Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Down but not out

Two weeks ago to the day I shot a 4 point at 165 yards, facing me dead on, head up. He had a bead on me. The point of aim was mid neck. 308 with 185 Berger VLD hunting bullet. The shot felt good, very solid (12 lb rifle from prone with bipod). Knocked him down and out for the count, so it seemed. As I'm approaching the buck jumps up and gets the heck out of dodge. I am unable to get off another shot. No blood to be found.

Low and behold he has reappeared with what looks like a small, clean exit wound on the back of his neck from a bullet that didnt expand. Is this possible with a Berger.

I recon he could have been nicked in a fight, on a fence, etc., but the "wound" is exactly where I was aiming. If it is in fact where the bullet exited it could only have missed the spine and esophagus by the slightest of margins.

Thoughts? Hopefully I will get another shot at him before the season is over and we'll know for sure.

Some pretty major blood supplies running through there also.

Very weird, I would think the shock would have broken his neck. How long was he down for?

Weird for sure. He was positioned in brush so that shoulders up was all that could be seen upon firing. I'm in prone and he fell out of sight. I jumped up to see him laying there. I start moving towards him but there's a thicket that I am skating around. I still can see him but its thick. This is probably 20 - 30 seconds after the shot. All appearances are that he is dead. Suddenly his legs start kicking straight up in the air. Its too thick to get a shot. I start running trying to find a clear shot. The buck jumps up but his head hits the dirt and he makes several circles with his head down before he finally regains his composure and is out like a rocket.

I was in no hurry and caught totally off guard when he came back to life. Lesson learned.

I don't know about lesson learned ... I usually give 'em a while after the shot to bleed out. I'm in no hurry either. I don't think you did anything wrong, it's just one of those things. small target that was "missed" by the narrowest of margins.

Well, in the sixties a high school friend told me of something similar happening on a side shot at the neck of a buck on his grandads farm. We discussed that the bulle must have penciled through, and his gun was a 308 also.

That's why I shoot a 270.



I hope you get him.

I had a similar experience with a spike buck, shot him thru the lungs with a 12Ga. deer slug at approx. 60yds.. Knocked him off his feet and I figured he was down for good, not so. He regained his feet and gave me the opposite side broadside shot, put a second slug thru his lungs this time he went down for keeps. When I skinned that buck, you could put your fingers in the two slug holes they were that close together. Shot another buck on the snow with a 16Ga., like your buck he was facing me. At the first shot he showed no effect of being hit and did not run. Shot him a second time and he took off, no blood or hair or any other evidence of a hit where he stood nor anywhere along the tracks where he run off. Found his skeleton next spring when we were mushroom hunting.

That's the chance you take with a neck shot. He looks like he'll be fine though. I shot a lead doe off the small lease i had a few yrs back. She was a smart ole girl, and had a habit of picking me/us off and blowing the hunt. One day she stepped out, and sure enough she knew we were there. I decided to take her out with a 80 yd neck shot in the throat patch. Bang, flop without a kick.
20 mins later we walk up,and she had a hole threw the middle of her neck you could literally see daylight thru. That cow kicked the hell outta me when i tried to pull her off the trail. She never moved during that 20 mins that i saw, but when i grabbed her leg....asses and elbows. haha

Neck and head shots don't end well many times. Perfect example. Not knocking you bud, I've just seen it many times.

I hope you get another shot at him.

This was from the shot at around 8am when I jumped her out of her bed none the worse for wear.







The one in her neck is from the afternoon before.






Neck shots are a concession.

Awesome example formid! Hope I will be able to examin the four in similar fashion. Dont think there will be neck shots anymore if i can help it.

As I've always said, the critters that concern me the most are the ones that drop at the shot.

Hellova 4pt. Cool pics. Weird stuff happens when the trigger is pulled sometimes.

Shot a WI 7pt that was moving when I shot. He dropped on the spot and didn't get up for at least a minute. I kept my scope on him. I bent down to grab my pack. Stood up and he was gone. I tracked him until dark. It was cold so I came back the next morning. Found him in about a 1/2 hour. He'd gone about 300 yards before tipping over.

Ever notice how the lost deer stories seem to involve "Special" bullets lately? I use Remington CORLOCKTS mostly. I even try to use them when I reload, if available. I had trouble with a bullet made by Hornady in my .257 ROB that did not expand, and was not the only guy it happened to. I got lucky and got a second shot into a bone. That is the only Hornady I ever had trouble with and still use some others, but I LEARNED my lesson and will never load that particular bullet again. I have shot a couple deer with 12 gauge slugs right through the lungs. It looked as if someone ran about 50 yards with a hose spraying blood. Good old Federal lead slugs work for me.

I've been in on a few goat ropings, 3 involved Core-loss and one a ballistic tip.

You can keep the Core-loss.

Smitty--it looks like you center punched him, no explanation.

My guess would be not enough velocity and twist,and it's possible with anything.

10 twist with muzzle velocity of 2600 fps and impact velocity of 2350 fps at 165 yards. Thats equivalent to a 300 Win muzzle velocity of 3000 fps and impact velocity of 2350 fps at 400 yards.

Surely lack of speed is not the case. 400 yards max from a 300 Win certainly isn't the definition of a long range bullet.

I will make no assumptions. Hopefully I can kill the buck and find out for sure what happen. But my gut is telling me that if there were any expansion or fragmentation, as close to the spine as it appears to be, there'd be a dead deer. But on the other hand, The Formid example proves thats not necessarily the case.