One down in Southern Illinois

[CraigF]

I shot him at the bottom of big hill. He was 125 yards away and 75 yards below me. I used a 250 Barnes TMZ and 42 grains 4759. I shot him while he was walking through and I had to stand up in my stand and shoot free hand. The nice thing is that the bullet went right were I wanted it to go, double lunged him. He was a 7 pointer, lost a brow tine, but was 19 inches wide on the inside. Weighed a ton too, 'bout through my back out dragging him up a creek wall to a 4-wheeler. Already butchering him, I have never got this much meat from one deer. He is a keeper!



Thanks again for all of the help guys!

[Kevin B.]

Congratulations cfrazier77!!!! You are having a great year, hunting-wise. I know that everytime I see where you start a new thread, there'll be another deer! ;D I'm happy for ya. Maybe just a little envious. Congratulations...you deserve it!!

[CraigF]

Thanks, I may be done for a while though. I have to get caught back up with seminary. We have our second gun season the weekend after Thanksgiving, I don't know if I am going out for that, I have 1 doe tag left. I will probably bring two does back from Texas when my wife and I go down there for Christmas with her family.

Just so you don't think that I am getting venison "greedy", I keep one for myself and after I butcher the others I distribute it to people in need. God's bounty to His people.

[E.T.]

Now that's what I call one happy followup posting.
Congrats on a fine buck.
That's the kind of grin I wear when a good day at the range occurs. Just have to watch that kind of grin isn't locked by the facial muscles. ;D

Ed

[jims]

Good write-up.

[DBinNY]

Very nice. I thought you had put a diaper on the deer in that top picture. Is that ice? We had 6" of snow on the ground so we didn't have to deal with that!

[CraigF]

I put 3 bags of ice in him. The temps got into the low 60's and I didn't want to take a chance. Also, I like to wait a day before butchering, I don't know if it is just me or if it really makes it easier.

[simonkenton]

Good shooting, nice buck!

It does make it easier to cut up the meat when the meat is cold, plus a lot of blood will come out of the meat after waiting a day. A lot more blood will come out after 3 or 4 days.
I quarter the deer, and put the meat in a big 42 quart cooler on ice. Easy to handle, and I can cut up the meat when it is convenient for me. The longest I have kept the meat on ice is 6 days.

[DW]

Nice buck.

[whyohe]

nice job and good report.

[CraigF]

Thanks guys,
Question, has anyone had the experience of double lunging and no blood at the impact site? Or no blood for 20-40 yards? This has me scratching my head, first time for me. When I dressed him both lungs were GONE, I forgot to look at the heart though.

I just expected him to bleed from the beginning. I almost did not find the blood trail once he did start. Kind of unsettling that I could of lost him.

[clayman]

great deer keep enjoying yourself in the great outdoors md. gun season opens sat. and i will try again clayman

[SW]

:)Very nice write-up and deer. Congratulations.

[minst7877]

I have seen that happen on some of the deer I have shot. It is very unsettling looking for that first sign wondering what went wrong. I have gotten in the habit of watching the deer as far as I can see it and trying to mark the spot that I last saw it. If no blood at the original location I go to the last area that it was seen and start walking grids looking for sign. Congrats on the deer glad things worked out so well for you after all the problems.

DC

[posmrx]

congrats, great shooting.

[DBinNY]

cfrazier77 said:

Thanks guys,
Question, has anyone had the experience of double lunging and no blood at the impact site? Or no blood for 20-40 yards? This has me scratching my head, first time for me. When I dressed him both lungs were GONE, I forgot to look at the heart though.

I just expected him to bleed from the beginning. I almost did not find the blood trail once he did start. Kind of unsettling that I could of lost him.

I've also seen this happen on a few occasions. Why? I don't know. Generally they become pretty easy to track once you find where the sign begins. The things I try to do when I shoot a deer are:

1) Watch the reaction of the animal (try this with a smoke pole ). Sometimes it's obvious that you whaled them but many times well hit deer simply take off as if not hit at all.

2) Pay close attention to where the deer was standing when you shot and watch him for as long as you can remembering which tree (or similar landmark) he passed when he went out of sight.

3) Listen carefully. A double lunged deer in a panic flight generally does not "lay down"; it CHRASHES and if you are hunting in the woods with leaves on the ground and/or a lot of brush this is often easy to hear even after the deer has gone out of sight.

[7mmrm]

Nice!!

[wilmsmeyer]

I second everything DBinNY has just said.

Also, I have seen quite a few deer not bleed from a double lung hit. There are some pretty good reasons for this IMO.

Deer at an angle where the skin is stretched at impact and the bullet doesn't pass through yet gets both lungs. At impact the deer changes positions and the hole in the skin does not match the hole in the deers body.

Another is a raking angle where the bullet enters the lung cavity behind the diaphram and does not exit. The diaphram will hold most of the blood in the chest cavity.

Fat can also plug holes after impact, usually on an exit.

For the most part a deer hit in the lungs will always blow small spray from the mouth and nostrils once it begins to depart the scene. This sign is usually found much higher on vegetation and can be overlooked in poor light or when concentrating on the ground sign. It's almost always there pretty quick if you look closely.

Although these hits can cause a lack of extremely evident blood trails, they can also cause good ones too. Each situation is different even if minutely so. The guys I hunt with and I do a lot of analyzing the bullet damage and performance when gutting animals. Even deer that go down in sight where no trailing is needed warrents a close look......just for information purposes. I've seen some strange things with blood trails and lack of them with well hit deer....bow and gun.

A double lunged deer is in huge trouble very quickly and should probably be recovered regardless of evident sign.

[rossman40]

I have to agree with DB and Wilmsmeyer. Also if both lungs collapse the chest cavity has to fill first before blood will come out. Anyway he ain't breathing and he ain't going far. If it was a pass thru do not look so much on the ground but the bushes behind. Lung hits will leave very bright blood and may be foamy. Dark blood can mean a liver hit. Clear/greenish liquids gut shot...