So a new one for me last night. Been rifle and bow hunting all my life, first time with an inline muzzleloader. Shot was 135 yards broadside, cva accura v2, 250 grain powerbelt aerolite, two imr white hots.

At the shot, doe does a gold medal floor routine and is down. Check on her through scope and she is laying down with her head up looking around. Ok, reload and check again, deer gone. Hmm. Walk up to where she went down to find a large puddle of lung blood. Follow short trail into the goldenrod where we find her alive. Finish her off, (this is the rodeo part) about 25-30 minutes after the initial shot.

Examination showed both shoulder bones destroyed, double frontal lung. Thoughts on why this doe lived so long? I've heard of deer hit in one lung doing pretty well, but this is the first deer I've seen put up such a fight with both shoulders and both lungs hit. She acted like she was fine other than the front wheels being off. Really got to me not making a clean kill on what I thought was a slam dunk.

Any thoughts?

Thoughts? Crap happens. Don't overanalyze ....

Shoot enough stuff the above happens, especially with an arrow or smokepole....

This ^^^^^ Hunting can have some unattractive side effects no matter how hard you try to reduce it. Caring about it isn’t a bad thing, either. 😎

Yep. Had a similar one. Knocked her right off her feet. Reloaded and saw her walk into the woods. We looked and looked for hours. Nada.

That’s for sure. Well said Beav. I hate making animals suffer more than they have to but hunt enough and bullets do weird things sometimes.

Powerbelt....have heard more negative comments about those ml bullets than all others combined. I used them myself and have nothing good to say about them myself. I stick with the traditional ml now. T/C Hawkens, Renegades, and a Seneca.

Question for the OP. Did the first shot go through and through and exit?

Sometimes they just do that.
Put a few more down with that muzzleloader setup and I'll bet your initial experience with it would be the exception, rather than the rule.

I've seen it before too. Multiple times. The most dramatic was a doe antelope that was blowing chunks of lung out of two bullet holes, her nose and mouth. She ran 500 or so yards before bedding down, and still required a finisher. The blood trail looked like barbecue sauce that was poured out in a line. I didn't know a critter could have so much blood and so much lung, let alone go as far as she did while loosing it. That same bullet/shot has dropped several other antelope on the spot.

I’ve seen the same with an antelope doe I shot through both armpits with a .338 WM and a whitetail buck with my 25-06. These guys are giving you good advice. Shrug and carry on. I would like to blame the bullets too but breaking both shoulders tell me that it probably worked fine

Powerbelt bullet tumbled and didn't mushroom. Buddy had trouble w/that in cold weather.

The will to live- nothing more, nothing less..

The spirit is strong - long feather...

Did the first shot have any expansion?

Obviously, the lungs did not collapse, for whatever reason. This is usually from a streamlined hole being poked through without enough damage being done along the way.

That or no exit hole. You need an exit wound to give an air leak which will collapse the lungs.

Yup..

Shot a whitetail doe with a 170 silver tip in a .30-30 one day...double lung.
She runs the prescribed distance then corks over.
I chat with my nephew for at least 3 minutes then we go to pick her up.

She gets up and leaves..didnt make it far though.

I remember the incident because the very night before I read a JOC article stating he had never seen a double lunged deer get back up...and I thought to myself " neither have I..."



Not till the next day anyway...

Yes, first shot was through both shoulders.

Thanks guys, good to hear others have had similar experiences.

Over the years, I've confessed similar sorts of incidents, and gotten some really scathing responses. The bottom line was that I couldn't shoot straight. I'm glad you asked this question among those of us on the 'Fire who know better.

The truth about this is that strange stuff happens.

Probably my strangest ones are documented here:

Hubert D. Buck Meets Mister Whelen

and here

Ode to a 30-30 PT III



In the former case, a 3-legged buck took several rounds of 35 Whelen to the chest and stared at me defiantly. In the latter, a sub-70lb doe took several rounds of 30-30 and kept sauntering on before keeling over.

I had a Powerbelt “failure” years ago. .50 cal 240 or 250 gr bullet (fuzzy memory) with 100gr pyrodex. Shoot a big doe broadside in the shoulder. Found her 100-120 yards later with little blood. Never found the bullet but did find pieces of copper jacket in the mess. I threw them in the trash and have been using 45 cal Gold dots in sabots and they mushroom just like the advertisement pics. I was disappointed because they shot really accurate in my rifle.

I had the same exact result with Powerbelts years ago. First and last time I used them. I went back to Hornday XTP and SSTs.

If that's a rodeo or goat rope, your doing great.
Some deer drop, and on cleaning, you can't really see why.
Others, run off losing vital parts as they go.


I have been one of the actors in 3 goat ropes, 2 i started, 1 i finished.

Mine involved poor bullet performance/choices.
In both, the bullet holes were like pencils pushed through.
If I had shot and waited, they would have fell.
I continued to shoot, then followed, making things worse.

My dad started the other with an XTP sabot. He misjudged the angle
And put a bullet through a deer, then through its ham. It ran off.
When I went to get it for him, it took off.
A bunch of running, some shooting, reloading, I was down to my last
load for the gun, I was afraid to shoot for fear it too would be ineffective.
I chased until I was within feet, head shot finished it.

Once an animal is shot and chased, it becomes very hard to stop.

This.

I had a bad experience with powerboats as well. Shot a doe and it took a long time to find her. I have moved on to others and threw those away.