Got a yard pass for a last minute hunt in Alabama for end of season.
Mixed bag with the 6ARC gas gun and 95tmk’s.
Deer one: 100-120lb deer, rushed first shot with unsteady rest. Poor performance on my part. Unsure but the deer did not act hit. Second shot I would never have taken through brush if I hadn’t already potentially wounded the deer. About 75 yards through brush but I saw a window. Deer quartering away, dropped at the shot. I was laying prone for this shot on top of a ridge and I could see the deer flopping but no follow up too thick. Slipped down ridge to get closer for another shot. The deer started to get much more active and was getting its hind legs under it. It paused for a split second looking at me and I attempted a head shot from about 20 yards. The deer rocked back at the shot, and stood up and trotted Off. I saw a gaping hole in his neck, one high shoulder, and it was missing the top of its skull. Trailed it almost 500 yards before losing blood. By the end the deer was clearly walking . Into a thicket and through it into swamp. We gridded as best we could. I’m still thoroughly confused. All I can assume is that the second shot upset on brush in front of deer and hit high shoulder/stunned the deer. I’m 100% confident of the gaping wounds I saw, but once the deer got on its feet it had adrenaline to get moving. It was a crappy disaster that I still don’t get.
Deer two: 120lb deer, 25 yards quarter to, point of shoulder. Bang flop dead before it hit the ground. Entrance wound
View attachment 836929View attachment 836930
Shoulder removed on entrance
View attachment 836932
No exit, one small bullet fragment made it through chest cavity and stopped just outside ribs. Heart was pulled and was intact with no fragments (I know because we ate it 3 hours later). Spine was crunchy under backstraps, assumption is most of the bullet landed in spine. Some bone shards pulling heart out. Lungs liquified.
Small fragment offside
View attachment 836931
Deer three: 80-90lb deer, 75 yards moving right to left at good pace across opening. Was prepared and timed shot. Hit mid body just below spine. Bang flop.
Entrance
View attachment 836933
Exit of some of the bullet same height slightly further back under spine but destroyed it.
View attachment 836935
Bullet fragment under offside skin just below backstrap
View attachment 836939View attachment 836940
Hide off entrance
View attachment 836941
Hide off exit
View attachment 836942
Heart was recovered intact, back of lungs mush by feel, everything from back of lungs back was a mess.
The first deer really was one of the weirdest shot sequences I’ve seen hunting. No idea how the deer survived what I saw.
That said, the next two shots were excellent performance. One tenderloin was lost, a small amount of the back of one shoulder, and two chunks of backstrap I cut out. I’m guessing less than half a pound of meat loss.
Happy to get a last minute hunt to try the TMK’s.