Bad shot?

[jeffpenland123]

I shot a doe back a few weeks ago with a 30-06 spring field. It's a browning ab3 30-06 with a Leupold 3-9x40 vx freedom. It groups quarter inch with the 180 grain Remington core lokt only bullet the gun groups under 1.5 inches. I'm very confident with the set up. I shot a white tail doe at 126.4 yards to be exact laying on the ground with a bipod she jumped blood gushing out everywhere she ran about 14 yards and stopped like she wasn't even hit. So I shot her again high shoulder she falls down on her front legs and starts pushing with her back legs and get out of there I go down to where I last seen her there is blood for about 30 yards then it stops and everything else stops too. I searched 20 different directions for her searched for 5 hours never found her. Went back the next morning and looked for about 2 hours couldn't find her. My experience with the Remington core lokt had always been great with 270 308 223 243 and a few others what ever the bullet made contact with ran less than 40 yards. Could it be that I missed her with 2 shots with a rifle that 2 days before was shooting perfectly accurate and grouping under half moa. Not saying I I didn't miss but I feel very confident in the shot I took. Has anybody had this happen? Tia

 

[jeffpenland123]

I shot a doe back a few weeks ago with a 30-06 spring field. It's a browning ab3 30-06 with a Leupold 3-9x40 vx freedom. It groups quarter inch with the 180 grain Remington core lokt only bullet the gun groups under 1.5 inches. I'm very confident with the set up. I shot a white tail doe at 126.4 yards to be exact laying on the ground with a bipod she jumped blood gushing out everywhere she ran about 14 yards and stopped like she wasn't even hit. So I shot her again high shoulder she falls down on her front legs and starts pushing with her back legs and get out of there I go down to where I last seen her there is blood for about 30 yards then it stops and everything else stops too. I searched 20 different directions for her searched for 5 hours never found her. Went back the next morning and looked for about 2 hours couldn't find her. My experience with the Remington core lokt had always been great with 270 308 223 243 and a few others what ever the bullet made contact with ran less than 40 yards. Could it be that I missed her with 2 shots with a rifle that 2 days before was shooting perfectly accurate and grouping under half moa. Not saying I I didn't miss but I feel very confident in the shot I took. Has anybody had this happen? Tia

Also I shot the rifle the next day and it was still hitting dead on zero at 100!!

 

[Dave Thomas]

You didn't miss if the deer was bleeding after the first shot and fell after the second shot. Sometimes this happens, it sucks but it happens. Sounds like you put in a good effort to find it. Maybe try to get in touch with someone who has a tracking dog so next time you can use them to find the deer.

 

[ethanbillingsley]

What did the blood look like? That would have been my first indicator of what I was looking at. Also, I've shot deer before and had them run for 50-100 yards with little to no blood to find I double lunged just stopped at backside of skin. Normally when the deer front push like that it is an easy follow as they have essentially cleared a brush trail for you to walk down. How long did you wait before approach? And how far out did you grid search after initial check?

 

[LostArra]

It's not the ammo or the gun or your shooting. It's the species.
Dead whitetail deer can run a long way in 60 seconds then tip over in crazy places.
You just didn't find her.

 

[Kyguy]

My first comment is that deer can be amazingly resilient, even with a fatal shot. My cousin shot a doe with his 308 last year at 60 ish yard, she took off like she had the devil chasing her, we found her 150 yards later through some thick nasty stuff. Perfect lung shot, a fist size hole through both lungs, and spilling blood everywhere the whole time.

My second comment is, people need to keep shooting till an animal is down. If it's still in the scope, and it's still moving, it needs to be shot again. Doesn't matter if the first shot was "good". Everybody always thinks their first shot is perfect, though judging by the amount of deer recovery stories I've seen on a local Facebook outdoors page, it definitely isn't so. And half of the stories sounds just like yours.

 

[jeffpenland123]

You didn't miss if the deer was bleeding after the first shot and fell after the second shot. Sometimes this happens, it sucks but it happens. Sounds like you put in a good effort to find it. Maybe try to get in touch with someone who has a tracking dog so next time you can use them to find the deer.

I called everybody within a 3 hour range of me and they was already doing one or wouldnt come out to me because of how late it was

 

[jeffpenland123]

What did the blood look like? That would have been my first indicator of what I was looking at. Also, I've shot deer before and had them run for 50-100 yards with little to no blood to find I double lunged just stopped at backside of skin. Normally when the deer front push like that it is an easy follow as they have essentially cleared a brush trail for you to walk down. How long did you wait before approach? And how far out did you grid search after initial check?

Me and 2 other guys it was all about 7 and a half hours if grid searching all together plus about a hour or so of looking for blood at the end of the trail

 

[Chris in TN]

That's a lot to unpack. The short version is that it sounds like you made two bad shots.

 

[TaperPin]

Maybe one of those unexplainable mysteries of life?

Crazy weird 100% doable shots like this that go off the rails seem to happen more often with bipods. The mechanics of setting the rifle down, getting prone, starting to look through the scope while bringing the muzzle down until there’s a good sight picture gives opportunities to shoot into low branches, dirt, snow, rocks that don’t register in the scope.

It happened to me and I didn’t shoot, but easily could have. I avoid short bipods all together for that reason, or at least try to remember to start muzzle low or look carefully along the side of the scope.