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Thread: Deer I killed and didn't find...need suggestions.

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  1. #1
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    Default Deer I killed and didn't find...need suggestions.

    So, I screwed up this year, and despite telling myself I would not shoot this deer....I shot this deer. I'm kicking the shit out of myself for pulling the trigger, but to make matters worse, I never found the deer. I was shooting my new tack-driving long-range 7mm mag. I shot one other deer with it this year when a doe gave me a nice broadside shot at 404 yards. I wanted some meat, and I wanted to see what I could do with the gun at that distance, so I dialed the scope up, settled in on a not-so-great prone-on-the-side-of-a-hill hold, and touched off the shot. I heard the unmistakeable "whommp" of the bullet hitting its mark, and when I recovered from the recoil, I saw the doe was DRT.

    Fast forward to the buck. I was heading home from an uneventful hunt, and I saw the buck standing broadside at 210 yards staring at me as I approached my truck. I was able to range the deer, set my gun up on its bipod on the back of my truck bed cover, and dial the scope up to 18x. I had a moment of weakness, and I decided to take the deer knowing there were other deer that would grow into giants hanging around the property. I was steady as I have ever been, and I touched off the shot. My gun is zero'd at 200, and I had just shot steel out to 370 the day before. There was the crack of the suppressed round being fired and then the "whommmp" of the bullet hitting the deer. I recovered from the recoil to see the deer running off to the left, and I figured he would be dead in the field when I got there. I went home and had a drink and celebrated with my fam before driving over to pick up my deer. When I got there, there was nothing. I waited until the next morning when I could see, as my flashlight sucked, but when I got there, I could not find hair or blood....nothing. I spent several hours looking where he was standing and around where he was standing, but I found nothing.

    The area I am hunting is mainly open for thousands of yards with some small patches of thick cover scattered about. I searched every piece of cover in every direction and got permission to search all the neighboring land. NADA. The deer never showed back up on camera, and I'm fairly certain he is dead. I regret putting the crosshairs and the shot behind the shoulder for a double lung shot, as I love the DRT shot placement of high front shoulder, but I just wan't thinking about it...just naturally put it in the lungs.

    After thinking about it for a while, I know there is no chance I pulled the shot and hit guts...everything was perfect. The high ballistic coefficient hornady 162 gr SSTs I was using are designed to fragment and cause massive hemorrhaging at long ranges...they are designed, from what I understand, to kill WT, Mulies, and Elk at longer ranges with tissue damage as opposed to hydrostatic shock like mushrooming bullets that hold together do. I've read enough accounts of people having issues with poking 7mm holes through elk and deer and finding the dead animals with no blood trail and exit wounds that are the same as the entrance wounds showing that these super hot loads and fragmenting bullets will punch through at close distances without expanding or fragmenting.

    So, assuming that is what happened here, I'm wanting to shoot a bullet that will mushroom and kill with hydrostatic shock. My question is...what are your recommendations for a best-of-both-worlds bullet. I'd rather find one bullet that will do it all rather than having to develop a load for closer distance whitetail scenarios and a load for longer distance elk hunting scenarios and having to run two dope charts during hinting season. My whitetail hunts could produce shot opportunities from 20 yards to 700 yards, and the same goes with elk. Is there a best of both worlds bullet out there? Thanks in advance for your expert SCDucker advice. Meanwhile, I'm going to be sick about this situation for a while.

    Last edited by WhitewaterDuck; 01-13-2023 at 05:41 PM.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  2. #2
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    I'm not picking, but you seem to have some sort of issue every year... whether rifle or bow. Why would you go home to celebrate before recovering the deer? Makes no sense to me.
    Last edited by Luvin' Labs; 01-13-2023 at 05:45 PM.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luvin' Labs View Post
    I'm not picking, but you seem to have some sort of issue every year... whether rifle or bow. Why would you go home to celebrate before recovering the deer? Makes no sense to me.
    What issues, specifically? I've shot at four animals with a bow in the last five years. One was a speedgoat that I hit a touch forward at 80 yards with my compound that I ended up having to shoot with my 270; the shot was a loooong one for sure, but it was a speed goat with a bow, and I missed my mark by 3 inches. But you can't be referring to that, because I never posted anything about that hunt. One was a whitetail buck I shot with my self bow at 20 yards from the ground that saw me release the arrow and ducked and spun resulting in a non-lethal hit; one was a spike elk that I shot with my self-bow; and one was a doe I shot with a longbow and was dead in 50 yards...so you must be referring to the buck I shot with the self bow. If you think having a buck duck an arrow shot from the ground out of a hand carved bow is "having an issue," then I'm guessing you've not hunted much with primitive gear, and I indeed have issues. As for rifles...I've only ever posted about two rifle hunts on here; one ended with a dead 158" buck, and the other ended with a dead 178" buck. I got a case of buck fever and misjudged the distance on the first one and commenced to missing him initially, but I did manage to get my shit together, realize he was a lot closer than I initially thought, and drop him in his tracks. So, I'm not sure what issues with a rifle you may be referring to. I tend to forget stuff though, so who knows?

    I went home to celebrate with the fam before going after the deer because I have never, in 54 years of life, shot at and hit a deer with a rifle and not taken it for a ride in the back of my truck. I also needed to switch vehicles to ride out into the ranchers alfalfa field, as he doesn't mind me taking my golf buggy but does not want me taking my diesel truck into his field. So, I drove the 1200 yards from where I took the shot to my house, fixed a drink, told my wife and kids that I had just killed a nice 10 point and showed them the pic that's on here, changed into clothes I didn't care to get bloody, grabbed the best light I could find, and went to pick up the deer. I'd like to say that I was giving it an hour "just to make sure," but I honestly figured the deer was dead as a hammer less than 50 yards from where he stood when I shot him...but giving a deer a little time "just to make sure" is never a bad idea.

    So, I hope that it makes sense to you now. Thanks for your input.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  4. #4
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    You didn’t double lung it.

  5. #5
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    And sst’s suck. Barnes ttsx have been good for me

  6. #6
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    Depending on the twist of your barrel

    I personally am a huge fan of the Hornady ELDms. I’ve killed a lot of animals with them. 180gr eld m out of my 7rm and 140gr eld m out of my 6.5x47L.

  7. #7
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    This is just my opinion and I'm only recently gotten heavy into rifle hunting but...

    I hear some good stories about SSTs on game but I also hear a lot of stories similar to yours especially with very fast cartridges. I really don't think you should shoot for the shoulder with SST bullets. It seems they fragment too easily and can sometimes not get deep enough to do mortal damage.

    At this point, I'm a Nosler fanboy. Nosler Ballistic Tips are also a fragmenting bullet and I rarely hear anything but good about them. After killing a couple of deer with Accubonds and taking them to Africa, I'm convinced that I could live the rest of my life shooting nothing but Accubonds. And, I've lost a deer recently too with a high shoulder shot. We bumped it on the follow-up and it got to the neighbor's property. I'm 100% a heart shooter ever since. They don't always leave a good blood trail with a heart shot and they can sometimes go 50-100 yards but they're dead pretty quickly so at least they're not running from you.

    https://www.nosler.com/7mm-rem-mag-1...mmunition.html
    Last edited by Rubberhead*; 01-13-2023 at 06:08 PM.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



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  8. #8
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    Oh, and if you really want to stretch things out they make a Long-Range Accubond too that mushrooms at lower velocities.
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



    Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    Oh, and if you really want to stretch things out they make a Long-Range Accubond too that mushrooms at lower velocities.

    Thanks, I need to look into these bullets, because that sounds like it could be the ticket.

    I do think I double lunged him and the bullet never expanded. I've seen double lung shot deer shot with big, fixed blade broad heads go 500+ yards bleeding good before piling up...they can cover 1000 yards in mere seconds; if my bullet did not come apart before punching out the other side, the hole that bullet punched through his lungs would have been tiny and hot, and with little to no energy transfer (no mushrooming) that deer could have run to the next county before dying if he died at all. But I guess I'll never know unless someone finds him and lets me know.

    I appreciate the suggestions that are addressing my question. I will look into the various bullets suggested and take note of the experiences shared. This is the first deer I've hit with a rifle and not recovered; I expect stuff to happen and that deer will be lost sometimes when using archery equipment...it's part of it, but I never expected to take a chip-shot from pretty much a bench rest and not recover the freaking deer, and it isn't acceptable in my book.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  10. #10
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    Sorry, hope you get lucky and find him.

  11. #11
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    Maybe I'm exaggerating a little in my mind... If so, I apologize.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luvin' Labs View Post
    Maybe I'm exaggerating a little in my mind... If so, I apologize.

    It's my stories. I like to tell a good story...and my hunting trips are always adventures for sure. I have a lot of close calls, and I can find incredible ways to screw up a perfect opportunity at a big buck or Elk, but when it all comes together and I manage to loose an arrow or squeeze the trigger, it usually goes pretty good from there.

    I can't blame you for not getting entirely through my hunting story posts without losing track of what I am actually trying to say; many try, but few succeed. I'm not blessed with forum-post-brevity.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  13. #13
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    I shoot (until my stash is gone) 270 130 gr sst, I have killed probably 30 deer with them ranging from 50-350yds and every time the deer have ran around 30 yds and expired. I shoot every deer center of the shoulder. No pass thru but what I have found is that I get into the body cavity and destroy the vitals. IF you shot the deer in the vitals you should have recovered him. With that being said I will eventually move to a eldx bullet but like they say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it
    "I am a man, not an animal and I always try to conduct myself accordingly. Doing anything less is just giving up and expecting (and being okay) with failure."
    Rubberhead

  14. #14
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    Sorry for your loss.

    Seriously.

  15. #15
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    Chalk it up to “stuff happens” and march forward.

  16. #16
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    Yup. It’s a pisser. That deer was young and had freaking incredible potential. I’m as mad about the decision to shoot him as anything else. The real pisser is that I’m 99% positive that he’d be at the taxidermist and in my freezer had I been shooting my trusty old 270 with 130gr corelokts. Sometimes, top of the line new stuff << tried and true old familiar stuff.
    There’s always next year.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by WhitewaterDuck View Post
    Yup. It’s a pisser. That deer was young and had freaking incredible potential. I’m as mad about the decision to shoot him as anything else. The real pisser is that I’m 99% positive that he’d be at the taxidermist and in my freezer had I been shooting my trusty old 270 with 130gr corelokts. Sometimes, top of the line new stuff << tried and true old familiar stuff.
    There’s always next year.
    Head scratcher....


    You drew a tag that could yield a >350" elk but instead of taking a rifle, or modern bow, you chose a homemade stick and string as your weapon and didnt kill one, but you have a weak moment and shoot a subpar WT with a long range whomper?

    Dang dude.
    "Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrother View Post
    Head scratcher....


    You drew a tag that could yield a >350" elk but instead of taking a rifle, or modern bow, you chose a homemade stick and string as your weapon and didnt kill one, but you have a weak moment and shoot a subpar WT with a long range whomper?

    Dang dude.
    Yes...moment of weakness and extreme dumbassery. I can't even explain it. I dialed the scope way up...at 200 yards, it wasn't all brown in the scope. I never found a damn thing other than a dead cow and some other dead small animals that the magpies and eagles led me to. Maybe I walloped the deer over the spine and he's still alive and kicking. I think I'd have found him along a creek or by one of the three water holes/ponds that are within a mile of where I shot him had I pulled it into the guts, and I think I'd have found gut material. It sucks. Hopefully I'll learn from it. I'm thinking I'll be toting my compound this elk season or until I actually kill one, but I thought that last year and I couldn't help but grab the struggle stick. We shall see.
    “I can’t wait ‘till I’m grown” is the stupidest @!#* I ever said!

  19. #19
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    Very pleased with the accubond performance. If you can find them. Right now they are very scarce especially in 7mm.
    Last edited by centurian; 01-13-2023 at 08:18 PM.

  20. #20
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    Life is an ass kicker. My wife shot one and we have yet to find the remnants of it and it was a 200+ deer that would have been a trophy of a life time. I cussed her for a late shot, low light, and not taking a shoulder shot since the terrain around was hip level brush that makes you lose a deer. I lost one this year using a bullet that didn’t expand well. Learn from it, study, and don’t repeat the same mistakes is my advice.

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