Dramatic Deer Kills

[RIFLE MAN]

Deer Hunting Friends:

What is the most dramatic deer kill you have made or seen
made on whitetail? I saw a hunter shoot a large whitetail with a 45-70
and the deer did not move except to fall flat! He said he did not have
his cartridges loaded hot...1200 to 1300 feet per second, but that large
lumbering bullet put the buck down like he was hit by a sledge hammer!

Kindest Regards to all,
Rifle Man

[Oldshooter]

I CAN NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY THE FOLLOWING STORY.

A guy I know was sitting at the base of a big tree still hunting. Of course being the ever vigilant hunter, he fell asleep with the rifle across his lap. when he woke he looked to his right and there stood a big ten point buck 4 feet from him staring at him. he raised the rifle slowly and pulled the trigger. buck dropped and he has it mounted in his den. All I can testify to is that he has a ten point buck mounted in his den, but knowing the guy as I do I can tell you that he prolly did fall asleep. 

And you know who you are KB   

[Spanky]

I fall asleep all the time in the woods.



Spanky

[charles p]

A friend and I counted to three and fired simultaneously at two bucks.  Both went down at the shot.  We loaded them into an old International Scout II and started to our hunting camp. The rear seat of the Scout folded down to make storage room. At about 55 mph, I looked in the rear view mirror and one buck was standing with its head between the bucket seats.  Over its back, like a saddle, was the other "dead" buck.  Needless to say we came to a screaching halt and jumped out of the scout.  I raised the rear window and dropped the tailgate.  My partner was ready to shoot the live buck again when it exited the Scout.  Fortunately, the deer collapsed dead inside the vehicle and never jumped out.

About ten years ago I was helping a friend look for a deer he shot late in the afternoon.  I was deep in a briar thicket when I came upon a small deer, crouched on the ground, with its eyes fixed on me.  I approached the downed deer, reached down to grab it, and it bolted.  It ran between my legs!  Never met another hunter who has had a live deer run between his legs.  Good thing it was a doe.

[Oldshooter]

I fall asleep all the time in the woods.



Spanky

I hope my story did not give the impression that I never had! 

[Land_Owner]

Shot a doe near dusk at 85 yards in the center of a field with Nosler 150 gr Partition in 270 caliber.  She turned a 360 degree reverse somersault in the air (commonly known as a Gainer) trailing a stream of doe urine the whole way and came to rest facing the exact way she was walking.  Fanciest "Pinwheel" deer kill I have ever seen.

[Hunter_Smurf]

iw as resting on some falling trees as my mother yes mother (67 this year and still hunting ) came and told me a big buck was walking the bottom of the revine. being the better shooter she would let me take the shot, so we walk back to her spot and see this nice 9 point.  as i look around i see my brother about 75 yards left and down half way near the middle of the revine...the buck was his... so my mother and i got to watch my brother shoot a 9 point with a beed sighted 12 Ga pump and dropped in its tracks at what we walked off to be 108 yards. 

Strange thing was we couldn't find the bullet or the entrace wound. my brother said he raised it about 6 inches over its head and shot. later while butchering it we found the bullet lodged in its neck.  timing must have placed the shot threw its open mouth and into the neck from his throat.... 

that was the most wierd or strange thing i have seen...lol   

[GRIMJIM]

I fall asleep all the time in the woods.
Spanky

That's why I don't go in trees.

I was sitting on the edge of a 15 foot high cliff when a 9 pointer walked by. I hammered it with my 12 gauge slug gun and it staggered a little and laid down. I waited a few minutes and it never moved so I climbed around and down to dress it. When I got about 20 feet away it picked up its head, looked at me and got up and ran down into the gorge we were in and jumped into a river. I was about 350 miles from home and I'm sure they heard me swearing. I leaned my camouflaged shotgun against a nearby tree and I jumped in after making sure it was dead and dragged it out. After cleaning it I realized I couldn't find my shotgun. About ten minuted later, shotgun in plain sight, I started dragging it out. The ravine was so deep I couldn't get it out. Also the guy helping me was 63. Luckily we were in a state park and I drove to the ranger station and they brought a 6 wheeler out and got it out for me along with my 63 year old friend. He said I was like the cavalry coming over the hill on that trail.

[JKump]

I am a Police officer in Middle Georgia, I worked a deer accident where the a big Doe was cut in half by the windshield of a Lexus. The front half of the deer was in the front passenger's seat, the other was on the passenger's side in the roadway. The female driver was uninjured, but I had to have her checked out by EMS just to calm her down.  Now that folks is a "Dramatic" deer kill.   

[Dee]

Yes JKump it was.
A few years ago I got tired of shooting deer with a finely tuned 25-06 at ranges under 175 yards so decided to shoot all head shots,as the rifle was boringly accurate. Before anyone panics I was a counter sniper, and the rifle was more than capable if you've ever shot a "tuned up" Sendero.
Any way, a doe ran out in front of my stand at about 50 yards, stopped and turned around and looked back into the woods form where she just came. I took everything but the bottom jaw off with a 100 grain Nosler at 3400fps. She fell on her feet so fast I didn't see her fall. About 20 seconds later I saw what she was looking at. A six point came trotting into the meadow and stopped about 20 feet from where she was laying. I lip squeaked and when he turned around and looked at me, I took his head off too. My huntin buddy started calling me on the radio as since he heard two shots he wanted to know if I had missed.
Two down in under a minute, and I had been in the stand for about 20 minutes. Then the work began. By the way, I sold the Sendero. I got too old to carry a 13 lb rifle, but damn that thing would shoot.

[mrussel]

I CAN NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY THE FOLLOWING STORY.

A guy I know was sitting at the base of a big tree still hunting. Of course being the ever vigilant hunter, he fell asleep with the rifle across his lap. when he woke he looked to his right and there stood a big ten point buck 4 feet from him staring at him. he raised the rifle slowly and pulled the trigger. buck dropped and he has it mounted in his den. All I can testify to is that he has a ten point buck mounted in his den, but knowing the guy as I do I can tell you that he prolly did fall asleep. 

And you know who you are KB   

 At least he didn't wake up to a bear staring at him.

[tacklebury]

My buddy came home from overseas and purchased a Browning Bar in 30-06 to hunt with that year.  Opening day he had a good sized buck come charging into the far end of his 400 yard field and he shot it on the run 4 times.  The last shot hit the base of the antlers and blew off 1/2 of his 8 points while effectually putting the air brakes on his flight.  I never saw anything like it and 2 of the other 3 bullets hit also, one in the lower front leg, one just behind the ribs.  That deer was kind of a mess.  lol

[anweis]

My buddy came home from overseas and purchased a Browning Bar in 30-06 to hunt with that year.  Opening day he had a good sized buck come charging into the far end of his 400 yard field and he shot it on the run 4 times.  The last shot hit the base of the antlers and blew off 1/2 of his 8 points while effectually putting the air brakes on his flight.  I never saw anything like it and 2 of the other 3 bullets hit also, one in the lower front leg, one just behind the ribs.  That deer was kind of a mess.  lol

Running deer at 400 yards? One shot in the leg, one in the antlers? That buddy of your is trigger happy isn't he? He could have injured and lost that deer. That was sloppy shooting, beyond his ability.

[DennyRoark]

I fall asleep all the time in the woods.

That's the best way I know to sit real still.  I never seem to get the shot off, or miss, tho.

[Dave in WV]

I was an aircrew member on a C-130H that hit a four pt. buck. He gored a hole in the skin under the battery box and flipped under the plane and was hit by the left VHF antenna. He had no horns or a tail left on him but no other visable marks. The plane flew the next day twice. I'm not great at math but anyone that wants to figure the knock down power it was a 100k lb plane at 115+ knots indicated airspeed. 

[tacklebury]

Running deer at 400 yards? One shot in the leg, one in the antlers? That buddy of your is trigger happy isn't he? He could have injured and lost that deer. That was sloppy shooting, beyond his ability.

I agree whole heartedly.  He was an armorer in the Army and an expert shot, but I still gave him crap for doing it.  I prefer 1 shot 1 kill and that's why I hunt with single shots or bolt actions mainly.    Was still an intense thing to see.  I don't really think it's necessary IMO to use a semi-auto rifle for deer hunting.  I know a few people who do, but most prefer the bolt.

[Dee]

I was an aircrew member on a C-130H that hit a four pt. buck. He gored a hole in the skin under the battery box and flipped under the plane and was hit by the left VHF antenna. He had no horns or a tail left on him but no other visable marks. The plane flew the next day twice. I'm not great at math but anyone that wants to figure the knock down power it was a 100k lb plane at 115+ knots indicated airspeed. 

There is no such thing as know down power, in rifles and pistols, but a C-130H. KNOCK DOWN POWER TO SPARE.

[Scibaer]

the only dramatic deer hunting story i have is in part not legal. so im not going to tell it, other then to say i shot a buck at 93 yards that i could not see, only guess is to where he was standing. it was a single shot into the vitals , he trotted off about 50 yards and dropped dead.

[mrussel]

the only dramatic deer hunting story i have is in part not legal. so im not going to tell it, other then to say i shot a buck at 93 yards that i could not see, only guess is to where he was standing. it was a single shot into the vitals , he trotted off about 50 yards and dropped dead.

Sounds like an easy way to end up shooting someone...

[mechanic]

My Pop was fond of hunting a power line from his pickup bed with a 25-06.  He lined up a shot on a small buck one day at about 250 yds, and when he got to the deer he had shot a doe as well on the other side.

My only "dramatic" kill was a shot between my feet from a stand into  a deer's head with a 44mag.  I left the genitals intact until I got it to the processor so DNR would know for sure what it was if I got checked....

[Mohawk]

Killed a doe with 00 buck at 6 yds. Full pattern in the lungs. Something you never forget. And yes...... it was devastating.

[R.W.Dale]

Last years small buck.

223 retro AR 55g gameking.  30yds

I was stalking along a half dry creekbed when we literally just kinda blundered into one another. I shot him and he jumped what had to be 10' straight up and apoun coming back down he got exactly ONE bound into his run when I pulled lead on him and let em have it again at which point he didn't get another hoof on the ground before he faceplanted full tilt into the water making a very large splash  in the process.

To this day I don't know which bullet hole was which and if the first was the fatal one or the second

[cwlongshot]

I have a couple!!!

 Not all me, but me or my hunting companions.

Mine is a 120Lb ish small buck. Walking in front of me at about 40 yards. I shot him high in the shoulder with a 358Win 200gr Hornady bullet. His body seemingly hovered in mid air. At the shot, his legs tucked up underneath his body. Then he fell on his brisket and as if in slow motion, just laid on his side, kinda exhaled and was still. Fastest, deadest deer I ever saw.

My brother shot a deer with the bow as it walked toward from him. When we recovered the deer she had three sets of holes!! At the shot, she dropped her head to scratch her head with a hoof. The arrow went thru her neck, into the shoulder. Exiting just behind the last rib on the off side, re entering the ham, sliding under the skin exiting the center of the ham on the off side. He literally laced up the deer!!

Again my brother, last day of archery season. We is walking out of the woods, he is about thirty yards in front of me kinda "tooting" on his grunt call. To our dismay here comes a nice little buck up the tote road. My brother stops, slips behind a tree as the buck presents a shot broadside at 20-25 yards. He puts an arrow almost perfectly behind the shoulder. Just a little high, well under the spine. We wait about a half hour and go to retrieve the deer. We spend most of the rest of that day looking, NO DEER. Now I also say the shot and it was good, seemingly double lung shot, but no deer and a fairly small amount of blood. We lost the deer... THAT DAY. The rifle season opened the next day, Monday be we where not able to hunt until the following Saturday. Same area, My father decides to hunt the side hill with in a couple hundred yards of the shot I just explained to you. Couple hours later we hear his guns report. About noon we get together and see what he had shot. GUESS WHAT... My brother walks up and says "You shot my buck!"  Sure enough, we looked and there was a scab BENEATH the spine on BOTH sides of the deer!!! All we can think is that he had exhaled at the time of impact and he perfectly slid the arrow thru the chest cavity without touching the Lungs!!!!

CW

[schoolmaster]

First deer I ever killed was a doe running having been shot at by my partner. The 54 maxiball hit her in the neck took out 10 inches of spine and the deer went nose down and turned a complete flip! She came from my right rear and I had to shoot her left handed at 24 yards.

[snapcrackpop]

All we can think is that he had exhaled at the time of impact and he perfectly slid the arrow thru the chest cavity without touching the Lungs!!!!

Oh no you didn't.....THERE IS NO VOID!!!  You cannot place an arrow through the chest cavity without going through the lungs.  The lungs touch the pleura all around the whole chest.  It might be possible that he hit the space between the top of the back and above the spine...but below that is lung.  Also extreamly unlikely that he went through both lungs, but they clotted/plugged before collapsing.
****Edit: I believe your story, just disagree with your interpetation of anatomy.****

My most dramatic was shooting a buck through the heart at 50 yards with a .308 and it reared up on its hind legs and kicked before falling over dead.

[TheCoachZed]

This year's deer fell off a cliff when I shot him (10 yds with 00 buck from my NEF Survivor). It was kinda dramatic.

[cwlongshot]

Oh no you didn't.....THERE IS NO VOID!!!  You cannot place an arrow through the chest cavity without going through the lungs.  The lungs touch the pleura all around the whole chest.  It might be possible that he hit the space between the top of the back and above the spine...but below that is lung.  Also extreamly unlikely that he went through both lungs, but they clotted/plugged before collapsing.
***Edit: I believe your story, just disagree with your interpretation of anatomy.***
[/quote]

I do not have pictures, but I do have three people who saw this and could not explain it!!!  Absolutely without a shadow of doubt that arrow went UNDER the spine, almost dead broad side. There was scabs on the outside and partially healed holes on the inside of the rib cage, between the ribs going in and coming out!!

I assumed a void, cause there was no other way to explain what happened. Even a dull blade passing thru the delicate lung tissue would have had to cut enough to have killed the buck.

I don't know how to convince you this is absolute fact. Strange and hard to explain, but absolute fact, I was there and saw it both before the shot, the shot itself the dead deer and the butchering.

CW

[snapcrackpop]

http://forums.bowsite.com/tf/bgforums/thread.cfm?threadid=388870&messages=57&forum=5

I believe you on the shot placement, but no "void".  

If you read the above post (especially John Haeberle's), it might explain better than I can.

The first question is how the bear could have survived the first wound. The answer must be that the bleeding and the collapse of the lung must have been insufficient for death. How could that be?

Lungs "collapse" like GF said when air is trapped in the chest cavity but OUTSIDE the lungs. Where does that air come from? Either through the wound in the side of the animal (which as we know can get plugged with fat) or through a hole in the lung itself.

In that case, the flappy lung tissue acts as a one-way valve, allowing air to get sucked in to the chest cavity, but when the animal exhales, the flap in the lung closes, and the air can't be exhaled, and gradually more air is in the chest, leaving less room for things like lungs, and the animal dies.

But "lung holes" can be plugged just as "side holes" can be plugged. They are plugged with clotting blood. Most of the time, of course, there is too much bleeding to be stopped by the usual clotting action, but not always.

So although most animals shot like this would have died, we can assume that a very small minority could survive the wound the same way they'd survive any other: clotting. We should assume that this is a very inefficient way of dealing with the problem, though, and so it rarely works.

But it did for that bear.

BUT ... then someone comes along and puts another arrow through basically the same hole.

(The same thing could have been done by pulling out the first arrow and re-inserting it along the same line -- let's assume NO NEW VESSELS WERE CUT.)

This time is different, though. Why? Well, for one, the bear has already used a lot of his clotting factors. In fact, for such a world-class job of clotting, we should assume that the bear used ALL of his clotting factors.

This second disruption of the wound channel opened up "scabs" (or cut new vessels -- doesn't really matter at this point) and -- Ta Da! -- the bear dies a hemorrhagic death.

This is why you should generally not pull out things like arrows and knives and nails from live victims. Leave that for the operating room. The "weapon" that should have killed the victim didn't, and it didn't because there is clotting going on all around it. It's a temporary fix, but don't go messing it up.

I once saw a guy who had a bad nailgun accident.

He had a nail sticking right out of his chest, right over his sternum. It moved with his heartbeat. The other end of that nail, after passing through the vicitim's right ventricle, impaled itself in his spine.

Now, you'd think the guy would be, um, dead with a wound like that, but he was wide awake. Nervous, to be sure, but awake, and STABLE. The nail was removed in the operating room, and he survived without trouble.

If, however, someone would have pulled that nail out in the field, he'd have hemorrhaged to death.

So I don't think it matters if another arrow went in or the original was pulled out -- same thing.

 

[Mohawk]

That's lungs for you. Best case you cause so much bleeding that the animal will drown in blood. Pulmonary artery is vital. OR... Both lungs collapse and can not oxygenate pumping blood leading to a little slower death. But I have seen a trailcam pic of a deer that has an arrow sticking out of the high lung area and eating at a deer feeder over a week after it was shot so there has ti be something to it. The wonders of anatomy!

[wareagleguy]

Years ago I shot a small buck while he was looking straight at me.  After I shot he ran just a few feet and feel dead.  I starting gutting right where he landed and noticed that the bullet had entered dead center of his chest , then traveled the full length of his spine and exited his bung hole.  The rifle was a Browning 308 BAR.