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H&H,hunter · November 23, 2001, 02:07 PM

Two years ago down in unit 29 in NM I shot a nice 4X4 Muley he went down to the shot at less than 100 yds. He then struggled got up and slowly started walking away and up a hill from me I gave him two more bullets and put him down on the last shot, again. As I got up to retrieve my deer he got up and disappeared over a ridge. That was the last I ever saw of him. I found a good blood trail initially then it slowly vanished to splatters then it was gone. I circled, pushed, crawled,and threw rocks into ever piece of cover for what had to be 3 or 4 hours. I never found that buck and it's stuck in my mind clear as the day it happened on replay over and over. About all I can tell is that the first shot went through the ribs a little far back and highand it should have been fatal. I still believe that that buck was down and dead within a 200 yard square and I just couldn't find him. Go figure! And yes I still think about it and it still agravates the hell out of me!!
The weirdest one I've ever seen however,ocurred last year in the Valle Vidal on Elk. We had a client shoot a nice bull at about 150yds with a .300 weatherby 180gr sierra (guys don't use soft bullets with high velocity rounds on elk it's a bad bad combination, Ballistic tips included!!!) In any case the hunter scored a good hit half way up the shoulder in line with the front leg. At the shot the Bull took off, knowing that he was hit hard we waited aboue 20 minutes then started tracking him. Not a drop of blood was found none nada zippo. Fourtunatley there was fresh snow on the ground so tracking was easy even with out blood. About 500 yds into the timber we found were the bull had bedded still not a drop of blood. In any case this went on for about a mile he'd bed down every 1/4 mile or so untill we finally found him standing out in a meadow, he was unable to move and gave us the chance to finish the job. On further inspection we found that the first shot had entered the muscle in the left shoulder and fractured the head of the humorus the bullet had completely failed and come apart in the shoulder muscle stopping in the bone but not penetraiting. the Bull had broken his remaining front leg trying to run through the snow and that's what stopped him. If it hadn't been for the snow we would have never found him, and never known what happened!@!

November 23, 2001, 02:07 PM	#10
H&H,hunter Senior Member Join Date: July 25, 2001 Location: Colorado Posts: 504	Two years ago down in unit 29 in NM I shot a nice 4X4 Muley he went down to the shot at less than 100 yds. He then struggled got up and slowly started walking away and up a hill from me I gave him two more bullets and put him down on the last shot, again. As I got up to retrieve my deer he got up and disappeared over a ridge. That was the last I ever saw of him. I found a good blood trail initially then it slowly vanished to splatters then it was gone. I circled, pushed, crawled,and threw rocks into ever piece of cover for what had to be 3 or 4 hours. I never found that buck and it's stuck in my mind clear as the day it happened on replay over and over. About all I can tell is that the first shot went through the ribs a little far back and highand it should have been fatal. I still believe that that buck was down and dead within a 200 yard square and I just couldn't find him. Go figure! And yes I still think about it and it still agravates the hell out of me!! The weirdest one I've ever seen however,ocurred last year in the Valle Vidal on Elk. We had a client shoot a nice bull at about 150yds with a .300 weatherby 180gr sierra (guys don't use soft bullets with high velocity rounds on elk it's a bad bad combination, Ballistic tips included!!!) In any case the hunter scored a good hit half way up the shoulder in line with the front leg. At the shot the Bull took off, knowing that he was hit hard we waited aboue 20 minutes then started tracking him. Not a drop of blood was found none nada zippo. Fourtunatley there was fresh snow on the ground so tracking was easy even with out blood. About 500 yds into the timber we found were the bull had bedded still not a drop of blood. In any case this went on for about a mile he'd bed down every 1/4 mile or so untill we finally found him standing out in a meadow, he was unable to move and gave us the chance to finish the job. On further inspection we found that the first shot had entered the muscle in the left shoulder and fractured the head of the humorus the bullet had completely failed and come apart in the shoulder muscle stopping in the bone but not penetraiting. the Bull had broken his remaining front leg trying to run through the snow and that's what stopped him. If it hadn't been for the snow we would have never found him, and never known what happened!@! Last edited by H&H,hunter; November 23, 2001 at 08:37 PM.