Hammer49

Guys,

I hate to admit it but there's no sense in keeping it a secret. For several months you guys have been very gracious in introducing me to the MZ world, and I in turn have responded my being proud of myself for taking up a new sport (with really nobody to share it with). So, with all of that said, I must ask for forgiveness. I committed a terrible crime. After all of my "range reports"...being so happy with my PH accuracy, I admitted missing a buck a few weeks ago. In fact, I even admitted hitting two trees (which is still true). The punch line is...my buddy found an eight point not far from where the buck had run. All that is left is fur and bones.

After taking the shot, I looked for blood and that's when I found the trees. I mean, no blood plus hit trees meant no "contact" or so I thought. Anyways, I'm sorry! I know it is a terrible thing, but I can assure you it won't happen again. Terrible...just terrible!!!

Sorry,

Hammer

blgeyen

I can understand what you are going through, i think you have learned your lesson

UncleNorby

You would think that a deer hit with a bullet that big would leak blood all over the place. They usually do but sometimes they dont.

I have also learned to perform an exhaustive search unless I know without doubt I missed.

Semisane

Darn shame, but it happens. Don't beat yourself up too much. Life is full of "what ifs".

cayugad

I see no reason to brow beat you. Things happen. If I shot at a deer, found no blood or hair and two trees hit.. guess what? I probably missed. Sounds like a simple honest mistake to me. If that is even the deer you shot at.

lemoyne

It can happen to anybody, I found one years ago because I walked down the trail when I could not believe I missed,I was lucky he stayed right on the trail,and that was with an 30:06 hit over the top of the heart went 90 yds and never bleed a drop.
By the way what bullet were you using? Lee

Hammer49

250SW/HSBS over 110 T7

FG

it happens man.

Time for a new bullet.

Hammer49

It probably didn't help that the shot was at about 20 yards (at best). Oh well!!!

spaniel

I've seen a couple different types of wounds that defy logic and don't bleed yet are good hits. 1) A few high chest hits, apparently the lungs deflate and stop working (and, consequently, blowing blood out) immediately and the chest fills up with blood and the deer has time to cover a short distance. 2) some heart/arterial hits where the same thing happens, for some reason the wound is positioned such that the blood is contained in the chest rather than spraying out.

I've seen this with several different types of bullets over the years. No, a SW would not be my first choice for an area with shots all under 50 yds but I can't say that's based on any real experience saying they are not good but rather just theory. I've shot well over a hundred deer (maybe closer to 200?) with numerous bullets and the lack of any discernable pattern in performance by bullet design has always intrigued me.

And, fortunately for my wallet, caused me to stop testing every new thing looking for the big breakthrough.

(I'll make an exceptions for sabotloader's favorite Noslers. They are sufficiently intriguing to test in my X7)