Injured Deer, Black eye

[Irascible]

I kind of hate to post this one. I was up 18' in a tree stand with my 12" Encore in 454 Casull. All sighted in with my own design from Mountain Moulds a 310gr,bore rideing RN FP with a 64% meplat cast of 50/50 WW/lead over 30.5gr of 296 with a Win SR mag primer. It's very accurate. Anyway, I sighted it in with bare hands. 2 hours into my watch a 6 pointer came loping by about 30' away. I Put up the gun held on the shoulder and pulled the trigger. Yipes, with the gloves on (Glomitts) the gun slid/spun in my hand, and the scope whacked me under the left eye. Luckily, I had my face mask on and didn't get cut, but got a heck of a black eye. Now for the worst part. The shot, of course, was thrown off and I hit the buck low. It took off running hard. I waited a while then followed the blood trail. Where ever it stopped to watch it's back trail there was a puddle, but when it was traveling the spots were few and finally ran out. I did catch a glimpse of it walking sneakily away, but I couldn't shoot. I looked for 2 hours, then reaching a dead end, went for lunch. Later a friend went with me and we spent another 2 hours, before finally giving up. I hate things like that to happen.
The moral of this whole story is, sight your gun in the way you are going to shoot it. Gloves on if you are going to wear them, from a tree stand, over cross sticks, or however you are going to hunt.

[x101airborne]

I am sorry for your misfortune.
Good advice, though.
Hopefully the deer will recover. More do than we think.

[**oneshot**]

I missed one for the same reason. I now take my glove off to shoot. Unfortunate that you hit it but it can and will happen.

[smokeywolf]

Thank you for letting us learn from your mistake. Very valuable information.

smokeywolf

[1845greyhounds]

That sucks. Some times that happens. I had a similar issue with a poorly him deer yesterday. Long story short, my shot was low on a quartering away doe. So low that it just touched the deer's sternum without entering the chest cavity. What it did do was destroy the off-side front leg. I tracked the deer for several hundred yards. Blood spots, bone bits, then a fair amount of blood, then none, then pin drop spots, then none but on a trail into bedding cover. 50 yards past the last bit of sign and I found the deer too weak to run. 3 hours + 1 more shot and I was relieved. I hate shots like that.

[kbstenberg]

look on the brite side! You didn't fall out of the tree!

[WaywardSon]

If you hunt long enough and shoot enough deer, there are going to be times when things don't go right...and what you think you saw might not be what happened. I try to shoot for the heart/lung area, and it has been my experience that even with good shot placement most deer are going to try and run somewhere. They might not make it far, but a deer doesn't have to live very long to cover 100 yds. or more...and in heavy cover that can lead to problems.

I killed two deer with my Ruger SBH last weekend...and both illustrate what I am saying in different ways. The first was a buck that had a single spike about 12"-14" inches long. He didn't look really young so I assumed he had poor genes and decided to take him. Broadside at about 40 yds., he dropped at the shot and never moved again. I stayed put as the does he was with never really left...one of them was watching me like a hawk, but kept getting closer and about 10 minutes after I shot the buck, I shot her straight on in the chest at about 30 yds. She took off running hard...went down after about 30 yds., then up again running into some pretty thick cover where I thought I saw her go down.

Now the fun is over and the work starts. I walk over to the buck & guess what? He's not dead. My shot had gone high in the shoulder and taken out the spine. Seeing an injured deer struggle trying to get away is a sickening feeling for me. I quickly put him out of his misery & field dressed him. On to the doe...plenty of blood from where she was standing for about 50-60 yds. and then none. No deer either. Found her after a few minutes not too far from the last sign...it is amazing how well they blend in their surroundings. If it hadn't been for a friend who heard me shoot, I might have had to get that doe out in pieces...it is uncanny how they always seem to find the lowest spot on the farm to die[smilie=b:

[292]

Everybody that hunts have had similar experiences, I know I have. I'm still trying to take my first deer with a handgun and or boolits.

[kbstenberg]

Waywardson I made a 270 degree circle the size of a 20y by 20y area looking for blood from where I had last seen the deer. Never seeing anything. He gets up from the center of my circle and tries to run away.

[TXGunNut]

Shot my first cast boolit deer last year, almost straight on but the the RD boolit travelled just over her heart and thru one lung, left a bit of lung and rib on the ground where I shot her. Here's the wierd part, she travelled only 50 yards but it took over 2 hours to find her! She went into thick brush 25 yds w/ a decent blood trail in a straight line and the trail abrubtly stopped. We circled the last spot several times but the circle was only 10-15 yds, then searched about 45 degrees either side of her initial heading for over 100 yds. Did I mention I shot this deer just before dark? Thank goodness for good flashlights! Turns out she took a hard left of almost 90 degrees, stopped bleeding and piled up 25 yards later under a bush. I've never had a deer turn like that after if started running, guess I learned something that night.
It was a warm night and coyotes and hogs are always a factor so waiting til morning to find a downed deer isn't an option.

[WaywardSon]

Waywardson I made a 270 degree circle the size of a 20y by 20y area looking for blood from where I had last seen the deer. Never seeing anything. He gets up from the center of my circle and tries to run away.

Yeah, well...they will do that:-) The experience I had with the buck the other day was not my first time. Several years ago I shot a deer from a tree stand right before dusk. He went down at the shot like a sack of rocks. After just a few minutes I decided to get down and get to field-dressing as it was almost dark. As I was lowering my gun to the ground that sucker jumped up and ran off! Luckily, he walked right up to a friend of mine in a stand a couple of hundred yards away & my buddy killed him. Turned out that my shot had hit him in the neck but had not cut the spinal cord...just stunned him or knocked him out. I was just glad he didn't get away wounded. Never was a fan of neck shots & that experience certainly did nothing to change my mind.