What's the furthest you've seen a deer make it with a truly mortal hit?
I hit an 8 point a decade ago through and through with a round nose 180 that ran flat out like a scalded cat for 150+ yards. My second shot caught him in the neck and he flipped end over end about 10 yards from a thicket. No telling how far he would have made it if I'd missed.

300 yards 12ga Foster slug through the heart.

3006 150 GMX ammo.......ran/stumbled and fell for 400+ yards it took three of us looking him for about 2 hrs. Blew his front leg off at the should joint, bullet split a few ribs, and exited his rear quarter. This was a direct broad-side shot that hit his shoulder joint directly which sent the bullet on that crazy path. Plenty of blood to follow, we’d see him he run fall and disappear.

A little over 200 yards after taking a 270 shot from maybe ten yards that destroyed the heart and far shoulder.

As I prepared to shoot him again as he ran away, I saw blood GUSHING out both sides, and refrained from adding a Texas heart shot into the situation.

Stevie Wonder could've followed the blood trail.

He was a big, rather old, grey nosed buck.

about 100 yards, which was about 25 too far since he practically ran into another guy who was hunting right above me behind a knoll. i shot, saw the deer do a jackass kick and take off over the knob and i about schit when i heard the boom. walked up and the deer was about 10 feet from where the guy was standing. my shot straight through the boiler room. his was straight on brisket/neck shot.

200 yds after a subsonic 170 gr FP to the boiler room.

100 yds after a .243 100 gr NP, 150 yds after a .22-250 70 gr Speer. Both boiler room hits, no bone.

About 5 full minutes after a BRI sabot slug (1300 fps MV) to . Watched from a distance, had not shot, played the patient game.

250 yards after putting a 12 gauge rifled slug through both lungs broadside from 30 yards. So much for the legendary "knockdown power" of big, heavy, large caliber slugs.

Over a mile. Mule deer doe. She ded.

I have shot the heart out of deer with various cartridge/bullet, arrow/broadhead combinations and several have ran 100+ yards before expiring....They have a strong will to live and some are mighty tough, how far do you think you would run with your heart blown up by a bullet? Maybe a step or two at most 😁.......Hb

200 yards. Half rack Six pointer double lunged with a 180 round nose Core-Lokt from a 30-06

i switched to front shoulder shots 90% of the time just to eliminate runs. doesn't always work, but usually.

By far, the furthest tracking jobs I've been on were bucks shot through with Foster slugs.

I've had a couple of deer go a 100 yds that were hit hard. I like to try and break bones when I shoot, trailing deer up sucks.

High lung shot a little farther back than I wanted, no CNS impact. Deer ran almost 400yds before expiring.
peak98

Many years ago during late season muzzleloader I had a herd of deer run across an enormous open and picked cornfield towards me. I was on a 3 man slow push. I spotted the deer first as they exited a draw into the field over 200 yards away. Having no cover whatsoever I simply dropped to my knees and hunkered over as much as possible. As luck would have it, the entire herd gravitated to my position. The last deer to pass was a nice 8 buck I now have mounted. At 10 yards, with the buck running half trot, I pulled up and shot him behind the shoulder. We discovered later the bullet entered behind the left shoulder perfectly broadside but somehow ricocheted midway 90* and traveled all the way to his right hindquarter nearly exiting. He ran over a quarter mile but dropped dead as soon as he hit the fence bordering the neighbors. That’s over 250 yards farther than any other deer I have mortally shot.

I used to shoot behind the shoulder an inch or two below the mid point of the body.I was amazed at how such a well placed shot often resulted in a deer making a long mad dash before dying.Many of those were a 100yds or so.I think the lungs are super shock absorbers.Being spongy and flexible,a low lung shot,even though it is a lethal shot,it seems to protect the spine from the bullet shock as it travels through the chest cavity.I started shooting tight up against the shoulder,an inch or two above the mid point of the body.You still get the lungs but most of the lungs are below the wound channel and it doesn't affect the shock of the bullet like the lower shot does.The result is you get a lot of shock to the underside of the spine and also ruptures the large arteries that are just below the spine.I get consistent DRT kills with that shot.Another thing to notice is the diaphragm is angled.A low shot a little too far behind the shoulder and you will either hit or rupture the stomach.Shooting a little higher,you can still hit back a ways and still be in the lungs and avoiding a gut shot.

I went the other way. No neighbor/property issues, so I go big and slow behind the shoulders to save meat. Easy to find when they're leaking from two big holes.

My experience with a .223 ttsx on a shoulder shot tells me that speed+bone=less running though. If running was an issue, I'd be shooting shoulder too.

To date I haven't had one run after a neck shot with anything.

Good post, I need to start aiming just a little higher.

Around a couple hundred yards or so. Factory 150 grain 30/30 bullet "penciled" through and didn't expand. Entrance and exit holes were the same size. Looked about like it had been stuck with a target tipped arrow instead of a bullet. Bled out internally. Didn't leave any blood trail until right before where I found it laying dead and then only a few drops. Bullet sliced through the side of the heart, took out one lung, passed through the liver and exited right at the last rib.

310 yards with no blood trail. Shot a nice doe broadside through the lungs years ago and she took off on an apparent death run. The shot was in the neighborhood of 125 yards. She would have been lost except for the fact she ran through some six year old planted pines that had relatively clean underbrush.....easy to see through.

No sign of the doe the first 50-60 yards and I became concerned. Searched all morning long and eventually found her. Perfect shot but zero blood leaking out of the hole. I took out my GPS and marked a waypoint there and backtracked to the spot where was shot, marking another waypoint. 310 yard straight line distance between the two, not accounting for any zig zagging. Their was no blood found backtracking her trail.

Winchester model 70, 1951, 270. Barnes TTSX. I figure that lot of copper they used must have been exceptionally hard as I shot a nice 8 pointer that season five times with that same rifle and load. Every shot icepicked through with no expansion @ 150 or so yards. Perhaps my strangest tale of terminal performance, as he went down but not out with shot #1....still kicking and tying to get up. Put the other four rounds through the same spot and he was still breathing when I walked up to him. One shot with my 1911 45ACP loaded with a Golden Saber bullet did the trick.

110 yards, double-lunged with a 170 Hornady FP from a .30-30, deer had been kicked up by someone else's movement so was on the run.

It showed no sign of being hit and I just couldn't see how I missed, so I just started walking in the direction he ran, found him graveyard dead....

I had shot from a treestand, hit was high in the lungs so it 60 or 70 yards before I saw blood.

Heart shots seem the worst to me. Every deer I have shot in the heart has run a long ways. Not very helpful when you hunt in steep country like I do most of the time. I like a dead center shoulder shot, but even then, a mature buck will generally make it a little ways.

About 600 yards; she was shot from a tower stand at 200 yards with a 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in a Post-64 M70 chambered in 243 WIN. The doe and a spike buck came out into a small cotton field (200 yards across) adjacent to a large cotton field, just about dark, she was standing and I put the bullet right through her heart. She ran like she was shot out of a cannon, passed a stand that was 400 yards away from me and kept going. She circled, ran back and stopped still about 100 yards in front of me. I put a second round in her heart and she stood still a minute, then fell over like a piece of plywood falling over. The two rounds went in about 3/4" apart. I've never seen a deer run like that, before or since. To make matters even more strange, the spike ran around and stopped about 50 yards in front of me, I shot him in the heart and he ran 80 yards and died with his head in the edge of the swamp. Everywhere he bounded it looked like a pint of red paint had been sprayed across the cotton plants. That was the last time I used a 243 WIN, maybe it was the bullets.

Buck I shot this year. 250'ish yard shot. He ran probably 200'ish yards with a decent lung shot. I will say, it was a bit high, but there was plenty of blood. Deer are tough and do weird things.

I've had some LONG runs on lung shot deer. Good shots, good blood trails, and in most of these cases I've been HAPPY with the long runs. A lot of what I hunt are mountain sides and a lung shot deer can cover a lot of ground running downhill. If given the chance I'll choose my placement to let them run or drop them depending on where I want them to end up.....running's not always a bad thing!

I shoot coues deer. I havent seen much running. 0 with my 28 nosler. One buck I heart shot with my 257 wby sprinted about 25-30 yards directly into a mesquite tree.

Do pheasants count ?

I’ve had them fly 140-200 yards and fall out of the sky like they were hit by lightning

DITTO




Back of the neck works too. Walking straight away.





Jerry

Farthest I have ever seen a deer run after a chest hit was about 1 mile. 7-08 and the hit was on the shoulder blade, shot from a steep hill trying to make the bullet come out the bottom of the chest on the other side. Range was about 40 yards. Bullet was a Burger 140 grain. I was along for that hunt, not the shooter. The girl was 14 years old and her dad and I took her out for her 1st deer. It was not a good memory for her, but thankfully she still hunts today and she's now 29 and married with kids that also hunt.

Farthest run from a deer I ever shot was a weird one. Again about 40-45 yards away and the gun was a 9.3X57 Mauser with a 250 grain Nosler Accubond. Hit was as centered in the chest as I could want, and the bullet could not have been better placed if I could have touched the buck with the muzzle. The exit was the size of a goose egg and exactly where I would have wanted it to exit. Chunks of lung were found in the brush and on the ground. Yet that whitetail ran about 450 yards. One of those "impossible runs" but that's what happened. All other game hit with that gun and load dropped at the shot or within a few feet. I have no explanation at all.

Longest run I have ever seen from any animal was an elk and was the very first client I ever guided on my own guide's license, back many years ago in the Selway of Idaho. 7MM Rem mag, 25 yard shot from a steep slope and that bullet hit the ridge on the shoulder blade of a 6X6 bull. Almost exactly like the deer I wrote about first. I even told the hunter "you're good, he's dead" so he didn't he shoot again and THAT WAS A MISTAKE!!!! I SAW the round hit the bull and was sure he would drop in 2-3 seconds. Placement looked great. Penetration's was VERY poor we found out later. It was a Sierra 140 grain Game King. and the load was very fast, probably about 3100 FPS.
The bull jumped over a deadfall and took off down the hill. Those that have hunted in the Selway will understand what I mean when I say "downhill". The shot was at about 8:45 in the morning. We caught up with the bull, still alive and still moving at about 5:00 that afternoon. 2 more shots to the rear of the lungs and the liver put it down. On the map the length of the blood trail looked like a bit more than 2 miles long, but going the crooked path it took, I think the real run was about 2 lightyears. That's how it felt anyway.

If they don't drop SHOOT AGAIN if possible. I was young then and had about 6 years of experience. Now I am in geezerhood and I say SHOOT AGAIN if you can! Now I have over 1/2 a century of elk hunts behind me, so I think I can say from experience, if the don't drop, keep shooting.

I may be a slow learner, but I am a learner.

A young antelope buck, shot from approximately 200 yards, with a 243 and Remington 100gr CL low and through the heart, putting a hole through it, ran about 450 yards, all out, and then just tumbled.

Ever had 1 fly straight up? I shot one when I was a kid that had its skull opened up and it flew straight up, i bet it was 600 feet up when it folded. Its head was hanging down the entire time.

in the past i got tired of following blood trails so i started using a bigger rifle cartridge then i got tired of the recoil too. but i finally found a great old cartridge about 15 years ago that ended those dang blood trails or made them very short to follow with plenty blood .i now use a 257 Weatherby Mag. with good bullets in my handloads bucks started dying faster, much closer and many times right where i shot the animal and on the ground right away dead.

We hunt in an area where the hills are really steep and there are ravines that are straight up and down at the bottom. I've had two deer run just far enough to get stuck at the bottom of a ravine.They didn't run that far, but they got a run at it and ended up at the bottom. I had one roll down the hill towards me kicking and I had to jump up from my tree seat because he landed where my feet had been. He was dead when he got there.

You are right about that.Finding the right bullet for the cartridge your shooting does make a huge difference in the final outcome.

200-300 yards with a 243 and 85gr Barnes. My daughter has shot a ton of deer with that combo with fantastic results. One doe during an early youth hunt years ago took one through both lungs and went a good 200-300 yards before she died in some tall grass. Took me a while to find her as the blood trail wasn’t great.
My daughter can shoot and I watched the shot through my binos so I was sure she made a good shot but I was starting to have doubts before I finally found the deer. Shot was textbook and the internal damage was normal but that deer went a lot further than normal. I can’t explain the poor blood trail as the bullet exited and looked like any other she has shot with that combo. That one always puzzled me.

Heartshot with a .270 Wby -- doe ran 120 yards then piled up.

Guy I hunt with hit an 8 point broadside with a 7RM one morning. Deer went 175 yards with a softball size exit would and pumping blood like a horror movie so it was easy to find. It was the driest gutting of a deer I've seen.

I’ve never had a deer run more than a hundred yards when the bullet performed and shot placement was right. However I have had to trail several deer in my life over a hundred yards because I made a bad shot.

blackpowder72's 'need help with deer reaction to shot' thread buck is the longest run. That sonofabitch is STILL going, evidently.....

Excellent post, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

400 yards after hit through the heart with a 165 Hornady Interlock out of a 30-06.
Haven't shot a deer through the heart since.

If everyone would just hunt with a 243 win and shoot 95gr BT bullets there'd be no reason to ever trail a deer.

Odessa would disagree

Yep, Based on my experience with those two deer I would disagree! Although I have toyed with the idea of buying another .243 WIN and using TSX bullets in it.

Longest recently a buck shot broadside middle of the ribs. 300 gn 50 cal. Barnes Expander. A couple of drops of blood and a plug of hair where I shot him. Found him 1/4 mile away 4 hours later. Not one drop of blood. Didn't bleed in the truck either.

That's rough

FIL shot a buck that had a broadhead lodged in a vertebrae, shaft had come out, entry wound healed up, point had wallowed out a hole in the bone, he likely ran for two+ years and then bumped into FILs Winchester 1894, 32-40....

350 yards............twice.

1st one: Small buck shot at 50 yards rear lung/front liver with a .300 Win Mag and 150 grain (original) Ballistic Tip. Palm-sized hunks of lung laying where he was hit.

2nd one: Mature doe shot tight behind the shoulder (slightly quartering toward) at 275 yards with a 7-STW and 140 grain AccuBond. 7mm hole in.........7mm hole out...........zero blood. Only way the deer was recovered is that I had a group of about 8 guys come by and help me sweep a huge area.

About 35 yrs ago I had one MD run over 500 yds downhill with its liver blown out. I had seen them from the truck about 1/2 mile away and parked and stalked up on them. Shot a nice 4x4 buck and it took off running down hill towards my truck, crossed the road and fell dead just about 20 yds past my truck. Talk about luck.

I've killed a lot of deer and not many ran very far, but I did have a little bad luck last hunting season(2019) with a couple of low shots that were too far back. Reading this post made me realize that and just a couple of days ago I took a doe with my crossbow and placed the shot higher than I had been. She only made it 20 yards! Learn something new every day! Thank you!

Ever notice how small a room for error there is in the high shoulder shot? And how few vitals rest there....

Longest run I've seen from a dead deer we have NO clue... for it was a double lung shot. Pieces of lung on the ground. Blood trail. And the buck was killed 3-4 weeks later running a doe. Yes. He had all the bullet wound healed. Ribs on each side were hit. And cartilage type healing pretty centered both lungs. Scar tissue if you will.

Bullet? Oh yeah, the vaunted Sierra game kings. 165 btsp out of an 06.

You simply never know.

I"ve seen gut shots fall quite often and never move. I've seen heart shots go a long ways like almost half a mile. I've seen fast bullets that knock on their butts like the 257 wtby usually not go more than 25 steps. OR go 400 yards now and then.

Each time you pull the trigger you NEVER know.

This year I followed a deer for about 3 hours on the blood trail and the last time he got up from a bed and looked at me. He had been hit double lung with a berger at about 300 yards. We went looking to early I guess, jumped him from his first bed about 20 minutes after the shot. But last I'd seen him he was bleeding so bad and stumbling low to the ground we just put Tiger on him and oops... But he did die. Left most of his blood in the first 150 yards. Very little after that. Distance? 600 yards or so.

Each deer is going to be different no matter your theory.

500yds or so. Big doe, hit broadside in the lungs, perhaps a touch high, with a 168NBT from a .308win. It was a good hit, and there was plenty of blood and lung matter hanging on the brush for the whole tracking job. We'd keep find that pink pudding everywhere and just knew she'd be "just up ahead". Tough old doe had a will to live.