Story of a poor shot

[Alex Wheeler]

Some of you may remember the thread about spine shots and how to recognize them. Unfortunately that one went sideways and got closed. I had an experience over the weekend that would have went quite well as a follow up. Anyhow, the shot was a whitetail at 752 yards with my 280ai. The deer was broadside facing to my right. No wind at the shooting position, left to right mirage running at the target. I gave 1.5 moa of wind and that was not quite enough. I ended up making the typical high shoulder shot. Another minute of wind would have been perfect but I made a bad call. The deer hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. I saw the shot through my scope and thought it was a spine shot by the deer's reaction. I could not see the animal due to tall grass, so I grabbed my rifle and ran to the deer to finish him if it was needed. Well, I got there pretty fast and did put one in the brain. The high shoulder shot planted him on the spot, and he would have died eventually from the small amount of lung damage. But the high shoulder is there with the spine for me, its an anchoring shot, not necessarily a fast killing shot. I make this post not to stir the pot, but so often all thats posted is a picture of the game, no talk of the shot placement and how things played out. This animal was anchored, DRT, not dead. Would have made great TV though.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

Thanks for posting, especially in a non-confrontational food-for-thought manner.

For those of us that can take it for what it is, Posts like these allow us to learn.

 

[horse killer]

I have something similar happen to me but not with the good out come. 500 yard shot at a spike elk he dropped like a sack of potatoes rolled down the mountain side for 50 yards and it looked like it was over . I got ready to go retrieve him as I was going over to him he got up and traveled over the other side of mountain. Tracked him but never caught up to him. That is when I decided that no more high shoulder shots for me.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

As a side note, calling wind and LR go hand in hand. I have a pretty good amount of experience reading mirage from my competition days and its something that is just not talked about enough IMO. No wind at the shooter, wet frozen grass, not much to go on other than mirage.

 

[1Moose]

Thanks for sharing this post of your experience.

 

[Pdvdh]

The high shoulder shooters finished off the other thread, after reloading multiple times.

 

[Wedgy]

Not a bad exit hole and a fair amount of blood on the ground but not enough for the quick, humane kill.

 

[WildRose]

Not a bad exit hole and a fair amount of blood on the ground but not enough for the quick, humane kill.

 

[WildRose]

The amount of blood on the ground is going to be minimal with any high lung shot. Death occurs when the BP hits zero, it doesn't matter if the bleeding is internal or external.

 

[J.G.W]

I have something similar happen to me but not with the good out come. 500 yard shot at a spike elk he dropped like a sack of potatoes rolled down the mountain side for 50 yards and it looked like it was over . I got ready to go retrieve him as I was going over to him he got up and traveled over the other side of mountain. Tracked him but never caught up to him. That is when I decided that no more high shoulder shots for me.

I had similar with a red stag years ago. The only shot I had was a high one due to the brush around him, hit him with a 30/06, DRT. I was 350 away on the opposite ridge and closer to my vehicle than the deer, I knew there was a road just above him so decided to drive over there instead of walking straight in. By the time I arrived he'd found his feet and disappeared. I found where he fell, there was blood on the ground and I could make out where he'd thrashed his way back to his feet. I tracked that stag for miles but never did find him. I have since seen a stag (definitely a different animal) with a healed up bullet hole high and back and I'm guessing that this is what happened to me. I saw the same with a chital (axis) stag too. No more high shots for me.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Not a bad exit hole and a fair amount of blood on the ground but not enough for the quick, humane kill.

There was not much blood actually at least compared to a heart shot. And in my experience a solid lung shot is a faster kill than a heart shot, but not by much. It would have taken some time to die from blood loss. There was coagulated blood in the mouth from the lung damage. Death would have been most likely choking on its own blood. A solid lung or heart shot certainly lets them run a little but death comes fast.
This is also a good example of why we like to recommend .30s and up for elk. You want enough bullet in case you get blown into the shoulder.

 

[adam32]

What bullet did you use? A hunting or target bullet?

 

[Capt RB]

I do a bunch of hunting over frozen lakes for coyotes and understand completely about not having any wind flags out there.
As dramatic as a high shoulder shot is I prefer not to shoot above the ball socket at anything 4 legged. I live in the east so getting shots like this are not common at all.
Alex do you feel if you had anything different other than placement your result would have been the same? Meaning a 215/.30 mag or 338 combination? I don't but I also have no experience at those distances for reference either. Coyotes and crows are all I get to hunt at long range as a rule. Both energy and placement really don't compare with the fragmentation bullets I'm using on such small targets.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

What bullet did you use? A hunting or target bullet?

168 hvld, which has accounted for a cow and bull elk this year as well. Excellent performing bullet when it goes into vitals.