Gut shot... in the chest?

[deertacos]

Had an interesting situation on a deer this weekend, thought I’d share for some feedback

I shot a nice blacktail buck yesterday at about 45 yards while he was in his bed. Shot placement was directly behind the front shoulder, slight quartering with an exit on the far side at the fifth rib. Through and through lung shot, solid copper bullet.

When I began gutting, everything looked perfect. The abdomen was clean, stomach and intestines perfect, intact, and plump. Upon opening the chest cavity, I got the familiar smell of gut shot. I poked around a bit, and realized there was a large amount of stomach content... but in the chest... forward of the diaphragm. I finished gutting and inspected all the organs out of interest. The stomach and intestines were both 100% intact. Lots of gut material in the exit wound and all over the inner ribs.

I cleaned the meat up good, but I was curious if anyone had any ideas as to what happened here. My guess is that he was chewing and regurgitating his cud and I hit something. It was mid morning and he was bedded, probably just got done feeding. There’s always some crud that comes out of the esophagus, but this amount blew me away, almost as bad as a gut shot deer! Any thoughts?

 

[JLS]

You severed the esophagus.

 

[TOGIE]

This actually happened to me Friday evening with a whitetail. I’ve been pondering how it was “gut” shot the whole time... forward of the diaphragm was just filled with blood and stomach contents. Didn’t notice anything that would indicate gut shot till i sawed through the chest - exact same deal. noticing that I decided not to investigate any further and did it essentially gutless from there on out. It didn’t take long for him to die either so I was a bit confused.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Severed esophagus as was mentioned above.

 

[TOGIE]

Severed esophagus as was mentioned above.

Oh thank god you said that. Cause I was obviously asking the same question again hoping someone would restate the answer for me. Cause I don’t know how to read unless it’s a post that comes after mine and all

 

[RockinU]

Pissy much?

 

[onpoint]

Severed esophagus..........

 

[Gerald Martin]

*&(&(***^6 onpoint! He already knows that. Reading comprehension and all that.

Sometimes when the esophagus is severed, gut contents will spill into the chest....

Oh and for your benefit Togiegoat, I was replying to the OP, but glad you had confirmation.

 

[kansasdad]

Or it could be that your shot hit him in the swallow tube

 

[devon deer]

I had the same this week on a Roe Buck, I carry a small block and tackle when deer stalking (it isn't very heavy but will raise a deer around 120lb) so did a suspended gralloch, all the spilled contents forward of the diaphragm went 'south' so the meat 'north' of the diaphragm was still good.
Cheers
Richard

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Oh thank god you said that. Cause I was obviously asking the same question again hoping someone would restate the answer for me. Cause I don’t know how to read unless it’s a post that comes after mine and all

Not sure what your problem is or if you even know how things go around here but a little common courtesy would come in handy. Having somebody confirm something isn't such a bad thing. Big words for somebody that couldn't figure it out and had to post about it. The same could be said for you, why double post about the same question?

 

[AggieOutlaw]

I shot a doe antelope at about 100 yards with a 270 and she dropped instantly. When I opened her up I thought I had gut shot her. She had exploded. Guts everywhere. Beyond esophagus severing. The intestines were ruptured too. But the bullet hole was perfectly placed. We always figured the shockwave had something to do with it. Luckily we gotter cleaned up and she tasted great.

 

[TOGIE]

Not sure what your problem is or if you even know how things go around here but a little common courtesy would come in handy. Having somebody confirm something isn't such a bad thing. Big words for somebody that couldn't figure it out and had to post about it. The same could be said for you, why double post about the same question?

i found it rather intersting that the same thing happened to me. people often like to learn that they're not the only one that experienced something, so i threw it out there for the op. g mart wasn't being snarky about me posting what appeared to be the same question, i know that now.

once i was back at the truck i really had stopped caring about it until i saw this post. i don't recall ever posting a question.

either way, doesn't matter. not trying to ruffle feathers. there's good people round here.

in terms of pissy much... no, not much, only on mondays after like 5 days without sleep in wyoming

 

[ismith]

I doubt it severed the esophagus, probably only holed it.

 

[noharleyyet]

An open esophagectomy...

 

[beginnerhunter]

Funny story. I had a situation where the deer was quartering toward a little bit and I thought he was broadside. Anyway the shot ended up exiting front of the guts. Oh and I left him overnight since I was worried about bumping him. The inner tenderloins smelled terrible so I cooked them real quick for lunch so I wasn't freezing bad meat that someone else might eat. About 3/4 of them tasted fine but the bad ends were really really bad.

Just thought I'd share in case anyone was wondering what gut shot inner loin tasted like lol.

 

[WyoDoug]

Had an interesting situation on a deer this weekend, thought I’d share for some feedback

I shot a nice blacktail buck yesterday at about 45 yards while he was in his bed. Shot placement was directly behind the front shoulder, slight quartering with an exit on the far side at the fifth rib. Through and through lung shot, solid copper bullet.

When I began gutting, everything looked perfect. The abdomen was clean, stomach and intestines perfect, intact, and plump. Upon opening the chest cavity, I got the familiar smell of gut shot. I poked around a bit, and realized there was a large amount of stomach content... but in the chest... forward of the diaphragm. I finished gutting and inspected all the organs out of interest. The stomach and intestines were both 100% intact. Lots of gut material in the exit wound and all over the inner ribs.

I cleaned the meat up good, but I was curious if anyone had any ideas as to what happened here. My guess is that he was chewing and regurgitating his cud and I hit something. It was mid morning and he was bedded, probably just got done feeding. There’s always some crud that comes out of the esophagus, but this amount blew me away, almost as bad as a gut shot deer! Any thoughts?

I had shots like this a number of time. Sometimes puts the lungs and heart in shreds. However, meat is fine once you clean the debris out of the cavity. Helps if you have a hose you can wash it out with. What causes meat contamination during cleaning, is when you break the sac surrounding the organs such as the stomach and pancreas. The smell of a heart/lung shot is insignificant relative to a gut shot and you are likely smelling the mix of fluid from the heart and lungs. As long as you clean it right away, you are fine.

 

[PsRpOiGrRiAtM]

Or it could be that your shot hit him in the swallow tube

I think it was the puke pipe...

 

[tjones]

Post 2,4,7,8,9,15,18 all correct and explains what happened.