Rabbit down without a scratch!

[Skychief]

I had always heard of rabbits dying without a mark on them. I never knew whether I really believed it or not. I believe now.

Saturday, I shot behind a crossing rabbit and gave a heads-up shout to my hunting buddy that a rabbit was heading his way.

As I watched the rabbit race toward his position, in mid-stride he jumped a couple feet high and down he went! This happened 50-60 yards from where I shot. Upon cleaning him I noticed absolutely no marks on him and there was no blood anywhere on him previous to cleaning.

These facts coupled with where I know I was holding when the shot broke, convince me of a total miss, yet, there he layed.

My friend and I also looked at my pattern in the snow for any fur...there was none. We did this because I swore to him that I had missed.


Anybody else ever see this with there own eyes?

Skychief.

 

[BrownBear]

I've had it happen with cottontail and snowshoe, but not jack rabbits. If anything, it's more common with snowshoes than cottontail. For some reason it's lots more common with shotgun than balls or bullets, but I've had it happen with all three. I even had it happen twice when I passed an arrow right over their heads. Heart attack? Who knows.

Another with the same "habit" is the Wilson or common snipe. I can't tell you how easy it is to miss them badly, yet sometimes they just fall from the sky when you miss. I even plucked every feather off one once, and not a mark.

 

[rabjr]

Well obviously you ran into one with a bad ticker!

Had an old Swamp Yankee here I grew up knowing. He had a stable of beagles cause he loved nothing more than running rabbits and foxes. Went on a few hunts with him when I was a wee lad. He always said they could die of fright. I've never seen it but he said he did more than once.

 

[longcruise]

My uncle shot at a whitetail years ago in the UP. It was a close shot and should have been an easy one. So, even though there was no hair or blood, they tracked it in the snow for about a 1/4 mile and recovered it. They skinned it all the way past the eyes and never found a mark on that deer. :shocked2:

 

[Jason Lewis]

i did that once when i was a kid. i cleanly missed the cottontail with a 12ga. yet he stopped and died. when i cleaned him, not a wound anywhere, but his poor little heart had blown up. bummer.

 

[BrownBear]

My uncle shot at a whitetail years ago in the UP. It was a close shot and should have been an easy one. So, even though there was no hair or blood, they tracked it in the snow for about a 1/4 mile and recovered it. They skinned it all the way past the eyes and never found a mark on that deer. :shocked2:

Gotta tell the story, because I "went the other way" on a deer. It was standing at the top of an avalanche chute, and my pard suggested I take it because he didn't want to walk any further and then bring a deer back. I had a good rest, so I took a head shot. The deer dropped like a sack of potatoes and skidded all the way to the bottom of the chute and tangled in the alders. It left a wide red stripe in the snow all the way down, but when we finally reached it, darned if we could find a wound. It wasn't till after we dressed it that my pard got to messing around with the head.

"Hey look at this!" sezz he.

I looked and he was sticking his finger in one ear hole and out the other. My wife claims she can see light coming in from the other side when she looks in my ear, but it's the first time I've ever seen such a thing in a deer! :rotf:

 

[hoochiepapa]

There's a place here that we have always been able to kill big muleys. One year my dad and I met there, and I drove to the old mine, and he walked up the hill, we hunted 'til dusk. We met up at my truck, and decided he would walk back to his. So I waited until I could hear him start his truck, then I would drive slowly back to him. Pretty quickly I heard his gun roar, so I drove to where he was. He pointed to a HUGE muley laying just below the trail. It was all the two of us could do to load him into the truck. I asked dad where he shot him, he said, "right in the eye". It was about 20 yards. We got back to his house, and hung the buck in his "game tree", and I grabbed the antlers. Solid. The next morning as I was cutting off the head, I could find no blood. So I skinned the head. Nothing. When I cut off the antlers, nothing. I still believe that buck died of a heart attack. :surrender:

 

[longcruise]

I looked and he was sticking his finger in one ear hole and out the other.

Now, that just might explain it. All of those guys are dead and gone now so I can never ask them about that theory.

Mikes story about his dad's deer reminds me of one my dad shot in "64. It was a long shot with a 30-06 and he thought he missed but the buck left the does he was with and wandered behind a bush and fell down. We did later discover that the bullet had entered at the eye by sorta slipping around it. No exit!

Now, unlike many of you I live in a very urban/suburban setting. No shooting off the back porch for me! But, I have a terrible squirrel problem. They wreck my fruit trees by chewing the bark off the limbs and eating the buds off during the winter. My best solution has been to live trap them and "deport" them. So far this year I have removed seven and there are still two major trouble makers out there!

Anyway, long story short (too late for that :redface: ) a couple years ago I had just set the trap a few minutes ago and looked out to see one already caught. I finished what I was doing and about 15 minutes later went out to take him for a ride. Squirrel was plumb dead! Musta been a heart attack.

 

[silent sniper]

An old hunting buddy told me of a story where he shot at a doe and it jerked forward and dropped dead. he walked up and looked and looked and couldnt find a bullet hole. Then he found out what happened. When he shot the doe jerked forward, hitting her head against a tree and breaking its neck. His bullet never touched the deer :haha: