Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What did this guy do wrong?

What did he do wrong? He took an unethical shot with a bullet that wasn't going to do the job even had it been placed in the right spot for a THS. 150 gr. SST is for happy broadside shots. If you're going to try a THS, better be flinging something more stout than an SST. I've performed the shot on a couple of deer that our party had wounded. A 140 gr. 6.5mm Nosler Partition will run a deer from one end to the other out of my .260 Rem without too much collateral damage to the hindquarters. Similar placement even with a 165 gr. Ballistic Tip out of a .30-06 put the deer on the ground, but it was UGLY. Put it into the pelvis at 100 yards and it was like I'd pulled the pin on a small grenade. The 8 point whitetail hangs on my wall as a European mount and a reminder that not everyone should be allowed to shoot at running deer, as the guy who drew first blood first shot the jaw and then hit it in the shin of a front leg. If you don't have a good shot, don't take the shot. The THS is a last resort on a wounded deer in my book. Not a "I can't let this one get away" shot.

Well, I would say he started off going wrong shooting a deer in the ass, then it all went downhill from there 😂🤣🤣

Inexperience sounds like the main issue on all accounts. Patience, better shooting, and better bullets are factors along with lack of tracking ability. If you have a dog.... or know someone with one (even if untrained) may get lucky and find deer? Ethically he shouldn't have taken the shot no matter how big the horns.

One of the things I've grown used to using good bullets in rounds like the 9.3x62, .375 H&H, .444 or even a properly loaded '06 is that shots like this are a no-brainer. I do alot of still-hunting in brown bear country so it's smart to hunt with a bear rifle but it's also very nice to hunt with a rifle that will reliably kill a deer at any angle a shot is presented at. While I won't rake a doe, I will absolutely rake a big buck, because as another poster alluded to, in this type of hunting you have to take the shot you get. I've killed a pile of deer at odd angles. I might wreck some meat on a ham, or have gut juice to deal with, but I'll still have more meat at the end of day than I had at the beginning.

I can't speak to the shooter's experience and don't want to second-guess him, but but equipment choices and mindset really matter. I don't care to use splashy bullets and I like to keep shooting at things that don't react appropriately considering the angle they presented at and how I called the shot. For instance, alarm bells go off if I attempt a raking shot and the deer remains ambulatory. More shooting! Continuity of fire is a foreign concept to alot of hunters. Don't look for or admire your shot. Call it from the trigger break, keep your face on the stock, run the action, and keep shooting as needed.

Good chance the angle of entrance may not have been straight away or into a large part of the ham. Place most any BG bullet directly up the hole or into the spine and they will be down quickly. There also are some large arteries there.

Most likely he only hit him around the edges.
It can be a mess, but is a deadly shot placement if you come even close to center punch.

He lacked location more so than bullet.

Wrong bullet for the job, IMO. Didn't hit where it wanted either, IMO.

Lots of missing info. Was the buck spooked? Was the shot taken from a resting position or offhand? Makes a big difference on where the bullet may have landed. If the deer was not spooked, he should have tried to stop the deer by barking or bleating at it. Have done this situation several times, but stopping him usually gives a neck shot, as the deer will lift his head to see what made the noise. Having a rest eases the shot.
I also drove a 215grn Rem RNSP out of my 7.65 Argie 91 on that shot that exited the chest, dropping the buck right there. Used the right bullet that day.
But not being in his shoes, or boots, is second quessing.

I don’t believe this question ever needed to be asked. Edk

Those who are guessing should have spent 20 plus years participating in Deer drives. Seen them hit most everywhere while trotting or on a full out run. If given a choice for quick recovery....guts or a solid hit in the hams...or rear shoulders as one became famous for.....A solid ass hit will overwhelmingly win. Most likely this guy didn't hit anywhere near solid. Happens sometimes on the front end also.

Why??? It is part of killing game animals. How many Pheasants, Ducks or Grouse get a wing ripped off?

You obviously have grown up on thinking TV stand hunting is "The Way." Those who still hunt or participate in drives are not always given the chance to grunt at them, have them stop and then pick out a particular hair to shoot at. I know there is that quick kill thing..We all try for it, but killing BG is never not ugly when your goal is to wreck body parts.

Even if you think that a shot might have only caused a superficial wound, with snow you should still be able to get them if you stay on them. I grazed the left ham on a buck once with a 180 grain round nose Core-Lokt one afternoon. Snow and hands and knees looking and all I found were flecks of blood and a piece of meat about the size of the end of my finger. I lost the track among some others. That night I said to myself, if I’d have lost a piece of meat that size, I’d bleed. Next morning at first light I was back and discovered I’d taken the wrong track. Back on the right track those flecks of blood were there and that deer was dead in his bed 200 yards farther on. The bullet had never hit a bone, just the outside of that left ham. I’m kind of miffed at this guy for not being more determined and wasting that animal.

We're hunters, we all understand knowledge is dynamic, and choices are fluid and change over time. The killing of game is not one thing to all people. It is convoluted with emotional trappings, need, nostalgia, desire (to use a different gun, different scope, bullet, try a new area, etc). Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. If you try a new area and it doesn't work out, no deer was caught in the learning curve and the experience is rather two-dimensional.

If it goes beyond that and a tried "first" culminates in a bullets contact with game, then a new set of circumstances must be interpreted, hopefully objectively, but often it will be over-ridden with an adrenaline dump making it hard to remain objective in your assessment of what's happening. And of course mistakes are made, it's not a scientifically controlled petri dish after all.

But hopefully with the passage of time, accumulation of knowledge, and an open, non-judgemental exchange of ideas and experiences received with an open mind, we can all become better at what we do, more effective and considerate and therefore more ethical.

We're not one of us perfect right out of the piss hole and all of us need tutelage, so let's be patient with one another and always be level-headed and forward moving with each others knowledge and maturity level as it pertains to hunting.

You could argue, in this contentious day and age, our pastime depends on it. If we don't do our best it feeds our opposition fuel for the fire. We've got to do our best. I've fallen short of that myself at times.

"Texas heart shots" definitely have their place. Maybe not if you're a meat hunter shooting at does or little dink bucks, but how many here would pass on a shot at a B&C buck if they already had a freezer full of meat?


Or a big bull/buck/ram that you paid big bucks for a guided hunt?

And even if you wouldn't take that shot, should your personal ethic dictate the choice for others?

Honestly, shooting a deer up the butt, then losing it in 3” of snow, doesn’t sound like this guy should be shooting at deer butts…

I once shot a pretty nice Whitetail right up the hoop at 20ft....30-06...150gr hornady sp.
4-5 " of snow, the only blood was when he would stop and lay down, then when he was moving there was nothing.
The high volume of tracks made it impossible to track him...he wouldn't leave the area, rather continued to circle around a 5 acre area. I found him, only because I heard him breathing his last breath up a small knoll.
Recovered the bullet near the front quarters....hard to track a deer with no blood trail.
SST is a poor hunting bullet imo.

I don't know that he did anything "wrong." I'd most likely have spent more than 2 hours looking for it.

I have never taken a 'Texas-heart-shot' but have shot a number of running deer, and under the right circumstances wouldn't hesitate to take a going away shot.

It worked out for ol' Milo Hanson, eh.

Once, years ago, I did help a fella' track one he shot in the ass with a bow. It went, I dunno, maybe 150 yards, and I couldn't believe the amount of blood it left.

A 150gr SST with a direct hit to the starfish would destroy the pelvic girdle, likely rupture both femoral arteries, and damage the spinal cord. That buck wouldn’t have gone anywhere.

Hmmm, I tend to agree with this.

This and what many of the others have said - if anywhere close to the aiming point the deer would have likely went down and if not wouldn’t have went far. A glancing hit, unless the bullet or fragment hit a major artery, would have been consistent with what seems to have happened here?

PennDog

I know for a fact a 130 gr interlock out of a 270 will blow a hole out as big as your fist if you hit the hip joint been there done that