Good grief!! Tough lil bastage!!

You ain't kidding.. amazing at what they can live through.

Just depends on where you hit 'em.......Just like with the one in the picture back-whacks are rarely fatal/recoverable......

It funny how deceiving these pictures can be sometimes…..This one was hit nearly in the same place (top wound) and it doesn’t look bad at all….. but he was crippled up and couldn’t move right anymore. A bullet fragment must have got him in the spine or something

I found a deer for a buddy of mine last season. 7mm08 - hard quartering away shot. Only 1 lung damaged. 1.5 hours after the shot I found it, head still up. Got close and it jumped up and took 3 or 4 bounds and went back down. Maneuvered into position for a 20yd coup de grace and the job was finished.

It struck a nerve with my friend. While we were dragging, he mentioned how much that buck had suffered for that hour and a half. Moral of the story, my pal learned the importance of waiting for a better broadside shot.

Bad shots will be made and I've made some myself. These days when I take a shot I only take it when it's perfect or I let him walk. Just not serious enough to just sling and hope. I know I wouldn't want to be laying in the woods suffering for hrs. I still understand buck fever though!

Coyotes have become a PIA here lately……Its just anecdotal but it seems like they’re much more of a factor when trying to “give a deer some time” than they used to be…….I figure they’re probably making nightly runs by everyone’s feeder now and why they get on the wounded ones so quick sometimes.

CNC,,, I had to spine one years back only shot I had. I hit just a little low , he dropped in his tracks . About tens minutes later he got up running . I hit him two times and went to where he was .

Looking at his back the first shot separated the spine a little. There was clearly a hump in his back where part of his spine was higher that behind the shot. One of the damnest thing I ever saw . Once that adrenaline gets to flowing and shock set in they don't feel nothing . Why they run so far some times .

CNC. I used up a place that had Cyprus roots like that . I hated trying to deer through them after dark with no flashlight . Talk about a pain in the butt

That ain't north of the dog track is it ? Lol

No, that was down in Pike Co……..

That deer tried to hide from us in those cypress knees. He came running right by me and the hunter all messed up looking when he jumped…..I called the dog off as he came by so the hunter could finish him when he stopped. He missed him a couple times and the deer took off again just out of sight…..The way he looked we figured we’d just walk up a little ways and get another shot so I held the dog back……Well when we got up to where we thought he should be….nothing……..I start scanning around and that’s when I see him about 20 yards away laying right there in those knees with his head pinned to the ground letting us walk by him.

I don't take any shot except broadside anymore. Even if you are a little high, low, left or right your still gonna hit some vitals. Quartering shots have ended up with a lot of lost and wounded deer.

There’s a few different reasons why bad shots happen….A lot of them come from folks who aim for the point of the shoulder and miss high or low……Those are your leg, brisket, and high shoulder hits and they make up a high percentage of the “calls”….I’ve thought about this and I’m pretty sure the statement would hold true that if everyone would aim behind the shoulder as their default setting rather than at the shoulder……there would be fewer wounded deer that needed searching for........and probably by a good bit……There’s just way more room for error......I dont think we're going to have to worry about that though because a lot of folks are dead set on aiming at the shoulder......

Cause they’re convinced that means an immediate dropped deer. Relying on a central nervous system impact when there’s WAY more area of lungs behind the shoulder just doesn’t seem like good decision making to me.

I'll take a bad angle shot in a heart beat , just gotta have bullet /gun that can do it .

What i try to do is picture the deer from above and decide where to aim . Worked out pretty good so far you do it wrong easy to just break a leg or go between the shoulder and ribs or just graze them . You get a lot of blood but no deer. Shooting hard up and or hard down you gotta watch where you aim

Crappieman, Sasquatch Lives, and MBrock gets it... yeah, a 458 WM will get it done with more room for error. But I'm not going to shoot a RPG at 150lb southern whitetail. Have at it if that's your thing... no sweat from me over it. I'll just wait for a broadside shot.

i agree i always tell guys shot what ever you shot best . 308 , 270 do just fine . as for the 150lb (on the hoof) white tail thats really small . they can get a lot bigger than that , alabama can grow some niceuns if they get to grow .


and i for sure aint telling no body how they should shot a deer . over the years i heard guys say they had to let the biggest deer they ever seen walk because he never turned broadside . i just say thats how it is some times . i just look at it a lot different . i look at a once in a life time just like it will be and most times it is .


i aint shooting a big buck for his tasty meat no way i dont worry about blowing up a little extra of him . does i lung shoot , theres about 16qt's of home made soup in those two front shoulders . lol

guys y'all don't take what im typing the wrong way im in no way saying my way is better . im just stating what i do . i look at broad side as easy , best shot = a dead deer .

So true.

Aiming at the point of the shoulder results in this…… over and over and over and over and over……

It's not rocket science. Behind the shoulder with a good bullet ( I prefer a nosler partition or accubond.) 270 or other normal caliber and you'll get your deer almost always. You don't need a cannon for any whitetail deer.