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What happened?????

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Blackfoot

40 Cal.
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Sep 28, 2005
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Ok to start off I am a very seasoned deer hunter and have taken countless deer with a bow, muzzleloader, slug gun, rifles and set up my shots so that they are close (bow range) even for my muzzleloader hunts.

That being said I just finished a deer hunt yesturday and this is what happened,

I saw a nice buck 70 yards away walking in a direction that would put him way behind me so I left my willow blind and stalked him until he was only 40 yards away when he crossed my only opening and he stopped in that opening for a nice broadside shot on a relaxed deer.(easy as pie)

I took aim and squeezed the trigger on my .50 flinter. Well the buck just stood there for about 20 seconds and I had time to scan for the entrance wound but saw none. Anyway he decided he had better get to moving and ran straight away from me for 40 yards and it looked like he slowed down and I swear that I saw him do the dead on the feet stagger then I could no longer see him.

After I reloaded I walked to where I shot him and found nothing no hair no blood just nothing.

BTW this is in a slough bottom which is very thick with willow thickets and other brush with tall slough grass.

I tracked his trail to where I last saw him (expecting to find him lying in the grass but he was not there. (still no blood) I tracked up and down the trails that he could have taken and still did not find him or any blood.

What happened?

Did I just plain miss?

Do these roundballs not open up going in and not produce a blood trail?

What is your experience with blood trails using roundballs?

Yes this would be my first deer with a flinter as well as a patched roundball.....I did sight the gun in and it shoots VERY VERY accurately with 85 gr of FFFG and a .490 roundball.
 
I shot a Nice Buck one time.He ran down the hill,it started pouring Rain didn't have any Blood.I walked in the General direction he went.

Run into a couple other Hunters said he ran by them didn't seem to be hurt.Well I go eat Lunch its pouring Rain,wait until 2:00.

Well I was walking back to my Stand,looked up in the brush,seen a Hump that didn't look right.It is my Buck.He had run down the hill cut back towards where he had come.The buck the other Guys had seen was just another Buck.

oneshot
 
Every indication says you missed him. You probably flinched and dropped the barrel. You are not the first to miss an easy shot. Don't ask me how I know that!
 
I would guess that you missed as well...Yes, a round ball does start to open up very quickly...I shot a doe at about 40 yards with my .54 flinter Saturday afternoon...The entrance was larger than a .54 size hole...I hit her right behind the shoulder and about 2 inches below dead center...I had a tremendous blood trail...She ran about 35 yards and collapsed...Did you find hair where the buck was standing??? Usually with a ball you do..

That being said...Sometimes you don't have a blood trail with any weapon, it can be clogged with fat, hide, intestions etc...I will say that it has been my experience with a lung shot or a heart shot deer with a patched ball that you do usually have a good blood trail and the deer will fall within 25-75 yards of where they were hit...I have seen blood trails that didn't start until the deer ran 25 yards or so...

Also...Were you able to use a tree as a rest?? I am a pretty good shot with a rest, without one, not as good....Good Luck
 
paulvallandigham said:
Every indication says you missed him. You probably flinched and dropped the barrel. You are not the first to miss an easy shot. Don't ask me how I know that!


Maybe a flinch and miss, but I saw him do what looked like the old stop and stagger, but then again it is very uneven slough ground and where he was there were several uneven areas that I had to navagate around.

I hope that it was a miss and not a hit/loss.
 
There is a phenomenon in Germany called "Hohlschuss", (in english tumbshot?). there the bullet hits an area behind the shoulder under the back of the deer. At this place there is only less meat an nothing can be hit which would kill the deer. Normally deers with a "Hohlschuss" will survive. But the possible area is only 5x5 cm for roes. At whitetails I think it will be bigger, maybe 10x10 cm?
 
I've shot some deer with roundball that leave a blood trail just about right from the point of impact and have others not leave a drop of blood till many, many yards down the trail, even on complete pass thru shots. All you can do is look hard, check all the trails, runs circles, etc, and hope that if you don't find anything it was a clean miss. Deer hit in the heart and lungs have always run for me. Shoulder/spine shots usually break em' down on the spot, but I don't do that often. The 2nd deer I shot this season had a ping pong ball size hole thru his heart, ran about 40 yds and the only easily seen blood was on the ground where he finally fell. Most of the time they don't go too far, but on occasion they seem to go farther than you'd expect for the hit.
 
Deer respond many ways, but usually if they don't drop right away, many will take off like a rocket for a short distance and drop. For one to move alittle and move off sounds if it was alarmed and waited to see what caused the noise.
 
All 3 Deer we shot this year looked as if they had never been hit, and 2 of them had no blood trail at all. I always fallow the trail, and if I find nothing I do a grid search. This has paid off many times. If the shot feels good I keep looking until I I can convince myself that it was a miss. I looked for 2 hours one time, and we finaly found the twig that the ball had hit.
 
My brother missed a shot at a deer at about 25 feet, when his slug hit a small broken branch on the off side of a larger branch, and left a 1/2" half-moon divot in the branch. I am sure that the slug passed over the deer's back. I tracked that deer for my brother, who was absolutely sure he could not miss a deer at that range, even if the slug hit the branch, for his sake, showing him each track from the point where the deer startled at the shot and then through the woods at a walking pace for over 100 yds, until the deer entered a wide game trail alongside a small creek. There was no blood, no evidence of injury in his walk, or prints, and he even stopped to eat a couple of times, ( so I could show my brother how to see when plant stalks had been nibbled by the deer by looking at the front feet tracks to see them dig downward toward the front of the toes, as the deer leaned its head out and down to the ground, shifting its weight to the forward part of his front toes). When we got to the wide game trail, I asked him if he wanted me to track the deer further, or was he satisfied that the deer was not hit or hurt. He was convinced.

Obviously, I can't be 100% sure that you missed the deer unless I can examine the ground and read the tracks. But, from what you have told us, I am very sure that you missed him. I missed a shot at a large wild boar at about 10 feet with a .30-30 Winchester rifle because I was not familiar with its trigger pull- having not shot it enough before the hunt- and I jerked the trigger so hard and so much, that my shot went right under the belly of the boar. Boy, did I feel silly! I bagged the boar with another shot, but I still wonder how I could miss that big a target so close. It happens.
 
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