huntinman802 Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 7:05 AM opening morning of the michigan rifle season i see a deer, so i get my gun up and am lookin at this deer trying to see if its a buck. then it starts running when i see it is, i know i need to shoot him before he gets into the woods or ill never get another shot so i shoot just before he gets to the woods, 220 yards running shot hit him right in the neck and dropped him deader than a doornail!!!! he was a 4 point that weighed 170 lb. but then the second day i skipped school in the morning to hunt and im in the same blind as the day before. i see a deer run across the same spot as the buck the day before i got my gun up in time to see it was a buck but no shots. we are hunting next to a river and can see where he would have crossed at and he didnt so when my grandpa and i are walking out i go up straight by thick brush and my g-pa went around the river to try to flush the buckk back to the thick brush, but instead the buck starts running down the river bank, he gets a shot at it and hits it. so im tracking blood by the river when i see the buck running in front of me at 370 yds around 2 curves of the river and shoot once at 370 yds once at 400 and once at 425 and hit him all 3 times. i get up there and am tracking blood puddles the size of dinner plates when i start seeing pieces of fat and more fat, and more fat , and more fat and then a huge piece of fat and no more blood. he ran into a gravel pit on the neighboring property. we went looking throught there and find NOTHING. no deer no blood no fat no hair NOTHING. we looked through all of it. im sick, i think he went out a water filled ditch and got in the river and then who knows wat. i tracked him along the river for about 600 yards with dinner plate sized puddles of blood and still didnt find him. idk wat the heck happened:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kid Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 thats some long range shooting right there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntinman802 Posted November 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 all of it was with a .243 shooting 85 grain bullets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdavis Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 If you didn't find the deer what makes you think you hit it all 3 times? Unethical to shoot at a running deer especially at those distances. Next time wait until they stop, it's better to not get a shot than be in the situation of tracking a wounded deer and not finding it. Just my thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosierhunter Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 7:05 AM 220 yards running shot hit him right in the neck and dropped him deader than a doornail!!!! he gets a shot at it and hits it. so im tracking blood by the river when i see the buck running in front of me at 370 yds around 2 curves of the river and shoot once at 370 yds once at 400 and once at 425 and hit him all 3 times. Obviously your a younger hunter since you skipped school to hunt so you have a quite a bit of learning to do so I'm going to educate you a little bit....FIRST LESSON! DON"T SHOOT AT DEER ON THE RUN PERIOD A .243 with 85 Grain bullet isn't a good deer hunting gun. You should be shooting at least 150 grains. Yes well placed shots will kill deer but you just found out what poor shooting will get you too!! It's nothing to be proud of hitting a deer at 300 and some odd yards and losing him. You post comes across as bragging about some great shot you made when I reality you just flat out screwed up! I think you need a hunter's education course in the worst way right about now to be completely honest:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNcrittergittr Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 (edited) To be fully honest, I agree with hoosier here...I'm sorry you lost the deer. I'm not trying to be nasty here, just honest...shooting at running deer is a bad idea, shooting a deer 3 or 4 times is nothing to be proud of and not finding it after that is absolutely pathetic! I hate hearing these types of stories! I hope you learn from this experience and use it to be a better, more patient, disciplined hunter. Edited November 19, 2009 by MNcrittergittr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubledrop Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 What happened was there were no good shots available but shots were taken anyways. If you hit a deer and are not sure where you hit it DO NOT PUSH IT. I think hoosier says it best with his reply. please read it and understand it, also with those distances an accident is waiting to happen and then there will be another thread on here about another hunting fatality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNcrittergittr Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 What happened was there were no good shots available but shots were taken anyways. If you hit a deer and are not sure where you hit it DO NOT PUSH IT. I think hoosier says it best with his reply. please read it and understand it, also with those distances an accident is waiting to happen and then there will be another thread on here about another hunting fatality. Exactly, it really sounds like you rushed in and pushed the deer like crazy, which is the last thing you want to do. It can be tough, but you HAVE to be patient. We owe it to the animals we hunt and the tradition to do all we can and the best we can in every aspect of the hunt. Hunting is more than just being in the woods with a gun...I really hope you understand the importance of this and use this experience to learn from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grady269 Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 on the run Now this is gonna sound crazy to you guys out west but in Virginia we run deer with hounds. The area I hunt in allows both Rifles and shotguns. The "Dog Hunting" begins on the opening day of Fire Arms season. My point is I have shot a bunch of deer running both with a rifle and buckshot. I am not gonna say I killed em' all, but I will say I have killed my fair share. When you shoot em' with a rifle running 9 out of 10 times if you hit the deer he will go down, you may need to follow up on that deer with another shot though. The mistake most people make is not leading the deer or shooting too high. insid e100 yds aim at his nose, 100-150 aim 5 ft in front, don't shoot at deer running over 150 yds. AIM LOW and shoot on the down bounce you have to pace them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunter83 Posted November 19, 2009 Report Share Posted November 19, 2009 I agree with everyone else here...It's REALLY important to be patient. That goes for all types of hunting from squirrels to deer. We have been given the great name to be called wildlife conservationists, and to say that you were shooting at a deer over 300 yards on the run, is kind of giving all of us hunters a bad name. I agree that I really think you should take a hunter's education class. It's VERY important to be safe but it is also important to be respectful to our wildlife too! Did your Grandpa take a shot at a running deer too! I bet he didn't. If so he may need to be in the class with you. Hope you guys have a SAFE rest of the season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntinman802 Posted November 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 hoosier, u have obviously never used a .243 on deer, i shot a doe at 425 yds last year and killed it deader than any deer u have ever seen. and the reason i kept shooting it was because the deer was already shot at roughly 80 or 90 yards, and didnt want him to cross the river. i know wat i have done with this gun and i know wat i can do with it. i wouldnt have shot at it more than the first time if it wouldnt have started to cross the river. the way i know i hit it more than jus tthe first shot my grandpa took wat because at the spot i shot is where i started to find dinner plate sized puddles of blood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunter83 Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 hoosier, u have obviously never used a .243 on deer, i shot a doe at 425 yds last year and killed it deader than any deer u have ever seen. and the reason i kept shooting it was because the deer was already shot at roughly 80 or 90 yards, and didnt want him to cross the river. i know wat i have done with this gun and i know wat i can do with it. i wouldnt have shot at it more than the first time if it wouldnt have started to cross the river. the way i know i hit it more than jus tthe first shot my grandpa took wat because at the spot i shot is where i started to find dinner plate sized puddles of blood In Hoosier's defense- 425 yds is a VERY long shot for a .243. You might know that you can shoot that far with it, but do you know how well your bullets velocity and kinetic energy is at that distance? I could probably hit targets at that distance no problem but to hit a MOVING target at that distance is quite impossible. (Unless you are a sniper which i am going to take a wild guess and say you aren't) And if you were finding dinner plate size puddles of blood, the you probably were pushing the deer and made the mistake of not backing out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntinman802 Posted November 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 my grandpa practices on moving targets and has shot many deer that are running and 90% of them he has hit and dropped them in their tracks. we practice on moving targets for this. i know i did rush this deer when i was tracking him and the reason i shot was because he was going to cross the river and they will not allow us to go on that land to find our deer even if they are just on the bank. i went out the other day to look for this deer and did find him. he was a tall tight rack 3 point. he was in a super thick brushy area. there was in fact 4 bullet holes 2 looked liked they were lung area shots one was a gut shot and one was kinda far back intestinal area. the neck and head and neck was all eaten by coyotes and but none of the body, kinda weird because the other deer that ive seen eaten by coyotes had the body eaten all out. it has been really warm this year compared to other years and he was spoiled so we couldnt eat him. he was about 250 yards from where the dog was last on the trail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom2008 Posted November 23, 2009 Report Share Posted November 23, 2009 If I remember correctly you can only shoot two bucks in MI if the second one is 4 points or more on one side. Correct me if I'm wrong. Unless MI allows the party hunting tactic also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grady269 Posted November 23, 2009 Report Share Posted November 23, 2009 90% 90% is a unique number and it is best averaged from 100. 90% means that out of 100 shots fired your average is 90 deer killed and 10 deer lost on a running deer with a rifle. Acutally 90% of hunters could not hit 90% of skeet thrown by hand with a shot gun. 90% of hunters can not hit 90% of deer standing still @ 100 yds. I think the folks on this board have substantially less than a 10% chance of re-shaping your thinking into that of a reasonable person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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