I see this expression used all too often, and wonder if the people using it realize how odd it sounds.

Who the hell's tracks is it supposed to drop in anyway?

Depends on your definition of "it's".

All aboard!

Um, if I'm not mistaken, the phrase is not used to differentiate between who's/what's tracks in which it dropped; rather, it is used to express, how far it traveled/failed to travel.

Is this real life?

--David after Dentist

Somebody must be bored.

I'm with JB on this one...whether they drop to the shot, or run five miles then die, they still die 'in their tracks'.....

That would be me..........

This is kind of like "front shoulders"....

Exactly. No such thing as front shoulders. Yet we say it all the time.

Well, I've never seen any DEAD animal laying IN it's tracks.



How about Rear Shoulder?

Jerry

That's why....

'Dead in its tracks' is used and understood in the same context as DRT.

Better than hitting them in the rear shoulders isn't it?

Or when a guy refers to the differential under the forward end of his 4x4 as the "front rear end"

I might as well say it, because somebody will. Hot water heater. miles

Absolutely !

If I'd thot about I would have said it.

For the 'unwashed'.... pun
there is NO SUCH thing as Hot water heater!!

Jerry

I like to drop 'em in their tracks by hitting 'em in the front shoulders. I use a premium pill in my .338 Winchester, it hits like the Hammer of Thor. DRT, with two holes for a good blood trail.

Goodun Smokey

Though I did my best, it's hard to improve on what you wrote Smoke! I think that could be a thread all by itself... although, it's really just like reading a Clay Harvey article.

It's all about the blood trail. And penetration, especially on those raking shots in thick timber.

I'm sure you meant to write "dark timber."

Brad and smokepole;
Top of the morning to you both, I hope that this finds you and your respective families doing well as we approach Christmas.

I just wanted to say thanks to both for the smile this morning and wish you both all the best this season.

As far as adding to anything - I can't recall if our neighbor said this dropped in it's tracks or the Honda's.....


Now that I think about it, he likely shot it with a .308 though, but then that's no surprise to anyone who has been there/done that even a wee bit is it now?

All the best to you all this Christmas and the best of 2017 to you and yours.

Dwayne

Dwayne, that is an outstanding photo! Best to you and yours also, and Merry Christmas. I haven't seen any photos this year of your daughters on the hunt, did I miss them? I always enjoy those.

BC

I love that PIC ! and appreciate the humor.

Jerry

"Squirting" a premium pill. Liquid bullets?

And with two holes, "It still may be flying, as far as I know."

It's its, wherever it is.

Brad,

If Clay Harvey had written that, there would have been far more words, and probably more sentences, including several words with more than three syllables.

The word "antediluvian" would be required........

My Dad like to say 'cut the legs right from under him"

gerrygoat,

Yeah, ol' Clay really liked that word, along with a few others!

I AM Clay Harvey you malcontent miscreants!

I actually think that the phrase probably had its derivation in an earlier era of deer hunting, when people routinely tried to track deer through the woods. Thus, when shooting such a tracked-down deer for it to "drop in its tracks" meant more than it usually does today.

Hence, something more akin to "it dropped in the tracks that it had already made, and didn't make any more."

I always understood the term DRT to mean "Dead Right There"...but dunno if I should apply that DRT term to the mature Texas WTail w/ 9" spikes I killed 6-7 year ago with a 9.3x62 & Speer 270's and was "moved airborne" out of his tracks and landed about 25-30 feet away "Over There".

Hmmm D ROT aka Dead RightOverThere, doesn't sound too appealingly edible but is technically more accurate...whatever.

Christmas Greetings and Better Tomorrows Y'all
Ron

The impact of the bullet did not move the deer that far.

That's nothing. I know a guy who got a citation from fish & game, he was using a .416 'Bee and knocked one into the next GMU, which he didn't have a tag for.

The game warden didn't believe him, but I know it's true.

Did so. Whatta' you know anyway, you're always shooting those anemic .308's. Sheesh.

Now and then I've been seen with a 338 mag loaded with 250 Noslers.

or the "Proverbial" I've read Proverbs several times and saw no mention of..________!

Mike

Mebbe so, I guess he coulda jumped at the sound of the CZ's trigger breaking and caught a ride from the bullet but I did not see any evidence of a blood trail on the ground or around the impact point except for the 7'-8' x 7'-8' spray pattern on the fully leafed out live oak tree right behind him, and it was 10 or 12 long paces to the carcass from the tree trunk center of the blood spray pattern. I actually lost sight of him at the shot as he landed a few feet back up a game trail thru the waist high weeds from the edge of the emergent winter wheat food plot.

The neighbor I later sold the gun to hit a good sized hog with the same load at about 200+ yards just behind the knuckle at the base of his neck and rolled him downhill quite a distance. The phone pics were iffy on exact hard distances but the hog wasn't DRT where he got hit for sure, and big enough that they used a tractor with a front bucket to load him up.
Ron

A system already producing hot water can be adjusted to make the water temp hotter,
so in effect it is operating as a hot water heater.

The old timers around here never shot any deer either the "cut down 'im"

KC

This has proven to be a venerable thread, much like the ubiquitous 30-06.

Merry Christmas

How about the ubiquitous "DRT?" Isn't every creature that dies, DRT...even if it ran a quarter mile?

We were NOT talking about some 'possible' situation' were a
WATER HEATER is used to heat water to a higher temp.


Go to ANY business that sells water heaters and SEARCH to see IF you can find 1 labeled "Hot water heater".


ALWAYS some ......... brings up some exception. SHEESH !

Jerry

And if the bullet moved the deer 25-30 feet away "Over There" then the rifle pushed you about the same "Back Yonder", give or take for the differences in weight and drag of the deer and your bod. Laws of physics as applied on Planet Earth.

Its not just a mere possibility or exception, water heaters by regular function make the inflow of cold water
hotter and hotter till its reaches the temp. you have set. Your water heater like everyone elses is at some point
in the process of heating hot water.

I pole ax them with the 270 at 500 yards on a dead run, just hold dead on.

It nice to use other terms.

Watch the "dead parrot sketch" from Monty Python.

I suspect that "hot water heater" comes from people shortening "domestic hot water heater"... as in the heater that makes domestic hot water from the domestic cold water supply. These days, most homes have a stand alone water heater. Historically, however, it was common to have domestic hot water coil within the boiler used for space heating. It would make sense that when stand alone systems became available they were referred to as domestic hot water heaters because they were heaters replacing domestic hot water coils. It differentiates between the heater that heats space heating water (boiler) and the heater that heats domestic hot water (water heater). Sure, it makes more sense just to say boiler and water heater but a large portion of people can't seem to stop calling their boilers furnaces. A little more clarity doesn't seem to hurt. I call them water heaters but I certainly don't scoff at customers who want me to replace their "hot water heaters".

BTW, it's "its"... "It dropped in its tracks".

This has been a curiosity for me since I shot this deer in it's bed.
At the shot the buck did a little hop, but did not fully extend it's legs.

The buck died just outside of it's bed so it was not DRT, right? So would "In it's tracks" be the right application or is there some other description?

Dats a nice buck!!

Or, vice-versa.

Hoosit , sounds like that deer might have slipped on your b---sh-- !!

Classic Dead in their tracks

I think the proper expression is likely "I killed him DEAD!"

Wonderful to see a band of brothers such as this pole vaulting over such huge mouse turds.

Guess I'll just get back to my "how I shot a deer out of my tree stand" story...

DRT is just dirt with one "eye" missing....

You can shoot while you are runnin'? That's cool...

The Dead can't run. So ban that phrase too.

Trick shooter, huh?

Fell like it was pole-axed.

Technically i can dig the term. Falling dead and straight down it will be lying in its tracks. Running a ways falling and rolling-not so much.

Now, deader than a door nail .....

Next time i will ask for a Hot Water Machine and shortly later explain things to the plumber-after the bill is played.

Dead in its tracks.

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/frozen-deer/

Nice 6 point there.

Died in the snow, huh?