This morning my buddy shot a 4 pint buck from about 125 yards with a 250 savage. said he was aiming for the vitals on an animal slightly quartering to him with right shoulder showing.

at the shot he said the deer went down and flopped around then got up and got back into the woods from the cut line where he first took the bullet.

my bud found bright red blood and managed to follow the trai a ways and then lost it.

I asked:

frothy? NOPE
dark red? NOPE

general color? bright red.

I say muscle but don't know more. no sign of dragging a leg and diminishing blood. I offered to go out tonight to look but he declined.

what do you all think about the wound and behavioral description?

Jeff

Hit a vertebrae high. That's my "who knows"guess.

I'm wondering why he would decline your offer.

It would be helpful to know what bullet your friend was using. I had something similar happen several years ago. I shot a small buck (120lb live weight) in the point of the shoulder with an early 90's vintage 100gr ballistic tip out of a .250 Sav.

The bullet came apart after breaking the shoulder bone and never entered the chest cavity. This deer was being pushed by hounds and they were able to bay him in a thicket a couple of hundred yards from where he was shot, or I would not have recovered him.

He would have most likely survived the wound, but probably never regained the used of the leg.

It sounds like this may be what happened with your friend's deer.

Bright red blood could be a sign of a heart shot (doubtful in this case) or he could have hit it in the leg or brisket. If the blood trail is getting sparse, chances are good it's a non lethal hit.

What kind of blood pattern did it leave behind?

smoke - i think he declined my offer because he figures it'll be unrecoverable. personally, i'd go out. he did the same thing last year with a big 12 pointer in about the same locale.

gadfly - all i know is he shoots factory stuff. personally, i've encouraged him to consider nosler partitions or another quality bullet.

Ak - he said it was "bleeding like a pig," and said there was lots of blood in the junipers where it went down and left a blood trail as it moved off. much different from last year's buck i shot with my 375 which sprayed blood on the exit side for 3 full paces all over the bushes and left a trail 2 feet wide of blood as it ran for 25 yards or so that looked like someone pouring water out of one of those gardeing watercans that has a sunflower head on it!

Could be a heart shot then and he might be dead somewhere close by. Might be worth it to go and check things out.

My first deer (shot in Maine) never bled one drop and we eventually found him dead about 200 yards from where I shot him. Took a real good tracking job by my cousin to find him.

Another guess; if at an angle the bullet may have hit the shoulder blade and actually deflected off, damaging the front shoulder and knocking it down. Once up it can go far on three legs fully working. If the angle was right I would think it could happen.

Be a shame not to go spend some time looking. Sounds like a potentially lethal hit with the info. given. Could have hit the front of the shoulder and sent some bullet parts into lung/ heart area. With no pass through and potential of only one lung tore up the deer could go far but would likely be dead. Costs nothing to follow any likely looking trail as far as you can and then do a sweep search of the area. Good luck & I hope it's recovered.

Thanks, all. I will continue to encourage him to go out tomorrow and keep looking.

Not possible....

That sort of thing does not happen! Read it here

Seriously that is too bad about bluefish's buddy. I bet the buck did not go far before bedding down, if he is hurt badly and was not pushed hard.

It is hard to believe, isn't it? I bought crap load of those 100gr BT's back when they still came in the 100ct box because they shot so well out of my .257 Roberts.

Shot 3 deer with the Roberts and quit using them because of the lack of penetration and the meat destruction. Took a chance with them in the .250 because I thought the would hold together going 300fps slower, but they still crapped out.

I've killed a lot of paper with my remaining supply, and still have a couple boxes left, but I'll never shoot another game animal with them.

Gadfly they have shot well for me, too.

To bluefish: Did your bud find any hair on the ground near where he hit the buck?

I'm reminded it's good practice to watch them flop with a round in the chamber, crosshair on target, and finger on the go switch.

not sure about hair but he said it went straight down at the intial shot and did flop about.

im going out in a few minutes to have a look.

Being a 4 point was it a young deer? I've seen young deer do things that just don't seem possible.

I shot a little spike buck once with a perfect broadside hit at about 90 yards. It was a bang flop. The grass was about two feet high and I watched through the scope for movement for a minute or so. Nothing.

Filled out my tag walked down the hill and I could see blood on the grass and sprayed three feet up a nearby tree from about 50 yards away. Got to the spot and no deer! There was so much blood I couldn't believe it could have even gotten up, yet as I filled out my tag that little dude got up and went 40 yards up the fence line. No blood trail just a path of disturbed grass to follow.

Somethings just can't be explained easily.

Hope you find it!

Your buddy sounds like a dumbass to me... Repeat performances prove it. You gotta know what your equipment is capable of. Hang up grampas 250 savage and buy something capable of pushing a good cup and core 140 to 150 gr bullet @ 2800+ fps. I'm sure you guys have quite a few bucks topping 200lbs and i think he owes it to the deer, himself, and you as a friend who's going out looking for HIS DEER AGAIN to have a firearm capable of making humane kills EVERYTIME. my .02

his buddy sounds like a bad shot to me, the 250 Savage is a classic deer cartridge and loaded with a decent bullet its more than enough for a deer.

Yep, it sounds like a deer killing machine. What do you use jimmy?

Had a similar event. Bullet raked the shoulder and exited. Was seen the next day a mile away feeding on corn. Survived that season, taken the next season, had a slight limp.

Grovey, your statement about 250 sav. and getting a 140-150 fps at 2800 fps, is with out a doubt the dummist statement i have ever read on this forum.it makes no differance what round the hunter is useing bullet weight or bullet make up.bad or poor shot placement is what happened in this case and all other cases of this type.Bluefish, i would hope you and your not so very good hunter friend would go have another look and put in a lot more effort to find this wounded deer. rio7

I'd say your second sentence ranks up there buddy... Let me get this outta the way first. GFY TEX! Or is it MEX?! Whats wrong? Did i hurt your feelers or? The guy took a shcitty shot with a so so cartridge (imo). My point was if he's going to take shots other than broadside rib shots, maybe he should use a stouter cartridge/bullet combo. Maybe i'm wrong... maybe he doesn't even know where to aim on a quartering to shot? My idea of aiming at the vitals in a quartering to shot involves shooting thru the onside shoulder

Neck shot gone wrong.

OK I'm back. Sad to say I did not find the animal. I found where my buddy left off his tracking and did find dried blood and even blood under a leaf that was turned over and did not appear to dry overnight.

I am greatly bothered by the whole deal as I do not like lost, wounded animals. I was able to guess where this one went across a road and on but no more blood was findable by me. I did call my friend at work and let him know. I wounded a buck once and chased the damned thing for hours until bringing it down but have thankfully never lost one.

On the way back I did sit where my friend was sitting and closely examined the scene where the deer was and the general shooting conditions. This was within 50 yards of last year's episode. My guess is this buck was looking to further his range as the one shot last year seems to be around by the size of the tracks I saw in the mud today and likely caught some scent emanating from this bedding area and wandered over to check it out not expecting to get shot.

I truly hope this deer makes a recovery and lives but not having been onsite at the time of the shot I simply cannot say what happened.

Thanks to all for the input and words.

Jeff

Grovey, in this case your getting dummer, and the longer you go on he dummer you get. by the way i will lay claim to Tex--Mex all year long. but i cant fix STUPID. and you covered up with STUPID. rio7

BLUEFISH,sounds like you gave it a good try, sorry it didnt work out for you. i keep a couple of tracking dogs here on the ranch just for what happened to you and your friend.we kill about 300 white tail a year, and there always seem to be a few that hunters make a bad shot on. the dogs do come in handy when needed and i know not every hunter can keep good tracking dogs, but they can try to make better shots and let a deer walk if its a questionable shot.its not the gun its the hunter.rio7

+1, would be my guess based on the description of the shot.

Lay claim? How about you can't deny it? I don't care if ya shoot 300 a yr yourself off the feeders you [bleep] windbag.Do you honestly think i don't get your point? Truth is nobody knows where he aimed but him, and nobody including him know where the shot impacted. Have some more cactus there pointy boots, you wear it well...

Hey windbag, why don't you go away and let the men talk. miles

Yup, good on you for trying.

The sport appreciates your effort. Shame the guy behind the trigger didn't seem to have the same level of give a F&$@ as you. At least you can sleep knowing you did right. Only lost one and it sure wasn't for lack of effort - bothers me still.

Why is that Miley? Does that turn you girls on? Get your panties all in a wad, and start your pointy boots ta tapping on the sawdust? You clowns can say what you want... nobody knows what happened anyhow.

Kudos to Bluefish for following up...

Least of all you and your mouthy azz. miles

WTF is it to you ? Where do you fit in here? Do you know what happened? NO... I think you could use a 5 gallon bucket of STFU.

Seriously....give it up dude.

You're starting to sound like the retarded kid at a house fire yelling "fire" after all the fire trucks got there. We're smiling and laughing but nobody thinks it's cute anymore.

Give what up? I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I didn't think much of your opinion, but i didn't bring insults about it. But if you wanna jump on the azzhole wagon you'll have to wait for an opening. DONE.

With you on there, there will be no room left. miles

youu know what grandma always said. Groveys an AZZHOLE. rio7

Tzone is far from being an a$$hole, you on the other hand............

Am i getting internet bullied? I just wanna make sure, because it'd be a first. Grow up.

not all hits are instantly or near instantly fatal and since you don,t really know where the bullet impacted the best you can do is try to follow up in the morning, use of a good hunting dog a buddy might own ,might be useful to follow the blood trail if it exists.
the reaction sounds like a high spine creasing shot that might only have cut shoulder muscle, if so the deer should recover, but without facts you can,t be sure.
one of my friends fathers hunts elk with a 257 Roberts, and in his hands its a deadly rifle, but I know he would have placed the bullet a bit differently or passed on a quartering too you angle even though hes a very good shoot and has used 100 grain speer bullets for decades on elk.
shots that you can reliably pull off on deer with something like a 200 grain speer in a 30/06 , or a 250 grain in a 35 whelen,are not easily accomplished with a 24-25 caliber projectile that might weight 1/2 or 2/5ths as much.
it helps if you visualize a soft ball size target located between the shoulders, but located just lower than mid chest.



look at the two thin red and green lines pictured above , neithers ideal, both enter about where a typical broad side shot should

the thicker blue and purple impact points would be more effective shots

You're not getting bullied. You're a whiney little bitch that started something and is sniveling about how it ended up. Everyone else needs to grow up? Seriously?

Bitch? I got your bitch, come get some. No sniveling here either [bleep]. Why would i give a shcit what any of you think? Funny schit.

Lot of times if no exit hole the blood runs into the body leaving very little blood.

Well you must care what people think because you keep posting about how much you don't care.

A guy has a decent thread going with a real question and you by and cocked it up.

340mag, your shot placement chart is excellent, i wish all deer hunters would study it and apply its information in the feild.rio7

Yes and be aware that sometimes a deers angle is not easy to determine. miles