Ok yes, but is that not the same answer?
No. “Tough” to me would be two different animals of the same general size, blood volume, and chest volume- and you shoot 100 animal #1’s in the chest with a bullet that creates a 4” wide wound, and they run 20-50 yards and fall within 10-20 seconds- as expected. Then you shoot 100 animal type #2 with that same bullet causing 4” wide wounds through both lungs and they all tend to live for 3 hours.
It’s just not a thing when seen in sufficient numbers- destroy a 4” cone in any normal sized animals lungs, they are going to die pretty quick. But, what tends to happen with elk, bear, mountain goat and African animals, is that they get a reputation of “tough” from poor shooting, or because they are big, the people use “tough” bullets that cause very narrow wound channels, and from cartridges and rifles that they shoot even more poorly, then they hit animals poorly, and the cycle of belief in “toughness” continues.
I have shot animals badly and had them lay down and ponder their death. I have shot animals in the lungs (lungs seem to be the primary problem) and had them run a long damn way.
I’ve had whitetail doe’s gut shot lay down within 40 yards and die 6 hours later, and I’ve had whitetail doe’s gut shot take off at a full run, cover nearly a mile going down 700’ish vertical feet to a creek, then up 500 or 600’ish vertical feet, and cover an additional 500 or so yards cross hill to get to a thicket. When I walked in on her 4-5 hours later, she was bedded and bobbing her head. Both of those deer were shot on the exact same trail, from the same stand, with the exact same rifle, and ammo from the same fix.
Individual animals have differing personalities and temperaments just like individual people. Some give up easy, and some fight.
A roe deer shot in a bad spot will lay down and try to die. A pronghorn will cover miles and miles of bloody Wyoming. I think antelope are tough, when badly shot. I have also seen them fall like a hammer, when shot well.
And I’ve seen poorly shot antelope stand there for several minutes without moving. And slowly walk off. And take off at a dead run. Animals are individuals. I haven’t seen a massive difference in reaction from pronghorn and whitetails being shot in the exact same terrain- prairie whitetail also tend to run for a long ways from poor hits.
Also, pronghorns (like other herd, prairie animals) tend to cause hunters to lose their minds much more so than other animals.
