grain Keith bullet.
It’s only happened twice more, both times with a 30-30. The old 30-30 whacks em’.
I’ve had them go a few steps out to 75 yards but only those five dropped in their tracks.

I got tired of the deer running so far on the lung shot with the .30-06. I had killed 40 or 50 with lung shots and they almost always made 75 yards, sometimes, over 100 yards. I had a scope and was a pretty good shot so I started going for the neck shot. Right in the middle of the neck. I had about ten in a row that dropped right in their tracks with the neck shot.

Then I got into muzzleloading, I had a .50 T/C Hawken that I took into the woods sometimes. I had made about 4 lung shots with this rifle with good results.
One day, I had a nice 4 point buck standing at 30 yards and decided to try the neck shot with the Hawken. I pulled the trigger and the buck folded.
I sat there in the warm November sunshine, a wreath of blue smoke around me, I felt like a real bad ass, the dead buck laying there. I felt like Davy Crockett.

Just then, the buck flicked his ear. Just a death response I thought. Then he flicked his tail. Then he started to get up on his front legs. What the hell he was supposed to be dead.
I quickly poured the black powder down the barrel. The deer was on all four feet. I rammed home the ball, and grabbed the percussion cap, and the deer was gone! I saw a white tail. Didn't even get the cap on yet.

I went down to examine the spot, and I saw, about ten feet before where the deer had stood, a one inch grape vine that had just been cut in two. That .490 round ball hit that vine, and then must have gone high. Hit the meat high in the neck enough to stun the deer for ten seconds.

I was pretty good at blood tracking but there was no blood trail, just a few drops on the ground where he had fallen. I came back for the next three days looking for the deer, or for buzzards, but there was nothing. I think that deer lived.

If I had been using the Mauser I would have seen the grape vine blocking the neck, with the scope, and just gone for the lung shot.
If I had gone for the lung shot with the Hawken, and the bullet deflected high 3 inches, still a perfect lung shot he would not have gotten 50 yards.

About 15 deer shot in the neck went right down.One year I did a Texas heart shot on a doe about 75 yards away.I was shooting a 35 Whelen with 180 grain Barnes bullet.That deer fell right where it was shot and the bullet penetrated through the whole animal and ended up as a perfect mushroom just under the skin by the front of the chest.Another was a Mule Deer buck at 365 yards away cross canyon up hill with a strong cross wind.He was bedded on a shelf on the side of the hill sidewise from me.I held low and about two feet in front of him and pulled the trigger.Next I saw feet up in the air in the scope.Rifle was a 280AI firing 140 grain Nosler BTs.We could not find an entrance or exit hole on him.I must have scared him to death??

No entrance or exit wound? Never heard of that one before.

Must have been a geezer deer who had a heart attack. I mean, if a deer doesn't catch a 180 grain soft point bullet, or get eaten by wolves, or run over on the highway, it has to die of old age or something. Theoretically a deer could have a heart attack.

Animals don't always cooperate. That one got me laughing. Doesn't take much to reflect a shot especially an arrow.

30-30 is sufficient around here. In East Tn you don't get many shots over 100 yds. West Tn is flatter with chance for longer shots. Always liked the 30-30 & .35 Remington

Most have not taken a step.

Shooting the 41 mag,270,7x57,257 roberts imp.and the 36 whelen.

Could not say how many deer have been shot but these are what i have used.

I'd rather hear your hunting stories than talk politics. I've enjoyed reading everyone's experiences. Still amazed at the toughness of big game.

FWIW, I've learned over time that "perfect" heart/lung shots can be the hardest animals to track. When the heart and lung functions are immediately terminated, the animal is not pumping or blowing blood. They can go a long way before blood starts to drain from small holes.

Obviously, they don't go far, but it doesn't take that far to make recovery very difficult in the thick stuff if there is no blood trail.

Shot one at near dark & got down from stand to quickly. He ran into pine thicket right behind me. Came within 5-10 yards of him that night, but didn't find til next day. Didn't help that I gut shot him.

Blood trails are tough on pine needles, just by their color and the way a drop doesn't look like drop on loose straw.

I've taken about 45 deer and I can only think of 4 heart/lung shot deer that dropped on the spot: 1 was taken with a 30-06, one a 30-30, another with a 35 Whelen with 200 gr bullet and one with a 12 ga BRI sabot slug. Most ran off some distance, the longest being maybe 100 yrds.

My observations have been adequately expressed in this thread. Many times, as a matter of fact!

Many years ago my then 8 or 9 year old son was watching hunting shows on tv and when I walked into the room he turned to me and said "have you ever noticed that when a deer is looking at you when you shoot them they run and when they don't see you when you shoot them they fall right down?". I think my response was that I never really paid that much attention but you might be on to something. Thinking adrenalin plays a big part of what an animal does after the trigger is pulled. Food for thought

This. But there is only a junction and no joint as you know.,

^ ^ that's because they're already " expanded "

The bigger the hole, the faster the boat sinks

There is that for sure. Sharp kid.