I lost one today

[aspangler]

I lost a doe today. Shot her at about 30 yards with my 45-70. She ran for over 600 yards before crossing a fence onto property that I don't have access to. (They won't let you cross the fence to recover game. You have to have the landowners OK to do that in Tennessee.) The blood trail was nice large frothy pink blood from a double lung shot. Why she didn't go down I'll never know. 405 grain flat nose cast out of 50/50 WW/pure at 1450 FPS. I am still sick over losing this deer. It's the first one I ever lost in all my decades of hunting.

[Elkins45]

The property owner won't let you look for it?

[aspangler]

The property owner won't let you look for it?
Nope. He's a real BH.

[s mac]

It's a bad feeling, but coyotes gotta eat too.

[richhodg66]

Sometimes stuff happens. Keep hunting.

That is weird though, usually that pink frothy blood means a short tracking job, that one must have had a very strong will to survive.

[Janoosh]

Same situation in N.Y..You can't cross property line to retrieve lost game. I've asked landowners and offered part of the deer and have never been turned down. Last recourse in N.Y. is to call Game Warden if land owner says no. Something about the landowner in possession of dead deer if landowner has no license.

[CastingFool]

Losing a deer happens to all of us eventually. I know it makes you sick, but let it go and keep trying.

[firefly1957]

Same here in Michigan it is really a trespass issue we need permission to enter the others land.

[TheGrimReaper]

WEIRD!!! I had one run today after I shot him with a 45-70 405gr Boolit. First time EVER! Ran about 20 feet.........but he still ran!

[kevmc]

I'd call the DNR and ask????

[9.3X62AL]

I've been fortunate enough to avoid this situation in 45+ years of deer hunting, but it is a part of the program and sometimes the numbers catch up to you. Like others have mentioned here, it is WAY STRANGE to see a deer go a great distance dropping frothy blood, but there are no guarantees in this game. You used a very capable caliber, obviously hit the deer well, so you did All The Right Things. You were frustrated by idiot legalities and idiot personality, a thing I am abundantly familiar with from both a cop career and outdoors experiences. When doing the Right Thing and doing the Legal Thing aren't THE SAME THING--then the law is poorly enacted and lamely enforced.

[shoot-n-lead]

Sorry for this...it happens.

But, that was not a double lung shot...run 600yds and jump a fence...nah.

[aspangler]

Sorry for this...it happens.

But, that was not a double lung shot...run 600yds and jump a fence...nah.
No way to miss that shot with a scope and sighted at 50 yards when the shot was only about 30 yards and the deer was standing still with a clear shot. I don't think I could be THAT bad a shot after 62 years. LOL

[leeggen]

Aspangler, you can call your local game officer and most times they will go with you to recover game here in Tn.The land owners will start out saying no, then after some whispering voices they change their mind as long as the Game officer is with you on the property. Our officer even tells us to call him before crossingand he will handle it, we have a way cool officer, just don't cross the law with him.
CD

[aspangler]

Aspangler, you can call your local game officer and most times they will go with you to recover game here in Tn.The land owners will start out saying no, then after some whispering voices they change their mind as long as the Game officer is with you on the property. Our officer even tells us to call him before crossingand he will handle it, we have a way cool officer, just don't cross the law with him.
CD
You would think that I would know my local WL oficer being that I am a Hunter Safety Instructor, but I don't. Almost impossible to get in touch with him during the week and even harder on the weekend. Anyway, with the "yotes around here it is too late to recover it now.

[stephen m weiss]

Lungs are not homogenous. At rest 90% of the lung is closed. If you poked a hole in a section that was not open to air, it would bleed a bit but not prevent the deer from getting a breath. If you missed the large veins/arteries, nerve bundles, heart, liver, spine and legs, then the lung tissue is very low density, and witha slowish bullet, there wont be much disturbance except for the hole. Once the deer stopped running, it probably became unable to pull a breath and went down.

So very sorry for your loss. I am not as experieced of a hunter, but after one got away from me after sending the round thru both lungs and into the far shoulder in very rough country, I decided to shoot em in the neck. On a case of one, that worked, dead right there. I decided that if I hit squirrels at 40 yards half the time, then taking out the CNS on motionless deer at that range should be fairly reliable.

[Boyscout]

I have known of hunters who set up on property lines and shoot across them. That creates a lot of problems for hunters who do everything right when things go wrong. I have personally had problems with non-hunters deliberately sabotaging a hunt tresspassing onto property I was hunting. Not much recourse when your 20 feet up and they can retreat back to their sanctuary.

[aspangler]

I have known of hunters who set up on property lines and shoot across them. That creates a lot of problems for hunters who do everything right when things go wrong. I have personally had problems with non-hunters deliberately sabotaging a hunt tresspassing onto property I was hunting. Not much recourse when your 20 feet up and they can retreat back to their sanctuary.
Illegal in Tennessee. I carry a camera. I also have the Regional Coordinator's email address to send them to. That works fairly well.

[Lonegun1894]

Sorry for your loss. My first ever hog I almost lost and it was eating at me making me sick through the entire tracking job, so I understand. I know some of you will not like me for this, but we have the same law here, and I agree with it. I don't own my own land to hunt on, so this isn't a matter of me having had problems with people trespassing on MY property, but I do hope to have my own land to hunt someday. I see it like the neighbors kids throwing a ball over my fence at my house now. If they come to the door and ask for permission to retrieve it, they will always be welcome, as would a hunter, IF they ask first. That is just common courtesy, and a deer is worth much more than any ball the next door kids may be playing with. However, the one time the neighbor kid decided to jump my fence, my dogs caught him and his friend, and I came running with a shotgun when I heard the commotion to protect my dogs. Dogs got called off, and the two boys got a talking to on the way back next door to talk to their parents. The parents sided with me, thankfully, and I think they got it worse from their parents than they got it from my dogs. They frequently get a ball over my fence, and they now come and ask, and I go get it for them or let them go and get it themselves, but they now know to ask, and that they will be given permission if they ask.

Now that I told you about that, lets change the situation a bit. Say this was a hunter who tracked a deer onto my land without asking permission. I now have an armed individual, with a good possibility that I don't know them, on my property. Assuming they are truly a hunter, and not a poacher, and intend me no harm, this is still a threat because I don't know their intentions. You see how this can go bad. Now imagine my dogs, 120 lbs and 160 lbs, and both very territorial and protective found him before I did, and he shot one or both? As you can imagine, that would not go over very well. Now the way my dogs are, if they see me invite you into the yard or house, you're a friend and welcome and will have no issues, but if you try to trespass, you will be dealt with. I mean, the landowner OWNS that land for a reason, and they pay the taxes on it, so it is their land and whatever they say goes. I know many are AHs, but it is still their land, and there is no excuse for trespassing. It's just a respect and safety thing.

[Ehaver]

Prolly had a third lung.

:kidding:

[Orchard6]

Some deer can be amazingly tough! Just ask your local processor. Mines told me of some pretty horrific looking wounds that have healed over. Wounds that by all means should have been fatal but somehow the deer survives until someone finally puts the deer down in a later season or the next year. Just because everyone says deer aren't armor plated doesn't mean they fall over at the sounds of bullets whizing by. The one you shot had a strong will to live. Sorry you lost it as no one likes wounding and losing an animal but it does indeed happen and probably more often than we realize. It doesn't make you a poor hunter or a poor shot it's just an eye opener into how tough and determined some animals can be.

[monge]

Sorry about not recovering your deer , Have had that happen to me not a good feeling at all. This is a part or hunting that is not enjoyable,make us a appreciate when game goes down clean and quick ,I always thank the LORD for the opportunity to hunt and take game one of his many gifts to us!

[.45colt]

I think it's got a lot to do with the sound of the shot and the adrenaline kicking in. this stuff happens more than most hunters would admit. I once shot a small buck with a shotgun slug thru the lungs about 60 yards away, it ran straight at Me went past and down 40 yards behind Me. looking where it was standing when I fired the snow and trees were testimony to the 12 ga slug. I could hardly be leave My eyes.

[5.7 MAN]

Some deer can be amazingly tough! Just ask your local processor. Mines told me of some pretty horrific looking wounds that have healed over. Wounds that by all means should have been fatal but somehow the deer survives until someone finally puts the deer down in a later season or the next year. Just because everyone says deer aren't armor plated doesn't mean they fall over at the sounds of bullets whizing by. The one you shot had a strong will to live. Sorry you lost it as no one likes wounding and losing an animal but it does indeed happen and probably more often than we realize. It doesn't make you a poor hunter or a poor shot it's just an eye opener into how tough and determined some animals can be.

way back in the 80s I was hunting with friends, my friend shot a buck the dressed out at 220#, none of us could believe the size of its neck. It also had a huge lump on one side of its neck as well. Once he got the animal butchered he found that the deer had been shot in the neck at some point with a 54 cal. Maxi ball, the deer had survived and thrived afterwards. So who knows maybe that deer will survive anotyer day.

[pilot]

Sounds to me like you followed it too soon. If you hit it well and it went 600 yards, you were pushing it. If you don't find the deer in the first 100 yards, stop, let it be for a couple hours and follow it after it has time to lay down and die.

[leadman]

I live in Arizona now but grew up in Michigan. If you shot a deer and it ran off and you wanted it you better get on the track or someone else will get it.
Hurts to lose one but this one might be lost to you, but not the landowner. He probably had deer steaks for dinner. LOL
Very seldom will a deer go to waste, just to an end we would rather not chose.
Still got a tag so get back out there and hunt.

[Drphilwv]

I double lunged a buck a few years ago. Huge blood trail until it crossed a creek, then a few drops then nothing. Got into a swamp and I never found him. Couldn't believe it could walk with half its blood outside its body (lung blood like yours). I've made worse shots what were DRT. Anyway, I'm hunting for the first time ever with CB's today in a 30-06. Looking forward to seeing how they perform. Planning a shoulder-shatter shot.

[pilot]

I shot a little dinky doe last year with my 30-06 and 311041 boolits end to end. It left a channel about two inches in diameter all the way through. I would have no problem aiming for a lung pass through shot and I'd be confident it wouldn't go very far.

[dnepr]

way back in the 80s I was hunting with friends, my friend shot a buck the dressed out at 220#, none of us could believe the size of its neck. It also had a huge lump on one side of its neck as well. Once he got the animal butchered he found that the deer had been shot in the neck at some point with a 54 cal. Maxi ball, the deer had survived and thrived afterwards. So who knows maybe that deer will survive anotyer day.

Yup I lost a doe once shot her face on with a 54 cal minne ball . 2 weeks later the father of the friend that was letting me hunt on his property shot the same doe . My friend called me out to help them process the deer , when I got there he handed me back my my Minnie ball , well mushroomed with a sharp angled notch grooved down the side . It was found just under the skin beside the ribs , for years after we tried to figure out what happened . We came up with a few plausible explanations but nothing I ever thought was a definitive explanation . this one seemed fine 2 weeks later by all accounts .

[Duckdog]

They can go a long ways once the adrenalin starts pumpin'. Downright amazing sometimes! Lonegun hit it on the head. I have dogs and post my land, and would have the same issues and concerns he referred to. But, with that being said, I have always let someone recover game if they do ask.

[schreibwy]

Prolly had a third lung. We found scars in both lungs a mushroomed 30 call bullet against the rib cage and a shattered rib on the other side. Everthing had healed nicely. It was also barely edible.


:kidding:
Years ago I took a three legged buck

[M-Tecs]

Until last year I would have called BS on a double lung BUT last year I double lunged a doe with a 45 cal. barnes original 300 grain at 2100 fps. exit hole was 2" dia. and I could see half way through her chest. She went 800 or 900 yards. Can't explain it and I would not have believed it if I had not seen it.

[RogerDat]

You can't determine how responsible or willing to do the right thing the land owner is going to be, you only get to determine how you will handle the situation. Your decision to respect the trespass laws despite it being hard to do speaks well of your character.

If asked by a hunter to track a wounded animal across your property I think the only reasonable response is to allow it. However I can easily see reasons that the land owner might place some restrictions or want to accompany you. For example not allowing another shot unless the animal is down due to having livestock that could be hit by a missed shot at an upright deer, or just to insure gates are latched, dogs are kept in line, or even to confirm that the blood trail starts off of their property.

Bottom line You did not choose to possibly let a wounded animal suffer, or waste the meat. The Landowner did.

[reloader28]

Everyone loses one sooner or later.

Around here the owner doesn't have to let you on the property for a recovery even if you have the game warden with you.
BUT, he will nail the land owner with a hefty fine for wasting if they dont.

[w5pv]

I have lost 2 deer,one was when it was legal to hunt with dogs.I shot this little 6 pointer he went down and another ran out causing me to think I had missed the one I killed so I didn't even go look as the dogs and other deer went on through the woods.I found the deer the next weekend of hunting.The other was gutted and hung up/on a cedar tree but when I went to get it was gone,big cat or maybe some wet backs that came through the lease pretty often got the deer.

[44man]

When you hunt enough you will lose deer, they are a lot tougher then you think. I hate anyone that says deer are easy to kill. I have lost too many. Good hits too. Put a 7-08 through a deers lungs and found lung tissue on a tree she ran past, never found her after half a day tracking, stopped bleeding and tracks went into trails with thousands of tracks. You must get over it. I shot an arrow through a deer once and seen her feeding the next day in the field with dried blood all over her side.
We have an agreement here. Although I can hunt all my neighbors properties without asking, some neighbors do not hunt here like I do but I told them if they hit a deer and it comes on my property, PLEASE come and find it. I can go on theirs too to get mine.
I hunt a ladies down the road and am the only one allowed but can bring my friends. The guy behind is not allowed to hunt there but can recover a deer and I can go on his land for any.
The very worst thing is to find a dead deer on my land or a neighbors.
Long ago a guy way on the other side would not let any neighbor recover a deer. I had it out with him at the association meeting. The old bastard died and we don't miss him.
If you live next to me and come on my property to find a deer I will help you even if I don't allow you to hunt here. That reason is I can't hunt on their property but it does not extend to finding a deer. I will do all I can to recover a deer for the guy.
I am a hunter and if a deer came to me and died, I would gut it and wait for the guy to come get it or I would go find him. I do not ever need his deer and hate to hurt a fellow hunter.
I give many deer away, don't ever steal it, just ask me and I will give it to you.
I shot archery deer in PA and had to tie a string on a leg, under leaves to a pile of dishes, spoons and forks in the tent. You will not believe the times they crashed with foot steps running away.
How many deer were stolen from camps. We still have those all over the woods.
Kill a deer near me, I will stop and help drag it out. Those guys will never forget me and the friends I made are more important. I have met the greatest people in the world while hunting and the worst.
This season I shot a big doe with my revolver, then a big 8 point. My friend looked at the buck, I said "take it home." I tagged it for him and gave him a note.
I am one of you, please join me with pride. I love you guys.
I wish you knew me better and how much work I do to make you shoot better and kill better but I still have enemies.

[jhalcott]

A long time ago I helped a friend find a deer he shot opening day. He followed/pushed it across his farm and onto the one I was hunting. The trail ended at a stream. I got my dog and followed the trail another quarter mile. Right back to within feet of where he hit it that morning! It was dead when we found it. The 12 gauge slug had went thru the bottom of ONE lung and out the bottom of the rib cage on the off side. A high angle shot as he was in a tree stand and the deer was only about 20 yards away! The stream banks had LOTS of deer tracks around and SOME had picked up blood. THAT'S when I got the dog!

[DonMountain]

Although personally disheartened when wounding and loosing a deer after a long time tracking, I think back to the real reason I am out here hunting deer in the first place. There are too many of them and they are taking off too many soy beans in the summer from my fields and crashing too many cars around the area. So, if I shoot 6 or 8 each year and loose a couple more it will help reduce the groups of 30 or 40 of them I don't need in my soy bean fields. We all loose deer when shooting them across really long ranges, or through the woods and hitting limbs of trees. It just happens. If we want to make sure we kill them all we would have to all use a 50 BMG with a high powered scope and shoot them all at close range. In the head. Otherwise you take a chance of a smaller caliber bullet deflecting off a rib and not doing any damage.

[abearir]

It's a bad feeling, but coyotes gotta eat too.

Yup, OP did what he was supposed to do. Good shot, good placement far from the fence.

Sometimes stuff just happens. Don't beat yourself up over it. Nothing more could have been done.

[jhalcott]

ONE deer I lost was due to a "poacher" . My deer fell down a cliff and landed at his feet. He lost no time dragging it to his car and leaving the place. I took my time getting out of my stand and walking to the spot where the deer stood. I saw the vehicle leaving! THAT "loss" really P.Oed me!

[44man]

ONE deer I lost was due to a "poacher" . My deer fell down a cliff and landed at his feet. He lost no time dragging it to his car and leaving the place. I took my time getting out of my stand and walking to the spot where the deer stood. I saw the vehicle leaving! THAT "loss" really P.Oed me!
My big gripe too. To steal a mans deer has to be the lowest of the low. I have a friend that I load for, he will only use Nosler ballistic Tips and ruins much meat but he does not want a deer to run. Too many that will steal it. He hunts PA and MI. Woods full of orange coats.
Why some are like that I don't know. Ethics go out the window. Seems the ranks of hunters are full of greed. I have a million stories. I have seen it all.

[2shot]

My son shot a doe years back on public land and we followed the blood trail to a guy gutting out the doe and had already put the leg tag on it. When confronted the guy said he shot the doe but we heard no other than my sons shot. My son was 9 years old and this was the first deer he had taken and wasn't going to be denied. When the guy got done gutting the deer my son walked over and said to the guy, "thanks for gutting my deer" and proceeded to cut the guys leg tag off and put his own tag on the doe. The guy said what the "F" and my son just looked at him and said "your a thief, go steal someone else's deer, your not getting mine".

For a while I thought there was going to be a gun fight between us and the other guy but he just walked away swearing. My son said "serves him right, now his tag in no good and he can't hunt here any more this season"

Sorry for highjacking the thread but I just had to tell this story. At age 9 my son showed he had big cajones.


2shot

[44man]

Your boy can hunt with me any time. That is the best story ever. Give him a hug from me.
You raised him right so you deserve credit too.

[TXGunNut]

It's a bummer losing a deer, it happens to the best of us. I've had to track more than a few for myself and others and every now and then I lose one. It makes me work harder on shot placement, boolit design and construction and of course, tracking. I tracked an incredibly tough buck this past weekend for over two hours under very rough conditions. I was lucky but I also worked very hard for that deer.

[2shot]

Your boy can hunt with me any time. That is the best story ever. Give him a hug from me.
You raised him right so you deserve credit too.


Thanks 44man. He graduates in May with his PhD in Chemistry, still hunts when he can brake away from his research but now with handgun or bow and has become one heck of a hunter/woodsman.

Back to the original thread. I have lost a few deer too over the last 50 years of deer hunting. One I remember was a deer shot from my treestand as it walked underneath me. Shot at about 6 feet wit a 41 Mag handgun and Federal cast Core 250 grainers. Hair all over the place laying on the snow but no blood trail. I was trying to hit the backbone but missed (at 6 feet, holy **** what a bad shot I can be) and one lunged the deer. Never found it after tracking hove prints over a mile and then it got on a deer trail that mixed it's prints with other deer. Never a drop of blood. Felt terrible but it happens. Did the same shot another year previous to this from the same tree stand with a 38 snubbie and 200 grain RN with a hardness of ~ 8 and the same shot placement dropped the deer DRT.

Sometime there is no rhyme or reason why things happen but they do. Like TXGunNut says just work harder with shot placement so that it lessens the likelihood of happening again. I learned to shoot bone from then on with a handgun and it has helped shorten the trails of deer I shoot tremendously.


2shot

[44man]

It's a bummer losing a deer, it happens to the best of us. I've had to track more than a few for myself and others and every now and then I lose one. It makes me work harder on shot placement, boolit design and construction and of course, tracking. I tracked an incredibly tough buck this past weekend for over two hours under very rough conditions. I was lucky but I also worked very hard for that deer.
You don't give up and have my respect. NEVER stop looking if you made a shot until hopeless. It darn sure happens when there is nothing to follow.
Some EXPERTS have stated they will find a deer by tracking it alone. Come here with 1000 tracks in trails. No blood, no deer. I can't go 10 yards in any direction without deer sign, need an EXPERT tracker that can follow a broken blade of grass or a stick.

[Thumbcocker]

A local guy has a bloodhound and will come and track with the dog. His fees are reasonable.

[44man]

What differentiates us is to never give up but we will lose some, OK, you did your best. don't get out of sorts. It happens but only you know the effort put in. A good man will admit defeat.

[aspangler]

Thanks guys. I haven't been back since that morning but plan on going back this Saturday. Maybe the BIG buck will walk out in front of me. If he do, the 8MM Mauser with 180 grain ballistic tips at 2700 FPS will be hitting. It might destroy some meat but I'll take the shoulder shot from now on.

[Lonegun1894]

I hope you get one this weekend. Best of luck. In fact, I have to work, so get it for us both, and anyone else here who can't get out this weekend. No pressure though. :)

[reloader28]

If you can hit the shoulder, you can hit the neck.
That ruins no meat and is an instadrop. They dont even twitch. Just fold up.
Try it once and you'll be addicted.

[waksupi]

If you can hit the shoulder, you can hit the neck.
That ruins no meat and is an instadrop. They dont even twitch. Just fold up.
Try it once and you'll be addicted.

I had a friend shoot a bull elk in the neck with a .50 cal ML at 40 yards. It got back up, and he shot it in the neck again. Both balls hit and were on either side of the same vertebra, and neither fractured the bone. A shot in the lungs would have killed it.

[44man]

I had a friend shoot a bull elk in the neck with a .50 cal ML at 40 yards. It got back up, and he shot it in the neck again. Both balls hit and were on either side of the same vertebra, and neither fractured the bone. A shot in the lungs would have killed it.
Finally some truth, the spine is a small target like the brain. The spinal cord itself is very small. Hit low and take the airway, the animal can still breath as can removing the tube to the stomach, starvation with a slow death. Hit high and get bone and muscle. Shock but no instant death either. Bust both lungs.

[bassnbuck]

Back in the 70s a Friends 12 year old son on his first deer hunt shot a buck that dropped right there. Exited, he ran up and put his tag on it. Then he went to get dad. When they got back the buck had run off. They tracked it aways till they heard a shot. The boy ran up to find a hunter about to gut the deer. The boy was hollerin, that is my deer, that is my deer. The other guy says what do you mean its your deer, I just shot it. The boy says it has my tag on it. The guy says well if you can tag em before I can shoot em , you can have him. A true story with a little humor.

[CraigC]

If you can hit the shoulder, you can hit the neck.
That ruins no meat and is an instadrop. They dont even twitch. Just fold up.
Try it once and you'll be addicted.
If you miss the shoulder, you still get the heart/lungs. Miss the spine on a neck-shot and the critter is in the next zip code. Neck shots are great if they're perfect.

[44man]

If you miss the shoulder, you still get the heart/lungs. Miss the spine on a neck-shot and the critter is in the next zip code. Neck shots are great if they're perfect.
Holy smokes Craig, good to see you and to agree just blows me away.