This quote was pulled from the .45ACP for deer hunting thread. It just fit well with what happened to me this evening.



Apparently the one I shot this evening HAD been reading its energy tables and KNEW that a .38 Special equivalent load was NOT supposed to kill it!!!

Wifey just walked in the door as I was chatting on the phone with Tigger. She tells me of a doe laying on the berm just down the road...when she drove by the deer was flopping like crazy. I practically hang up on Tigger, grab the RBH .357 Magnum, load it with my light 158gr SWC (800fps) fodder and jump in the car.

Just down the road I find the deer laying in the grass, head raised but in rough shape. I walk over, hold the muzzle 6" from her forehead and let her have it. At the shot she slumped and started kicking like crazy. After 15 seconds it was over.

I grabbed her by the feet, throw her in the trunk and go to a local farmers house...about a ten minute drive. Henry and I pop the trunk to find the doe still breathing and starting to kick!! She calmed for a second, we grabbed her and yanked her out. As he got the gambrel ready, she kept breathing for another 5 minutes, Henry sliced her throat, and for ANOTHER five minutes she was breathing and still kicking from time to time.

Lesson of the story...I don't really know. Next time I'm just going to shoot for the heart I guess!!

In my own opinion, you can't beat a good heart/lung shot. You can shoot a deer in the brain in several locations and as long as the projectile does not inflict damage to the brain stem, the animal can live for a while as you saw. I've literally seen an adult doe (we've since named and remember her as "the doe from hell") take 3, 30-06 loads to the head and neck and keep on trucking. I don't know what was keeping her head on really. From then on, all of my finish shots have and will be heart/lung.

I'd have slid it behind the shoulder through the heart lung area and finished her off. Most people shoot too low when going for a brain shot and usually end up airing out the sinuses.

We generally teach new deer hunters not to try brain shots. The actual brain cavity on a deer is very small object in a large rapidly moving structure. We always recommend a heart lung shot as the most humane.

With head shots its all to easy to miss the brain and inflict a very nasty injury which will cause the animal to die to lingering death over hours or days.

The above applies to hunting shots and not the situation of putting down an injured animal, however this incident shows the same principle may also apply.

That is a pretty funny one! You probably [censored] your pants when you opened the trunk! They are some tough critters!

I've head shot a few deer while rifle hunting until one time that I missed the critical area and injured a deer. That stopped that practice. For finishers, I typically shoot them from the back of the head and have the exit between the eyes. I did not do that tonight.

road kill pick-up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4STTYu-wkU

It happens from time to time, and not just deer. I've seen it occur with cattle, horses, dogs, just about any critter that gets hit on the roads here in Osage Co.

Dan,

Your usual practise of behind the head shot is the correct approach for a brain finisher. The controling centers for breathing and heart beat are in the lower brain stem just inside the base of the skull. If you center the spine on the back of the neck and raise up slightly into the skull you will take out the brain stem destroying breathing and heart control centers. If you are a little too low you will cut the spinal cord above where the nerves to the diaphram emerge and again stopping breathing. Approach from any other angle must hit these centers or traumatize them to ensure a quick kill. I have seen humans with all matter of penetrating wounds to the head survive in the operating room where I work. However a wound to the brain stem is always lights out. That is why this shot is always pictured as a favorite of TV and Movie assassins.

I'd would of paid to watch,haha.I know of a fellow who shot one one time with a 270 and loaded it on the truck,tied it down to travel,before he got to his destination,he had to cut it loose from the truck,don't know if that deer was ever killed.Another fellow,Mr.Rich,an old boss man of man carried around 2 hoof impressions on his chest for a while from a deer that didn't read tables and this deer was shot with a 45-70.I figure they are a lot like people,some have a severe will to live and others don't.