Bittersweet ending

I was going for mid body even with the back of the front leg. I didn't take into account that I'm zero'd at 100 and the shot was only ~50. So between the chaos and the closer range, I think I hit about 4" higher than I was aiming.
Easy to do. Still should have put him down. You got unlucky!

Mortensons pic actually a good one.

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Red is your shot. Green is double lung. Yellow is heart. Orange is high shoulder.

This is a great post. Thanks for posting. Always learn a ton from postmortems.
 
Were you going for a spine/high shoulder or just shot high with all the commotion? I still get buck fever so believe me I know!

Reason I ask is it seems spine shot works best a good bit more anteriorly, straight up front leg through scapula.
I don't really get buck fever until after I shoot, I'm not sure why that is. BTW, congrats on your buck, great deer!
 
Easy to do. Still should have put him down. You got unlucky!

Mortensons pic actually a good one.

View attachment 72611
Red is your shot. Green is double lung. Yellow is heart. Orange is high shoulder.

This is a great post. Thanks for posting. Always learn a ton from postmortems.
I was aiming between the green and yellow. My shot hit lower than your red X by an inch or two. I'd guess your red X is spine and it missed that on the low side.
 
I was aiming between the green and yellow. My shot hit lower than your red X by an inch or two. I'd guess your red X is spine and it missed that on the low side.
My guess too. How unlucky. Takes a marksman to put a bullet right through the only area that wouldn’t kill him!

Great story you’ll have.
 
I was in a field and he was in the woods, so yes, I'd say it was possible but I had a very clear view of him from what I could see.

I have seen a couple times with copper bullets that the petals crumple inward if it hits something wooden. Then it sails through the deer like a knitting needle, making a very narrow wound. If I had to guess, I would say there is a decent chance this happened.
 
Here are a couple examples of what I described above. These are .50 cal bullets fired from a 12ga shotgun. The one on the right hit the deer in the face and luckily killed it. You can see the wood inside the hollowpoint cavity. The one on the left most likely tumbled after hitting a decent sized tree and was recovered under the skin. Ordinarily these bullets perform flawlessly, but if they hit wood, they crumple in rather than expanding.

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Here are a couple examples of what I described above. These are .50 cal bullets fired from a 12ga shotgun. The one on the right hit the deer in the face and luckily killed it. The one on the left most likely tumbled after hitting a decent sized tree and was recovered under the skin. Ordinarily these bullets perform flawlessly, but if they hit wood, they crumple in rather than expanding.View attachment 72612
For deep penetration monos can’t be beat. But for tissue damage they are lacking imo. Good chance this is what happened to Brian. It just penciled through below spine and above lungs. The shockwave shocked the spine, but that’s temporary damage, not permanent.

@Wind Gypsy has taught me alot about bullet dynamics. There is a great long thread on another forum that has moved me away from monos and toward frangible.

If you just “have” to use monos, CEB, hammer, and DRT make monometal bullets that fragment.
 
Man, at least you got closure. I would chalk it up to these animals being tough as nails with an incredible will to live.
 
Always crazy to see how sometimes weird things happen and they get a long ways. Glad you got some closure.
 
I didn't think there was. Perhaps just less damage to lungs up there from hugging the spine that close?
That's my understanding of what goes on in that zone.
 
I didn't think there was. Perhaps just less damage to lungs up there from hugging the spine that close?

Yeah, makes sense. Lethal...just not as lethal.
 
Yeah. Prob clipped top of lungs too. But not enough for quick death.

You do have the psoas muscle there
 
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