Deer travel after shot?
Connecticut
With all this talk about good shots and bad shots and tracking it got me curious. How far are people tracking deer after the shot? The two I shot this year were broadside shots with NAP mechanicals and my deer only went 30 to 40 yards with lung shots. I have never tracked a deer more than 75 yards before they pile up and the blood trail is always massive. I have passed on a lot of questionable shots so maybe that is part of it. Just curious if people have the same luck as me?
That's not luck. That's a well placed shot. They say (some magazine) that a deer can go up to 100 yards when you calculate everything thing involved and how fast they can run equalling distance traveled
As you describe it, no more than 75 yards for me. Most expire within 50 yards. I use fixed 3 and 2 blades broadheads: WASP - VPA - Zwickey - Magnus. Even when the blood trail is not rich I find them quickly just by guessing direction given shot placement and deer behavior. Foot marks and a droplet of blood here and there for confirmation help with recovery. On hard recovery jobs in thick brush I think like a deer.
The only time i had one go more than 50 was a liver shot. Usually 30 or 40
I guess it would depend on a lot of factors..50- 1mile ..best possible scenerio 50-75 yrds...on a hard 1/4 away one lung 1 mile.
I agree with not me tracked a doe 4 yrs ago for I’d say about quarter of a mile one lunged her
the two deer i have harvested went 30-40 yards, both broadside pass through shots, one woth a toxic fixed the other with a rage mechanical. hit one in the shoulder, tracked for a 1/4 mile with barely any blood untill the trail came out into a large feild, never found her. like said above all about shot placement.
I've had anywhere from 5 yards to half a mile or more. Usually on a good pump station hit I usually see anywhere from 50 to 100 yards.
30 to 300.....the 300 was a one lung liver...i lost a few that i tracked 500 to 600 yards
Shortest, dropped in his tracks due to spine shot and longest was 100 yards.
I know a guy who has shot literally THOUSANDS of deer with a good variety of rifles, but mostly .270 Win, 150 gr at about 2700-2800 fps. He fully expects a well-hit deer to go 80 yards; usually a bit farther on a heart-shot.
So if they’re tipping over inside of 50, that’s some good shooting.
My first one went the farthest; high double lung towards the back of the 8-ring, and he probably went 100 or so. Decent blood at first, changing to a fine mist that was easier to see on the trees that he blew past than on the ground, but at that point he was on a bee-line, so when I lost the track, I just circled ahead, rather than trampling sign, and he had obviously passed out mid-stride. First whitetail went about 80 net, on a dead-center heart-shot; he actually ran on a big arc to the right because the broadhead was buried in that off shoulder and his left side was overpowering it.
Longest was about 300yds, of course, it was all downhill. He was very big and too heavy for me to drag. I had to cut him in half at the hind quarters, after removing the tenderloins, and walk him back in stages of about seventy-five yards each. Of course, there was at least another hundred yards from my stand to my truck. The blood trail was difficult because there was no exit wound and the entry was high on the back. It was after that deer I bought a cart.
I've had both easy and hard blood trails. I get a lot of satisfaction from working out the difficult ones. Stay on the blood and don't let the darkness deter you. I've since learned that a GPS is really handy in the dark to prevent getting turned around. Twice I've had a blood trail suddenly end, only to find, that the deer performed a leap, flipped backwards and landed dead, off to the side of the trail, maybe ten yards back. On one of those, it rolled down a verry steep embankment of at least fifty yards.
GF, tell him to switch to a 25-06. 115 grains at 3000 FPS. Whenever I hit one in the heart or lungs it would drop on the spot. 3 deer total yardage was 50 yards. Wish I never sold that gun.
I kept track of the following criteria for years and about 100 deer. Time, weather, environment (field edge, hard woods, etc) shot distance, distance traveled after shot, equipment (type of bow, arrow, head, calls, and more). Shot distance average was 19 yards and distance travelled after-hit was 34 with the shortest being zero (several of those) and longest being 400.
My closest walked to my tree base and passed there. A good shot (double lung) I figure 100yrds max. Bad shot anything goes.
Average Heart shot for me is under 20 yards this one 15 ' see dirt on left where she stood. Lungs usually out to 50 yards and liver un pushed 80 yards .
Average Heart shot for me is under 20 yards this one 15 ' see dirt on left where she stood. Lungs usually out to 50 yards and liver un pushed 80 yards .
Exit .270 150 grain at 15 yards and 18' up
Exit .270 150 grain at 15 yards and 18' up
Heart shots are my favorite.
"GF, tell him to switch to a 25-06. 115 grains at 3000 FPS. Whenever I hit one in the heart or lungs it would drop on the spot."
Well, he's retired, but he was shooting for the market, and every lost pound of bloodshot meat was lost income, so he would have had no more use for a quarterbore than he had for Nosler Ballistic Tips. He guided as well, so he saw a lot of Punters come through with a lot of different rifles and loads, and the one constant was that the higher the velocity, the more stuff goes wrong...
A dead deer and a tidy carcass are all you'll ever need, and if you hit them right, 80-100 yards trailing job is a piece o' cake. Though he did have a good dog in reserve, just in case....
If I try to think back and average all of them, I'm going to say 50yds. But I have had 2 that went over 100.
First one I ever killed probably went 200. It was just over the sternum, as I recall it looked like the hit got part of the heart, but didnt center punch it. A buck I high lunged (just under spine) 7 years ago (I remember because we had just gotten pregnant, well, my wife :)) made it maybe 125 in a U, he died probably 80 from where he was shot if you went in a straight line. Another high lung entry, sternum end point shot a few years ago went 100-125~ I'd say as well - and that was impressive since both lungs had damage from the shot, and the heart! Other than that, most I saw or heard fall within 50.
My buck yesterday was 35 yds after shot using a 100gr grim reaper razor tip.
