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Old October 17, 2012, 02:50 PM   #26
shamelessinct
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Last season I shot a doe at 75 yards with a 308. One shot and she went down and stopped moving. As I was taking pictures I saw antlers moving through the woods toward me. I picked up the rifle and saw a six point buck walking toward me. The antlers were not as wide as his ears, so I decided to let him walk away and leave him for next year. As he was quartering away from me at about 25 yards, I realized that his left foreleg was opened up and dripping blood. I figured that whomever shot him would be tracking him, so I decided to put him out of his misery. I hit him with the 308 right behind the shoulder expecting him to drop. Instead he ran down the nearest hill and out of sight. I followed the blood trail to the bottom of the hill where it had expired. I marked it's location, then went back to the doe, filled out a kill tag and field dressed her. No one came by looking for the buck. I went down the hill to the buck and field dressed it. The first shot had been from the front, and went along the bottom of the foreleg and into the abdomen; a classic gut shot. What a mess! Since I put the last bullet in it, and no one had come looking for the deer, I used my second kill tag for the buck. I took them to the local DEEP check station; the biologist there said the buck would have died a lingering death from infection had I not shot it. Only two of us have permission to hunt the 80 acre woods, I spoke to the other person who hunts there; he was still at home drinking coffee when I shot the two deer. Can't figure why someone would not make an effort to find the deer and would leave it to die a painful death from infection.
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Old October 19, 2012, 05:01 PM   #27
Gunplummer
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It seems to me there are a lot of inexperienced hunters on this thread. I have shot a lot of deer that were either wounded beyond recovery or wounded and recovered from years before. Sometimes it is just unbelieveable how they keep on going. The previous post reminds me of a story about 25 years ago. It was the end of the first day of rifle in Pa. and I was at my brother-in-law's house. The old guy next door came over and wanted help loading a deer. He did not hunt anymore, but someone hit one with a car right down the road. It was straddled over a guardrail and the car was still there. The deer had been jumping the guardrail and was hit right in the head. The crazy thing was, the deer was gut shot and dragging ALL it's guts that had slipped through a small hole (Looked about 2-3 inches.) in it's side. It could have been running all day like that. It can happen to anybody. The posts that think not were not even aware of the deer being hit until after watching it a while or after shooting it. How is the original shooter supposed to follow a deer that gets around like it was not hit at all?
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Old October 19, 2012, 05:10 PM   #28
Brian Pfleuger
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They may "get around like they're not hit at all" but holes in animals tend to leak blood.
Sure, we have no way of knowing what that other guy did or did not do to recover that deer but I have run across PLENTY of people who don't even go look around if the deer doesn't drop stone dead.
Without being there for the shot and recovery it's pretty rough to pass judgement, but there are an unfortunate number of people who simply won't look at all.
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Old October 19, 2012, 07:45 PM   #29
mete
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That's a big factor -not dropping on the spot !! That's caused by internet BS with so much talk about instant kills and even advertizing nonsense.
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Old October 20, 2012, 11:58 AM   #30
Gunplummer
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Plenty of bullet holes don't "Leak blood", especially gut shots. I shot a doe with a 7-30 Waters 140 grain Hornady at about 100 yards in 16" of very fluffy snow. There were 3 deer and I knew I hit the deer because of the way it took off. In the snow I could tell which tracks it was because the others just kind of followed it. Not a drop of blood. I followed it about 100 feet and nothing. Then I heard a bunch of shots below me and figured the deer had run right into a pile of hunters. I was just turning to go up the hill and saw a spot of red about half the size of a dime. That was the only blood I saw, but it was enough to make me go farther. About 10 feet away it was laying dead in a root hole where a tree went down. When I opened it up it gushed blood. I had hit it high in the lungs. There are plenty of examples like that. Sometimes there is just no sign of a hit. Sometimes it looks like a heck of a lot of damage judging by the blood and it is a minor wound. It just goes that way sometimes.
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Old October 21, 2012, 12:56 PM   #31
HondaCowboy82
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Shot the same deer in two seasons

I was bow hunting opening day and shot a doe. Watched the arrow go into her brisket and her kick it out with back leg. Tracked her for about three hours with minimal to no blood and to no avail. Two months later, I had a doe come out on me on the opening weekend of muzzleloader. This time she was not so lucky, even with me shooting left handed at a wierd angle. Upon retrieving her, I noticed a nice little scarred mark right behind her left leg. Seems one blade of my broadhead barely sliced her.
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Old October 22, 2012, 08:54 AM   #32
Husqvarna
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got up at 4 o clock when my father needed some help. car had hit a pig, massive damage to the car, not a whole lot of blood but the ditch had "drag marks" the pig was just 20 meters into the woods, pelvis completely
shattered, the dog was on it so I stuck it.

quickest, easiest and we will salvage the meat, best track ever

a quick shower and i could get to work but didn't notice my bloodied shoes, luckily I work at a rural school and the kids were mostly interested
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Old October 26, 2012, 09:27 AM   #33
ChasingWhitetail91
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Shot placement comes first, but everyone takes close call shot at times. If it doesn't drop on the spot, go drop off your guns, grab a beer and a buddy and do some hiking with your freezer in mind.
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Old October 26, 2012, 06:04 PM   #34
buck460XVR
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shamelessinct's post reminded me of a incident several years ago. Right after first light on opening day I had a small basket 6 pointer walk by with three does. Since I had gotten a nice buck with a bow and it was opening morning, even tho it was on public land, I let it walk. They hadn't hardly disappeared into the distance when I heard shots ringin' out and a few minutes later the buck comes limpin' back. It comes below my tree and licks it's front leg that is obviously broken just above the knee. I didn't want the buck for myself, but figured I help the shooter out and put him down. A quick shot to the neck and it was over. Thinkin' the shooter would be over soon, I stayed in my tree and waited for a buck of my own. Three hours later I got down and dressed the buck out. It was warming up and the deer needed to be taken care of. Wisconsin law says a deer must be legally tagged before field dressing or moving a deer. Reluctantly, I tagged the buck with my tag, dressed it out and proceeded to drag the deer the quarter mile across the swamp to my truck. Halfway across the swamp I hear shouting and see three men waving their arms at me. One of them starts walking towards me so I walk a ways away from the deer and wait. When the guy got close enough, I recognized him as someone I knew. He walks up and says "You stole my kids buck! He knew he made a good shot but didn't want to risk pushin' that monster to someone else so he waited till I came to help! Didn't think we had to worry about you stealin' it out from underneath us!". I told him first that his kids shot wasn't close to being fatal, but even so, I had just shot it thru the neck to save him a day's trackin' and frustration. I said the bullet holes would confirm my story. I then told him after three hours I figured no one was comin' for it and I wanted to take care of it before it went bad. From there I told him I wasn't about to take my tag off the deer and waste it, but his son was welcome to the horns, but if they wanted the meat too, if they called a warden and got me another tag, I would be more than happy to let them have the deer and drag it the rest of the way out. By then the son and the uncle got there and started the name callin'. After a few minutes of tellin' me how worthless I was for stealin' a deer of a lifetime, they asked where their monster was so they could admire it. I told them I'd show them the deer I was draggin' and if it was a deer of a lifetime and had been hit well with the first shot they were more than welcome to it as long as I got another tag outta it. To this day, the son has never spoken another word of the incident to me or any one else I know..........
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Old November 6, 2012, 09:38 PM   #35
12GaugeShuggoth
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People that are too lazy to track are one of my biggest hunting pet-peeves. I've only had do a hard track once, and that was from a doe who jumped the string and ended up with a Rage 2 blade through the neck. She probably ran about 250 yards through some real thick stuff before going down.

Had another that I took a running shot at with the shotgun, thought for sure she came out of it clean. Went down to check and found a single drop of blood and kept following the tracks down to a creek, figured I'd need to find a wounded deer and finish her. Didn't find any more blood until I found her piled up just over the creek in a huge pool of blood. Upon inspection I found a single buckshot pellet had hit her and done the job. When she jumped the creek it did something nasty inside her and that was the end. Lucky end to a shot I probably shouldn't have made.

Someone who shall remain nameless came back from a hunt one night, said he took a shot at a big doe but missed. I asked if he went out and followed her tracks to make sure........nope, no need, it was a miss and there was no doubt. I went out the next morning and found her tracks in the field, and followed them in to the woods about 15 feet before finding blood. Deer was piled up about 20 yards in, with multiple buckshot having penetrated the vital area. Took me all of 10 minutes of effort. Lazy, lazy, lazy

Bottom line, if you're gonna shoot, you better be willing to track.
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Old November 6, 2012, 11:00 PM   #36
Rebel9793
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I couldnt agree more. I made a bad shot on a doe during archery season and felt horrible. I searched for 6 hours with two of buddys only to find out from the warden at the check station she ran up under another hunters stand and he finished her off. As much as I hated loosing the deer I was glad she didnt get turned into buzzard food.
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