Number of shots to down a deer

[Lloyd Smale]

I’ve never killed a deer with a Dodge. But I’ve gotten several with a Chevy, Ford, Olds and Jeep. Some were DRT. Some ran off. I have never tried for a second shoot at those. I remember the Olds and Jeep were pretty deadly. No problem this year, deer really disappeared. But turkeys are another story, lots!

we hit one with my chev one night on the way back from crop damage shooting with 3 in the back. Hit squarely and it went flying in the ditch on it side. No way i thought that deer was alive. Almost didnt bother because i figured if we did drag it home there would be no meat left anyway. buddy and i both hopped out of the truck and like dumb you know whats didnt bring a gun. We walked up to the deer and it hopped up and took off in the woods. Figured it might make a couple yards and pile up. Went back and we both got lights and guns and went in where it did. We found one drop of blood and being bullheaded spent 2 hours looking for that deer and never even found another scuffed track. Im sure that deer must have died but i know it made at least 200 yards in the woods because we searched every square in of that area. If it lived id bet it sure would have liked some oxycodone for a couple days. Bent my bumper and busted my grill and took out the headlight. Then i get to tell my deliverance story again. I was heading to dad and mas which is about 50 miles from here. Theres a scenic way to get there along a big lake. Came around the corner and there was a man and women in there 60s with a sport utility with AZ plates standing in the road. There vehicle was off the road at a strange angle. Figured they got in a wreck and stopped. When we got out the women was crying. I ask her if she was ok and she said "im fine but that deer is hurt bad" I looked in the ditch and there was a medium sized doe kicking. She said we dont know what to do. so Lloyd goes in the truck and grabs my glock 23 and walked up to it and put a bullet in its head. They both absolutely freaked. I seriously think they thought i was going to call a vet. I drug the deer out of the ditch to the side of the road and took out my knife and started gutting it. My wife was even shaking her head by now. the couple was absolutley freaking out. I gutted it and cut the two hind quarters off and cut the hide so i could get the back straps and i asked them if they wanted some meat. They both ran to there yuppy car and took off like a scalded rabbit. took the meat to dads and gave it to him. They must have though they were in a deliverance movie. They didnt realize that 75 percent of the people up here have hit deer at one time or another and most more then one. My wife still tells people that story.

[todd9.3x57]

i hit two doe at the same time. killed one outright, i had to slit the throat(had to put the knife into the doe's neck and slice outwards) of the doe. my '84 escort was finished.

[pls1911]

What? More than one?
perhaps my grandad is responsible, as we couldn't hunt the next year if we needed more than one shot.
We were sent out with single shot rifles and given two rounds.... with the expectation of returning one live round, one empty shell and one deer.

The training was one of marksmanship and discipline.
If you can't make the shot FOR SURE, you need to wear your big boy pants and PASS IT UP.

[white eagle]

At least 2, 30 round clips
they are tough

[Bigbore5]

I hunt thick brush in bottoms and funnels so s second shot usually just doesn't happen. Been exclusively a handgun hunter for 20 years now and usually use a 357 mag or max blackhawk for deer. I've only had one shot through both lungs go over 50yds before even though I use solid swc cast bullets exclusively. That one was shot through the bottom of the lungs with an RCBS 38-150kt. It had to bleed out internally instead of the lungs filling with blood. Even so I found it dead in about 100yds.

[Grayone]

we hit one with my chev one night on the way back from crop damage shooting with 3 in the back. Hit squarely and it went flying in the ditch on it side. No way i thought that deer was alive. Almost didnt bother because i figured if we did drag it home there would be no meat left anyway. buddy and i both hopped out of the truck and like dumb you know whats didnt bring a gun. We walked up to the deer and it hopped up and took off in the woods. Figured it might make a couple yards and pile up. Went back and we both got lights and guns and went in where it did. We found one drop of blood and being bullheaded spent 2 hours looking for that deer and never even found another scuffed track. Im sure that deer must have died but i know it made at least 200 yards in the woods because we searched every square in of that area. If it lived id bet it sure would have liked some oxycodone for a couple days. Bent my bumper and busted my grill and took out the headlight. Then i get to tell my deliverance story again. I was heading to dad and mas which is about 50 miles from here. Theres a scenic way to get there along a big lake. Came around the corner and there was a man and women in there 60s with a sport utility with AZ plates standing in the road. There vehicle was off the road at a strange angle. Figured they got in a wreck and stopped. When we got out the women was crying. I ask her if she was ok and she said "im fine but that deer is hurt bad" I looked in the ditch and there was a medium sized doe kicking. She said we dont know what to do. so Lloyd goes in the truck and grabs my glock 23 and walked up to it and put a bullet in its head. They both absolutely freaked. I seriously think they thought i was going to call a vet. I drug the deer out of the ditch to the side of the road and took out my knife and started gutting it. My wife was even shaking her head by now. the couple was absolutley freaking out. I gutted it and cut the two hind quarters off and cut the hide so i could get the back straps and i asked them if they wanted some meat. They both ran to there yuppy car and took off like a scalded rabbit. took the meat to dads and gave it to him. They must have though they were in a deliverance movie. They didnt realize that 75 percent of the people up here have hit deer at one time or another and most more then one. My wife still tells people that story.

Too bad you didn't have the soundtrack from 'Deliverance' to play for them that would have really set the scene off. I can hear the banjo music now, LOL!

[TurnipEaterDown]

At least the thread seems steered to an area of humor rather than an '...oh no, the thread that will not die (unlike the deer)...' area.

I remember one deer I hit w/ my 95 F150 on a Freeway entrance ramp (btw: my theory is to exit the ramp > speed limit, as brakes work better than accelerator for merging...).
Hit the deer on front corner, sent the bugger spinning off onto embankment. Popped up, ran off.

I shot a deer during season once. 44 R SBH, but beside the point. It croaked (1 shot), so gutted, skinned & processed. Rear quarter large bone had a large bumpy mass indicative of fracture which wasn't a clean break, and vascular structure around the site that was very much enlarged and prolific. No tumor, so not likely cancer. Indications to me of severe blunt trauma, like car hit. That deer healed up and then met its demise via our clean up method.

More stories:
I watched a buck on a bait pile one year (I only had a doe permit) breathing out it's neck. My uncle shot same description buck year before in neck w/ an 06. I really think it was same deer (if someone wants apology for not having tracking GPS or DNA kit, you have it) that effectively had a backyard tracheotomy. Sort of turned me off the '...shoot at neck and clean miss or die...' argument.

Non deer: Cue Deliverance music per Lloyd, friends and I were in WY shooting PDs years ago. It was well over 100 °F in the sun for days (tent sleeping), and my friends said I was acting goofy at times. We were 63 miles from town, and one day some people with out of state plates drive up and start asking directions. My friend swears I was pointing at the map with the muzzle of my Ruger SBH, I swear I wasn't. We do agree on the outcome: these people ended up looking at me somewhat sideways, and then they just drove off. Good story though, when you get the full 10 minute run down.

[Beaverhunter2]

I've never shot a deer more than once.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I usually hit the heart or pretty close to it, but I’ll hit them a second time if the opportunity presents itself (not often) and they are still lucid. No reason to make them suffer or make the tracking job longer than it needs to be. Might lose a little meat, but the brush is thick once you get out of the hayfield I hunt and I’d hate to lose one.

[GLynn41]

For me over the last 40 years or so-- I have notice several things--one shot is the norm,,,,isfyou put the one shot in the right place ...deer may run a bit -- heart shot a bit more--
With cast lead boolits-- and big bores .54 down to .41 -Mz loaders and handguns- reaction were similar,, the deer was not as impressed it seemed with I shot them with as I was.. . cast WLN has worked well.. the two cast hp I used were no better than the WLN but it was only two-- I still think cup points and hp should do better. but ...
still one shot was the norm

[BadgerShooter]

An old friend of mine since passed, in his youth worked at a meat locker in Colorado. He talked to everyone he could who brought in game to find out caliber, bullet, range and number of shots.
Everyone killed with the first shot and there wasn't one under 400 yards. Amazing!!

[35 Rem]

An old friend of mine since passed, in his youth worked at a meat locker in Colorado. He talked to everyone he could who brought in game to find out caliber, bullet, range and number of shots.
Everyone killed with the first shot and there wasn't one under 400 yards. Amazing!!

Ain't it amazing how that works? Nobody ever misses a shot either when telling a story and all their rifles shoot 1/4 MOA without exception.

[Winger Ed.]

Everyone killed with the first shot and there wasn't one under 400 yards. Amazing!!

That's no big deal.
I've met guys that have tagged a couple that ended up being shot over the curvature of the earth while running between trees.

[GLynn41]

while I like a25.06--- i met a guy whose 25 shot and hit at 4-500 yards by holding dead on no hold over-- I told him he did not have 25.06 he had a lazer

[Murphy]

I've never shot a deer more than once.

Shoot em' good, and one shot is all you need.

Murphy

[Fernando]

Depending in how cold and late in the day they come out I usually have 2 or 3 shots or maybe a beer or 2

[BadgerShooter]

The vast majority of deer I have shot have dropped where i shot them, but I guess I don't live in that perfect world where everything always works out and I never need another shot. Adrenalized deer can absorb an amazing amount of punishment and go hundreds of yards with very lethal damage. In my area, that can put a deer on someone else's property and then the fun begins. If a deer doesn't drop at the shot, you can be sure I am sending more to make sure it does not get to a property line.

[farmerjim]

Every deer I have shot with a rifle were DRT ( DEAD RIGHT THERE) tHE 2 That I shot in my back field with 12 ga 00 buck at less than 50 yds took a slug to the head to kill. The other one I ran out of ammo shooting at the deer with his spine cut by one shot. He could move only with his front legs. I had to go get my hunting partner to come and shoot it.
I tried patterning my shotgun and the buckshot was all over the place.
I no longer use buckshot.
I shot an 8 point at the same place with my crossbow. I saw the bolt hit him right in the chest. We followed the blood trail for 400 yds. Next morning we followed it for another 100 yds with no deer. The next season I was getting my food plot ready and looked down and saw something orange in the grass. I picked it up and it was the bolt that hit the deer. The mechanical broad head had not opened. It only punched a small hole and the deer got away. I will never use a mechanical point again. A fixed one only shoots 1 in lower at 50 yds.

[megasupermagnum]

I tried patterning my shotgun and the buckshot was all over the place.
I no longer use buckshot.

You never patterned your gun, and it's the buckshots fault!? I sure hope you at least sight in your rifles.

[pls1911]

One.... Only one shot
Hunt with a single shot...
Shoulder placement or pass...
Life can be simple.