Had a really bad day stalking today

[njc110381]

Hey guys. I'm on a real downer today. I had the day off of work so decided to head off to my favourite patch to relax and maybe shoot a couple of deer. I had a lovely morning, didn't see anything but it was a nice walk about so I was pretty content when I got back to the truck. As I was going to leave I happened to bump into the estate manager who gave me a heads up about a couple of munties that he'd seen most days for the last week, so I thought I'd head off to that area to see if they were about.

 

There were no munties but I did spot a group of roe. I watched them for a good few minutes and decided on the one I would take. Stalked in to 50 yards as the ground was very favourable and the wind was good. I got down prone, settled myself and with no rush what so ever I squeezed off the shot. The deer made the usual good reaction, a leap in the air and then bowled over and rolled down a bank. Before I could assess the situation she was up again and legged it into cover. Hey ho, no bother I thought - a shot at 50 yards from prone is bound to be bang on so I left it a couple of minutes and went in to pick up the carcass. When I got to the shot site though all was not well. There was a load of loose fur where she had bowled over and the bullet splash in the bank behind, but no blood?! I found some small (under 5mm round) clumps of fur with meat attached but that's it - nothing! The reaction wasn't that of a gut shot and of course there was no green to give that away, in fact the way she ran off you'd think I'd missed but I clearly didn't.

 

I spent an hour on foot searching the surrounding area but with no blood, a fair amount of rain and lots of leaves falling that was pretty hopeless. I then spent another hour with the manager driving around on the Gator to cover a wider area but nothing - she'd gone without a trace.

 

I've shot a lot of deer but this is only the second loss I've had and todays was no easier than the first. I feel awful and after going over and over the moments before the shot in my head I just don't know what went wrong? I was relaxed, the deer was relaxed, the shot wasn't rushed and I had a good steady rest. There's the slightest of chances the bullet could have hit a twig but the area I shot her in was relatively open so not a cause for concern.

 

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here. Some words of reassurance from those of you who shoot a lot of deer and have been in the same position perhaps. Not that it will help the deer but I'm really down. I hate losing quarry no matter what it is but when it's a deer it really hurts. I just hope it's a minor flesh wound. At least as I was aiming for a heart/lung shot I can be confident I haven't jawed it. I'm hoping I've just skimmed the belly or back of her leg and she'll recover but whether that's a realistic expectation I don't know. The deer are pretty regular there and the manager is going to keep an eye out for her - hopefully she'll show up and will either be looking ok or he can call me/shoot her with his shotgun depending on what condition she's in.

[Beretta28g]

Do you know anyone with a dog?

 

Its never nice loosing one, What caliber was it BTW?

[njc110381]

Don't know anyone who could have got there in a reasonable time.

 

Calibre was 7x57R using 140gr round nose soft points. I've shot loads of roe with them and it's rare to get one run more than twenty yards. Most just fall over!

[Beretta28g]

May i suggest something?

Check your zero on the rifle, if its ok i would think the deer has to be dead. a 7x57 is a pokey little round, i would think its impossible for a deer to survive a chest shot from one of them.

 

Maybe another look tomorrow, it may have stiffened up overnight and died.

[njc110381]

I'll go up again tomorrow with a load of ammo and test fire it before I go searching. There's no doubt about it if I'd hit it well it would be knackered. The pluck is usually like soup.

[Beretta28g]

Good luck, let us know how you get on

[wickedwickedmotox]

I often get this with close range foxes, bullets do notb get a chance to expand and pass straight through, if you didnt clip the top of the heart and only hit the lungs it will make it a fair old distance.

I shot a roe buck in the summer at about 80yrds lung shot he ran up a hill about 100yrds then turned round made it back 300yrds before expiring.

Start your search from shot sight circling out to fall site to last sighting semi circling and and expanding your semi cicrle larger and larger. Thay will run for the thickest cover in the vicinty and lay up Roe are masters of disguise even when dead so double check! Its happend to me and i hated it, unfortunatly its a part of our game and like me its nice to see you care! good luck you will find her!

[Redgum]

Its going to happen sometime, sounds like you hit the front upper leg or shoulder, could live a few days like that and move along way, it could even survive. You have to let it go mentally as you had the decency to do the right thing looking for it, what more could you do. Last week a mate was out shooting on his nice new patch and very eager to make a good impression. He's already had some nice Roe bucks earlier in the season and was hoping for a nice fallow buck. Well one presented itself 50yds in front of him, he bowled it over but it was back up and off, long and short of the story was,even after going back several times ( hours drive ), and with a dog, the deer was never found. I've only had one deer give me a bit of worry, a fallow doe in woodland. She went down but was up to join the rest of the fleeing herd as they vanished into heavy cover. Luckily the blood trail looked like someone had been pouring paint down on the ground but even when I was almost on her I had no visual contact. Luckily she was stone dead, run 50yds with no heart but luckily the 308 makes a nice exit hole.

 

Ps, if your ever in need of the services of a good dog I'm only half an hour down the road.

[matone]

My guess is also that it`s dead somewhere.I once shot a doe broadside on similarly (243 100gr), thought that I only had to go and pick it but

it wasn`t there,luckily there was heavy snow cover and recovered it .It had travelled 2-250 yds through dense conifers.Shot was spot on,just a clean channel with

little expansion.Never had it before or since,if you shoot at enough stuff you get these things !

Good luck.

[moor man]

Bad luck njc, it does happen and there will be an explanation for it, I had a similar incident with a fallow doe, 2 of us looked for two hours, nothing. Its the worst feeling! Forestry workers found it dead a couple of days later, not 50 yrds away in the opposite direction to where we were looking! Our blood trail disappeared where the doe had circled back. I made up my mind to get a dog, had the dog 7 years and never used her for finding a lost deer since but Im glad I have her . Dont beat yourself up, it was most likely fatally hit and died quickly.

I would check zero, check the firing position for broken twigs and branches (that the bullet may have hit) Head up, carry on, keep us posted. ATB Moorman.

[kent]

A dog is the only answer to this, even the familly pooch can quickly learn to track its the stalking with the dog at heel that takes time and input. Time to get to there? a good dog will generally not struggle too much the next day but its down to scenting conditions previaling. Deer sometimes flinch as you release the shot, even take a step and bullets do hit twigs- it happens to us all if we shoot enough deer. I must admit to being totally rubbish at finding stuff myself i can litrally walk right over medium size deer down 20yds of impact point in good light at times, yet can spot a blooming ear in the grass at 400yds. It sounds a bit like you skimmed the bottom of the sturnum to me but only hair and flesh would confirm as such, i have done this myself on small deer at short range- if you shoot enough like i say it happens

[jay222]

Hopefully it will turn out to be down in cover nearby to put your mind at ease

[al4x]

Its a hard one but not a lot you can do about it, I haven't had any do it to me yet but I know when I was out with a mate and he had a munty run on him like it hadn't been hit it gives you a wake up call. That was last light and into a decent block of maize, dog had it very fast but we would have been searching ages as it had gone in and immediately turned left gone 50 yards then right and died there. Without one you have to be lucky as they find a decent bit of cover and tend to die assuming the shot wasn't that bad. With luck you will have found it this morning but there is always the chance you have caught a leg etc but the high jump and bowling over suggests it might have not been that bad a shot.

[Dunkield]

Stick to moles

 

This happened to me on the very first red I shot.

Took the shot, stalker was happy with what he saw, so we wandered over to the spot, no deer, not paint or pins.

Looked at the rest of the pod walking off and there wasn't one that didn't look 100% OK.

So we searched for ages and never found it.

It happens, not often thankfully, all we can do is to make sure we have done everything right to minimise it.

[Browning]

If you shoot enough it will happen one day. Why not take Redgum up on his kind offer and let his dog search for it.

[njc110381]

I've given up on finding it. Yesterdays search covered over 500 yards in all directions and apart from the small area of Hawthorn which I shot it in the ground is open parkland. The park is well grazed and green - if it was down anywhere other than the cover it was standing in it would be obvious so it must have made the neighbouring land.

 

Having considered my options I didn't go back for another look. If it was there I'm 100% sure I'd have spotted it yesterday. It's gone and I've got to accept that. If it has made cover at the far side of the neighbouring land there's a lot of bramble, old barbed wire fences and rubbish.

 

Thankyou Redgum for the offer. If circumstances were different I'd have happily taken you up on it but if the deer has made the wasteland on nextdoors ground then I wouldn't want your dog in there. There's all sorts of sharp stuff lying around.

[Beretta28g]

Have you checked your rifles zero?

[FlagUp]

It happens, you've done all you can and probably more than some to find it. Red deer can go a long way with a hole in them but in this case I would think the beast is only grazed. Next to no blood and a small animal hit with a big calibre would be lying not far away if it was more than grazed.

 

I agree with the above advice - get the target out and try it at 50 yards to see where it goes. I assume you have it zeroed for a greater distance?

[kent]

Stick to moles

 

This happened to me on the very first red I shot.

Took the shot, stalker was happy with what he saw, so we wandered over to the spot, no deer, not paint or pins.

Looked at the rest of the pod walking off and there wasn't one that didn't look 100% OK.

So we searched for ages and never found it.

It happens, not often thankfully, all we can do is to make sure we have done everything right to minimise it.

 

Seen this when there is no exit and the deer runs up hill. commonly the bloodstrike is all from the far side and running up hill pools the blood behind the diaphram. A dog would have made you both look like crass amatures, if it was down to me i should say all pro stalkers who take clients out should have a dog and all recreational ones should have one they might call upon within 1 hr.

 

its amazing how such a large beast can go down in heather or moor and those who practically step on it cannot see it but they sure can

[njc110381]

Zero is 100 yards, although I haven't checked it since I missed. I will before I use it again. I shoot most of my deer at about 50 with this rifle. It's the gun I go to when I want a casual walk around because it's got the shotgun and rifle barrel, quick release scope etc. I can shoot anything with it and know it very well.

 

I have thought of something that was different which may explain things. I always remove the scope from the gun when I store it and it always returns perfectly to zero each time. Well this time I had left it on - perhaps it got knocked in the safe? Time will tell, I'll check it at the range on Sunday.

[shakari]

I can really sympathise..... no-one likes to lose an animal and it happens to most if not all of us sooner or later but there are a few things you can do to reduce those occasions.

 

Firstly and obviously be sure of your rifle, secondly, have a decent dog with you if you possibly can and thirdly, although it's a skill that's hardly ever practiced in the UK, learn to track. No animal, least of all a wounded animal goes across ground without leaving traces of it's passing. Learn to move slowly and look very carefully and you'll see there is a variety of evidence of where the animal has passed.

 

Paint and pins are the most obvious but also look for tracks, leaves overturned, grass pointing all in one direction, blood on bushes rather than just on the ground and if you get lucky and the dew falls at the right time, you'll often see a very plain path where the animal has passed.

 

Wounded animals will usually head for thick cover by as shorter route as possible and gut shot animals will get thirsty very quickly and can often be found close to a water source just a few hours after being wounded.

Edited November 21, 2012 by shakari

[njc110381]

I can usually track pretty well. I think a dog would have been the only option on this one though. The wind was pretty brisk, it was raining and there were leaves blowing about, pretty much all the signs it would have left in passing were washed off or covered within ten minutes.

[gixer1]

Onwards and upwards Neil, it's a nightmare when it happens and anyone who hasn't seen one run after a good hit probably hasn't shot a lot of deer.

 

I have had a few run over 100 yards and have found them the next day luckily, one of which I put on here earlier this year, I went back with the quad and literally did parallel sweeps up and down the field it was shot in and I found it 30-35 yards from the spot it was shot, it was just lying in a certain way that the grass hid it and it changed direction from the initial bolt.

 

My worst ever was a gut shot on a doe a few years ago, it moved to a place I couldn't get a shot and I was worried if I stalked over the open ground it would see me and bolt and I'd loose it, I ended up stalking along a wall, popping up and putting a round into the lowest part of its neck I could see, it was about 10 minutes but the poor doe must have been in agony for the whole of that time and it really put me off for a while.

 

The best way is to think logically about the amount of deer you have successfully culled with no issue - f-up's happen - move on and go out and shoot another to restore confidence.

 

Do not dwell on it - chances are you may have not hit it bad enough to even badly wound it so it may be running about sporting a slight graze but a bit wiser.

 

Regards,

Gixer

[Redgum]

Unfortunatly this is the down side of shooting, this is why it must be expressed to those new to the sport and expecting to shooting at stupid yds distance. We have to limit the variables as much as possible, even then its not a total guarantee the deer will just fall over dead, in matter of fact, the very nature of a heart/lung shot will mean in most cases the deer will run a bit on adrenalin alone. God knows how many pigeons, I have pricked to die a slow death in a tree somewhere, and quite possible a fair few bunnies but we have to make sure we are doing our best to stop this happening and follow up to the best of our abilities.

[al4x]

The thing is whatever you use its not a guarantee they won't run, its why the heart lung area is chosen as the ideal shot site because a shot has margin for error and it will be fatal within a short time frame. What bugs us is the uncertainty of not knowing its a wake up call when one does it to you properly as its pretty amazing how some will run with a decent hit yet shoot another and it falls over straight away. Much like foxes you will occasionally have one run with a decent hit and though dead not far away you do wonder how they manage it.