A Hunting Topic....REALLY!
Community
Yup! No politics whatsoever involved! I'd post this on the general forum but it's concerning a gun kill.
As a lifelong hunter of deer I'm also a student of deer and what/how/when/why about them. The more I learn the better a hunter it makes me. The following incident has been puzzling me since I learned of it. Anyway..........
This past weekend was the first half of the Illinois firearm deer season. I could not make first half due to my workload, but my deer camp buddies went to the farm we hunt. Friday morning my best friend shot one of the best buck's he ever killed. He was using a .12 gauge shotgun loaded with Brenneke slugs.
He shot the deer at about 20-25 yards. It was slightly quartering to him. He held on the front shoulder/chest and the slug broke BOTH front shoulders, went through both lungs and the deer went about 30 more yards, literally pushing itself with it's back legs before it stopped. He waited in the tree for about 15 minutes and then went to the deer. He said it's sides were still slightly moving so he gave it a finishing shot.
Now here's where it get's weird..........when he opened the deer up, THE LUNGS WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED.
So here's my question. I've shot a lot of deer with both gun and bow. As we all know a deer that's had either an arrow or a bullet/slug pass through both lungs doesn't go very far, and most of the time it's a death run where they literally die in full stride, usually at less than 100 yards. So HOW and WHY did this deer, with both lungs literally blown up, could still be alive a quarter of an hour later?
The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that usually when we double lung a deer their legs are still working so they take off at full speed, which makes their heart/lungs pump even faster, thus hastening the inevitable death from blood loss. Could it be that because this deer wasn't capable of a running that he lived longer?
There's a lot of experienced hunters here, let me know what you all think.
Honestly, if both lungs were destroyed on the first shot, there's no way it could live more than a couple minutes. Simple biology. It had to have oxygen to live. I'm guessing the first shot took out one lung, and I've seen some amazing things WRT deer/elk living with one lung.
Both lungs, no oxygen, no life.
That's what I thought too, and also what my own experience has been, but he says that both lungs were completely destroyed when he opened it up. One lung I can understand. I have a 2 day tracking story about a nice buck I hit in one lung. Amazing is right!
It could be just muscle reactions. I have skinned out game farm lions that the vet pronounced dead, only to have them quiver as we skin them out for mounts. That will freak you out.
That could very well be. I wasn't there so I'm getting this second hand. But if those lions were euthanized by injection and not shot via a method than causes death through blood loss (shock), then that could be the reason they still quivered. Usually when something literally bleeds out they're dead/dead.
Just guessing but if he made a finishing shot on a really big buck, where did he shoot it? I wouldn't think he would shoot it in the neck or head. I would have shot it through the lungs where there is no bones, except ribs, to not mess up any meat. That would destroy the lungs if they were still inflated.
My guess is part of a lung was still functioning.
Pictures of the deer, shot placement?
Not passing judgement here but if deer was slightly quartering and both shoulders broke it tell me that the shot angle may have been a little forward destroying only one lung. The other damaged by shrapnel and bone fragments may have been damaged mortally but functional for a brief time.
Really, you just never know what they will do when shot, and Deer are very tough animals.
. .
. . . .
I have killed a lot of Deer with shotgun slugs. Just about all east coast military bases restrict you to shotguns. Most of the Deer I shot with 1 oz slugs, dropped on the spot, or ran 10 yards or less, with a double lung hit.
However, one time at Fort A. P. Hill, I hit a Doe at 40 yards with a 1 oz slug, quartering towards me. She ran 80 yards down hill before piling up. When I gutted her, her chest cavity was nothing but thick red goo. The slug and shoulder bones took out both lungs and the heart.
I never figured out how that Doe ran at all, let alone 80 yards.
I use Remington Sluggers in 12 ga. They are 7/8 oz slugs. Last year I was in a tree stand and shot three times. Two fell in their tracks and one went close to a hundred yards, double lung shot. I use the sluggers because they are made for a smooth bore, not rifled barrel. I use a Mossberg SPX Tactical semi auto. 18" barrel and it holds 8 shells. Shoots great groups and is death to deer.
I have a Browning A-Bolt 12 gauge with a 1.5X5 Leupold scope that I shoot Winchester Partition Gold Sabots. I zero at 100 yards and I don't have to think about holdover until the range approaches 150 yards. At 180 yards they are still supersonic. Those loads do damage like a 30.06 does. They are unbelievable for a shotgun and a DAMN sight better than the "punkin' balls" I used to shoot as a kid!
Here's my friend's deer. I'll see if I can actually sit down with him and get some more info because it doesn't make sense.
