What the hell went wrong?

[Magnum Sherpa]

The same thing happened to me this year on an elk hunt in Wyoming. I shot a very nice 6x7 bull that was standing on the edge of a small meadow. He immediately went down at the shot, and my guide high fived me and said good shot. We hiked over to where he had been standing, but the bull was nowhere to be found. Just a few scuff marks in the dirt where he had been. We searched for almost 2 days, but never found a drop of blood or any sign of the bull.

The real gut punch was the outfitter called it a fatal shot and it ended my hunt that I waited 14 years to draw the tag for.

 

[EastTNHunter]

I had a very similar scenario about 3-4 years ago. Shot a buck from a high ish angle at just under 100yd. 30-06, 165 TTSX. Deer dropped and kicked a bit. I texted my wife and dad “buck down.” Looked up and it was trying to raise its head just a little but it was laying with its back towards me so I waited not wanting to ruin the backstraps.

Then it started thrashing its head around and immediately lunged into the thick privet underbrush. I got up to it as quickly as possible, but by that time it regathered itself and bounded off just as I got a shooting lane through the thick stuff. Found a few drops of blood before it ran off onto the private property about 100yd away. There was a LOT of blood at the spot where he went down, but it quickly diminished on its escape route

I thought that I had done things right, but I learned that a downed deer is not always a dead deer.

After that I made a few changes:
1) if it starts to raise its head then I send a quality assurance shot, no matter the shot angle
2) I really think that I would have had more shock trauma and fragmentation from an Accubond vs the TTSX. I will only use TTSXs in the future when I need max penetration on a bigger animal (bull elk) and it has more runway to bleed out and track
3) try to avoid intentional high shoulder shots (that was NOT necessarily my intention on the shot, but just what my window, angle, and gun’s zero allowed for). I like shoulder shots, especially quartering-to, but I want to make sure that I catch vitals in case it doesn’t go straight down for good

 

[MTTW]

The same thing happened to me this year on an elk hunt in Wyoming. I shot a very nice 6x7 bull that was standing on the edge of a small meadow. He immediately went down at the shot, and my guide high fived me and said good shot. We hiked over to where he had been standing, but the bull was nowhere to be found. Just a few scuff marks in the dirt where he had been. We searched for almost 2 days, but never found a drop of blood or any sign of the bull.

The real gut punch was the outfitter called it a fatal shot and it ended my hunt that I waited 14 years to draw the tag for.

Did you learn anything from that experience?

 

[Ben Lamb]

I hate wounding loss and am pretty conservative with my shooting to avoid it. I had a bad hit this November I am still trying to make sense of. Wondering if you've had similar experience:
I was still hunting whitetails in a logged forest. I was sitting on a stump, rattling antlers. A mature buck came in and stood broadside at perhaps 100 yards, somewhat downhill but not a steep slope. It felt like a chip shot with elbows on my knees, crosshairs on the kill zone. I exhaled for the shot -- and damnit my breath fogged my glasses. I tossed them aside, resumed my aim and fired.
I was not surprised when the buck dropped like struck by Thor's hammer. "That's a dead deer," I thought. I didn't even cycle a round, just watched what I thought were a few death kicks through the scope.
To my dismay, the buck rolled over, rose to his feet and bounded away. I mean bounded, no problem moving at all. Long story short, two of us (both experienced trackers) searched for four hours. There was no snow and the ground was frozen. I found the spot where he hit the ground and two running tracks where he scraped the duff. That's it. Never saw the buck again. Neither of us found any sign of birds or other scavengers in that area over the rest of the season.

So what the hell happened? Rifle was a 308. Bullets were copper Barnes TXSS 165 grain. Scope was sighted 2 inches high at 100.
I'm trying to learn my lesson here. My guess is between operator error, the slope and the point of impact, I hit high, stunned his spine, but he shook it off and I did no more damage. Anyone experienced anything like this?

Another lesson: Send another round. And be quick about it.

Haven't read the rest of the thread, but did you hold your tongue the right way? That usually explains all my misses and flubs.

I bet it's that.

 

[MTTW]

I have hit a buck deer and a bull elk just above the burr in the antler and it was lights out for 20 or 30 seconds then up and walking like they never knew it happened. It would suck to end a long-awaited hunt for that.

 

[nrpate05]

I had too many high hits early in my hunting career that now I zero my rifle dead on at 100 yards. Mostly on antelope, but I seemed to constantly hit high and blow out the spine/backstrap. I never lost an animal, but sometimes have to put at least one more round into the animal (one instance was particularly ugly). I figured on having to shoot a long ways for antelope so I would zero high at 100 and then I'd get shots at ~150, so my bullet would be hitting a few inches high. On a small animal that can be the difference.

 

[Bonasababy]

Similar situation, albeit around 30-40 yards away. Nice buck dropped hard on a shot from my tree stand. Mostly behind some trees. Then he started bellowing and moving--I couldn't get a clear shot through the trees and he got up and ran straight away--any other direction I could have had a quick shot or two.

Looked hard and even though there was no snow he was big and digging in hard so i was able to pick up his track and saw no blood. Lots of grass where he dropped probably hid any hair at the shot site, don't recall seeing much more than a few sprigs--but it did look like a high back hit to me.

Thankfully I saw him again the 2nd weekend of the season, actively chasing after a doe just a hundred yards from where I had taken my shot.

Over the years I have had some bad shots and misses that I generally attribute to some deflection. Doesn't take much--but I have centered a large enough to see pine before too, would have thought I would have seen that but didn't.