Shaking my head... How could I have missed?

[lovemywinchester]

Tough luck on the miss. A 06 that close should have left a nice hole. Having said that I had an experience Saturday tracking a doe where the bottom of her chest was gone from the 30-06 shot and all we saw were tiny sprays of blood. Luckily we had the snow to help or we may have not found her. When we found her there was blood everywhere. She went quite a ways before she went down. I'm posting the pic so you get an idea of how little even a big wound can bleed. Sorry for the gore but it gives you a good idea of how tough deer are and how far they can go when mortally wounded.


I shot my WT buck this year from very close and the shot went right through his side and out the other. Not one drop of blood! The bright side is you are getting close to the bucks. Thats a lot better than a lot of guys.

[Mishka]

Thanks for everyone's responses. Great feedback and I don't feel so alone, lol. My first buck I shot 2 years ago was at about 80 yards in the boiler room and he ran about 50 yards. I found him right away because of the open terrain. After dealing with the animal I went back to where he was when shot, just to see if there was any blood spatter. I wanted to know what to look for and if I could find anything. I did. There wasn't a lot of blood, but enough. Last year's WT dropped in its spot at about 100 yards and his shoulder was disintegrated.

I know things can be different all the time as I've read, from some of your comments as well, that sometimes there's little to no blood at the scene even on a well placed shot. It's all very interesting and you can see how someone with the experience behind them can be invaluable to have at your side.

I hope this time around I completely missed the shot. I haven't had the opportunity to go back up but hopefully in a day or two.

[Lozzie]

Shooting practice does not always translate into hunting success. I think we as hunters need to practice patience and self control, the few seconds it takes to find a better rest rather than shooting standing can greatly improve accuracy and success. Hard lessons to learn for sure, but learning from your mistakes is part of hunting and we are all subject to the different trials that make this challenging past time great. For the question about a bullet passing through the animal. My last two kills were neck shots under 50 yards and in both cases the bullets did not pass though, I recovered my bullet from the bear I shot at 20 yards and it was a perfect mushroom pilled up against the spine. I did not recover the bullet from my deer but there was no exit hole, I assume it was also stuck somewhere in the spine. I'm no ballistics expert but I'm sure it comes down to velocity and shot placement whether a bullet will pass through.