After the shot

[TooTallTom]

A post in another thread made me think of this: What are some of the odd things you've seen after you make a shot on a deer?

Not my own personal experience, but my dad shot a buck in the head, entry behind the ear, exit on the muzzle on the opposite side of the head. (I saw them myself.) He went to gut it a few minutes later, and it started to stand up! He had basically just knocked it out. Plus, he was shooting from an elevated stand. We still wonder about that one.

[Fever]

Most jump up do some type of kick in the air and run off a little ways. A couple years ago I shot a decent 8 point at about 100yds as he was rubing on a tree. first shot I miss with a .243 (somehow.... actually hit a branch), anyway second shot was true and the buck jumps up runs hangs a right and basically starts runing in a big U turn only to die about 30 feet from base of my tree. I've made a couple neck shots where deer drop and don't die right away. (Hate that). Last year 30-06 at about 25yds and deer just crumpled. I think all deer are a bit different....

[nwhunter]

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it and I didn't see the shot, but I had to help someone get a deer out of a tree a number of years ago. Shot taken, deer jumped up and got caught on some branches. Made things easy field dressing...

[Sorgy]

My friend hit a deer late in the day and he was not sure of the shot. We let it sit overnight and continued tracking the next morning. after a challenging track job we found the deer.

After field dressing the buck I noticed some movement- Here comes a pine martin on the downwind side of the blood trail the buck left and he works his way right to the fresh pile of entrails while we are standing 15 feet away:)

It was fun watching him drag off the heart or liver.

Good Luck

Steve

[tracker x-2]

I had the same exact thing happen To tall tom. I ended up putting another one in him as he ran away.

[Archerysniper]

My buddy shot a doe a few years back that jump straight up and got stuck in a deadfall 15 feet off the ground,wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have to climb up their and drag it out myself.

[TRZ II]

On a drive one time I shot a nice 8, another driver then shot at a doe and fawn. Fawn went down with no blood at all. After much investigation no entry or exit would was found. Got to gutting and it was totally filled with blood. Shot actually went right clean in the spinkter and destroyed the internals. Million dollar shot, just like Forrest Gump!

[CNCMike]

Shot a doe a number of years ago. 4th season I had seen the same doe on the exact same trail at almost the exact same time. She had a routine of walking that trail between 9 and 9:15 every morning. Last day of the season and along she came, about 5 after 9. I decided I needed meat and hadn't seen much but her and a couple smaller doe all season so I took the shot. Looked like a spot on shot but she kept walking. Never changed speed, didn't flinch, nothing.. Just kept walking on the trail. I fired another shot, positive I hit her again and still nothing. That big doe just kept walking. I stared in disbelief as she casually walked ahead, straight into a tree, head first. Her legs began to slow down and she slid, face on the tree, down to the ground... Just weird.

[nofishfisherman]

Shot a doe a number of years ago. 4th season I had seen the same doe on the exact same trail at almost the exact same time. She had a routine of walking that trail between 9 and 9:15 every morning. Last day of the season and along she came, about 5 after 9. I decided I needed meat and hadn't seen much but her and a couple smaller doe all season so I took the shot. Looked like a spot on shot but she kept walking. Never changed speed, didn't flinch, nothing.. Just kept walking on the trail. I fired another shot, positive I hit her again and still nothing. That big doe just kept walking. I stared in disbelief as she casually walked ahead, straight into a tree, head first. Her legs began to slow down and she slid, face on the tree, down to the ground... Just weird.

Zombie Deer?

[nonteepical]

I shouldn't tell this one but it's halloween. A buddy of mine emptied his gun on a doe, and he said it was running back and forth like a shooting game at a carnival, on his last shot it fell, he gets up to it and makes his cut up to the brisket field dressing it, and the deer kicks him in the leg and gets up and runs with the guts spewing out getting caught on brush pulling out for about 100 feet, the deer falls down again he just looks at it for awhile cringing thinking [PoorWordUsage]. walks up to it, and not a bullet hole in the thing, he figures all the running back and forth, it had to run into a tree and knocked itself out. Pretty gross imagining it but a true story.

[jay83196]

My first buck I shot a long time ago it was walking as I shot it was moving down hill I wasn't sure if I hit it after looking for a body for couple hours my dad found it no blood anywhere it layed there with its guts hanging out I hit it so low it cut a perfect cut across its belly didn't even puncture the stomach just through all the skin and everything fell out, was the damdest thing...

[Boar]

Got nothing. But sounds like a bunch of you need to spend some time at the range Lol.

[ozzie]

All of the deer I have shot have dropped in their tracks except one and that was because I was given a gun to shoot with bullets and told it was spot on try it. Well I go out and along comes a doe. So I aim shoot and it is a good hit but it keeps walking. I give it a good 15 minutes and start to trail. Here it starts to get up and I put another round in it and it continues walking. Give it another 15 and the same thing happens but the 4th shot finally it is done. Come to find out that the guy gave me small grain bullets used more for varmit hunting then deer hunting by accident.....lesson learned stick with the 12 gauge shot gun with a slug as the deer just pile up and die quickly.

[surewood]

Not to strange, but I shot a doe with my bow and it ran forward did about a 40 yard circle and almost died in the tracks where I shot it. Hit that one in heart. Another doe was quatering away I shot and it just hopped away as if nothing happened. I thought I had missed because I've saw this happen before when I've missed. I checked my arrow and it was full of blood. Talked to my brother and told him I better let it lay overnight. Went back the next morning and found it forty yards from where I shot it. Perfect quartering shot, arrow exited right behind the opposite shoulder. Never saw a deer react like that being fatally hit.

[paceman]

One time with the bow I drilled a doe at 20 yards right through the heart. She hardly reacted at all. Just did a little jump forward and then kept walking for about 20 yards and then she did the wobble thing and fell over. It was pretty cool to watch.

[John478]

A few years ago my son shot a doe it went right down and then a few seconds later it jumped up and ran off. I was sitting not far from him and he called me and told me what happen. I told him just to wait till I got there and we would wait for a half hour or so before we tried tracking it. When we starting tacking I had him follow the blood trial and I hung to one side and back a little. After about 40 yards he yells here she is so I started walking towards him. He’s standing right next to her when all of a sudden she jumps up and runs off. (Scared the [PoorWordUsage] out of him) She ran right by me and I finished her off. I was laughing so hard I could hardly shot.

[slimngrizzly]

A buddy of mine snuck up on a nice buck in Iowa with a muzzleloader. I dont know what happened but he shot it in the main beam about 8 inches away from the head. I broke the antler off and that deer was dead as a hammer! However I told him he better gut it before it wakes up!

[juniordo1]

A 6 point buck ran up within 10 yards of me and I shot him. He then proceeded to run right into my tree and shook my whole stand! As he went away I put one behind his ear just to make sure but I sure got rattled!

[TylerS]

The weirdest shot I've ever had really isn't that weird, but it was kind of neat.

On Sunday of opener, I had a doe trot past me at about 50 yards. I bleated for her to stop, but she didn't. So, timing the openings between tree branches and trunks, I took a shot. She didn't react whatsoever, just kept on moving through the woods as if nothing had happened. Sure I had missed, I racked another round and put the scope up again. She kept trotting at the same pace she had right down the trail. When she'd gone another 50 yards, she stopped right behind a tree. No shot, so I just watched and wondered if I'd get another chance.

All of a sudden, her legs kicked out from under her and she toppled over. I was stunned.

Upon gutting her out, all I found were bits and pieces of her heart. She was the first chest shot deer I've gotten that had both front quarters still in tact, too: I'd put the bullet right behind her front legs.

[dmichaelm]

I was 11 and in the stand with my dad. A nice buck came over the ridge and stopped about 50 or 60 yards from us broadside. My dad put a slug right in the breadbasket. His two front legs buckled under him, and the back two stayed locked. The buck proceeds to let out a bellar like nothing I had ever heard, then tip over onto its side. A big long death moan. Dad still tells the story of me looking up at him with eyes like silver dollars.

[Double D]

We had someone in our party shoot a doe more or less straight on from a stand. A good hit, but the thing came charging at him from about 25 yards. It hits the legs on the stand, moving them about a foot and knocking the guy almost out of the stand, rolled over backward and died.

Strange.

DD

[RK]

I had a couple I mentioned in another thread - a buck I thought I'd missed that ran full tilt into a huge oak tree, and another than reared up on his hind legs and went over backwards.

Had a doe once that I hit hard, and she scrambled up a steep hill and over a fence onto our neighbor's property. Our neighbor, who isn't exactly a rocket scientist, got the bright idea to clear cut a huge chunk of his land and plant pine trees. Lord knows why. So he haphazardly clear cut (logs and brush piles all over), planted pine trees, then over-fertilized them, under-watered them, and killed every blessed one. Then he gave up, and let the whole area go to grass and thistles 10 feet tall. Of course, the doe ran right into the middle of it. So I head into it to track her down and drag her back. Start into the thistles and grass, there are logs and sticks under the dead grass every other step, and I can see about 3 feet in front of me. Following the blood trail and I have to step over a fallen log. Dang doe was laying just past the log, very much alive. I very nearly stepped on her. She sprang up and took off in the direction she happened to be facing...which happened to be right where I was standing. She bounced off my left hip, went [PoorWordUsage] over applecart over the log, and I put her down for good when she was trying to get up again. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Not everyone can say they've been charged by a whitetail doe

Valuable lesson learned though - I didn't wait long enough before I took off after her. I was more concerned about getting her off our neighbor's place than I was making sure she was down for good. If I'd have waited, she'd have bled out behind the log. If I hadn't been able to get another round in her when she hit the log, she may have run quite a ways further. Now, even if I see them go down, I wait until I can't stand it, then wait 5 more minutes...

Cheers,

RK

[bogwalker]

My daughter shot a buck. We looked it over and found there were 3 bullet holes. It had been angled away from her when she shot. The bullet entered the deer's side, exited and re-entered hitting the heart.

[old goose hunter]

Many years ago I was posting on a long tammarack bog drive we used to make.

It was a long really hard drive that took almost two hours to make. We had

22 guys in our party, 17 drivers 5 posters. We always drove it the last

day of the season, so it was always cold. We would always post 3 guys on the

end, one on the an escape ridge about 2/3rds of the way through. Then one

would stay right where the drivers went in. I was about 17 or 18 at the time

and was elected to stay on the back end. So I new I had about a 3 hour wait

until it was over and every one would be back. At about 2 hrs the shooting

started down on the other end, over the next10-15 minutes there are about

20 shots. I was freezing and figured I was going to see nothing. Then all

of a sudden this big 9 pointer comes barreling out of the bog about 90 yard

away from me. I pulled up my 30-06 touched off a shot, hit him right

through the front shoulders, which buckled his front legs. His head went

down and his horns caught in the blueberry brush and he cart wheeled two

times. He lay there dead as a stone. From where the bullet impacted him to

were he ended up was over 25 feet. The marks in the snow looked like a

train had derailed. I couldn't make that shot again if my life depended on

it. What do they say "better to be lucky than good'

[elkhuntingfan]

A couple years ago, my nephew shot an 8 pointer that was running past him. He hit it in the spine. The buck pitched forward and both antlers stuck in the ground (swampy area). The buck flipped over forward and both antlers snapped off just above the brow tines. His 8 pointer became a spike just like that. It is (was) the biggest buck he has shot. I thought he was going to cry when he called me about ten minutes later. He found all but about three inches of one of the antlers.