A somber revelation - I killed a baby deer last year

[FJ540]

I know I mentioned the 6mo old deer I found dead last fall, and it'd been bugging me all year till I realised I shot that thing accidentally when I took my doe. I'm still not happy about it, but at least I know it wasn't shot intentionally and left behind as I had been thinking.

The bullet entry was huge and in the mid thigh at the butt, then exited the stomach - probably 2' of travel through the animal. We thought it was a slug at the time, but the more I thought about it I came to realise my bullet exited the neck of my deer (expanded) and it would've been at the right angle and height to hit the youngster with that wound path.

I wish I would've put it in the chest now. I was going for a fast humane kill on my doe and I ended up slowly killing a deer I never would've shot.

[Shipyard]

plug it. gut it. eat it. wait for next season - repeat. if it's brown - it's down. end of story.

you seem awfully remorseful for a dude who was just previously trying to pimp his "bad azz-ness" concerning ink and holes and such.

need i remind you of "the logic"??

[JJ]

Its a friggin deer. My perfect deer hunting season is a doe and a fawn walking past my stand. Plenty of burger, and the most tender breakfast steaks ever. I'm with ship, if its brown its down.

[macphisto]

One shot, two kills. Most impressive!

But yeah, you're an effen monster.

[JJ]

Wait I thought about it for a minute, the PERFECT hunt for me is a doe with twin fawns

[FJ540]

Well, we were lottery last year, and I found it 3 days later after it was bloated so it went to waste.

It fed coyotes and whatever else found it (I picked the skull up this summer), but it shouldnt've died like that.

I happen to respect the deer I eat. They gave their lives for my nourishment and enjoyment. It's not about blasting critters like I feel with crows, tree rats, and raccoons (and if we were so blessed to have an open season on politicians ). I like deer. I only want to kill the ones I'm going to eat and feed my family with. So yeah, I do feel bad. That it was left there is what's been bugging me. I had just never put the wound channel in proximity to my "clean" shot before and then it clicked. Had I known, I could've gotten it to the DNR so it could make someone on food stamps a snack.


It's just something else to think about when talking up how badly you want that 7mm or .338 Lapua for bambi. I did that with a 16" barreled .308 at somewhere around 60 yards with factory ammo.

It's also a reminder to know your target and it's background.

[JJ]

Well, we were lottery last year, and I found it 3 days later after it was bloated so it went to waste.

It fed coyotes and whatever else found it (I picked the skull up this summer), but it shouldnt've died like that.

I happen to respect the deer I eat. They gave their lives for my nourishment and enjoyment. It's not about blasting critters like I feel with crows, tree rats, and raccoons (and if we were so blessed to have an open season on politicians ). I like deer. I only want to kill the ones I'm going to eat and feed my family with. So yeah, I do feel bad. That it was left there is what's been bugging me. I had just never put the wound channel in proximity to my "clean" shot before and then it clicked. Had I known, I could've gotten it to the DNR so it could make someone on food stamps a snack.


It's just something else to think about when talking up how badly you want that 7mm or .338 Lapua for bambi. I did that with a 16" barreled .308 at somewhere around 60 yards with factory ammo.

It's also a reminder to know your target and it's background.

I can understand being bummed about not realizing you hit it. Thats a crappy feeling.

That said, i respect the deer I shoot. I also understand that half of hunting is about population control. In our area we don't have a lot of wolves but the deer population blows up every so often. I'm never going to feel bad about shooting a fawn. If thats what you feel bad about, I'm guessing you aren't a fan of veal either.

[FJ540]

No, it's that it wasn't big enough to be shot. There was hardly anything to it. I'm all about population control too, but mature bucks are few and far between in my area so if it's not 120+ lbs I'd rather shoot one of the cow sized does and take a momma out of the breeding pool.

Veal is yummy, but I don't find cows particularly attractive or fun to watch and stalk.

[bensdad]

There was hardly anything to it.

Then it wasn't gonna survive winter anyway.

[mnglocker]

No, it's that it wasn't big enough to be shot. There was hardly anything to it. I'm all about population control too, but mature bucks are few and far between in my area so if it's not 120+ lbs I'd rather shoot one of the cow sized does and take a momma out of the breeding pool.

Veal is yummy, but I don't find cows particularly attractive or fun to watch and stalk.

If it wasn't big enough to be shot during season, not only would it have not made it without it's mother, it wouldn't have made it through the winter.

[plblark]

I know guys who take the first big deer they see, then wait for a nice trophy buck or take small fawns if they have tags left. Their logic is the winter kill.

The tenderness of the meat is a bonus but for them, it's a quick end for the too small fawn.
Since they process their own, it's no more expensive.

[FJ540]

Yeah, I know that there's not a big issue here. One less for starvation or road kill. It still sucks that it was wasted.

When I shot my doe, there were 5 deer in the same tight group on a clover patch. I took the first clean shot I had on the big momma because I was rapidly approaching unsafe shooting conditions (as evidenced by being blinded from muzzle flash). The mistake was not going for center mass and also not ensuring the exit path wouldn't injure another deer.

Although, had it been a clean intentional kill, I'd be bragging it up like I planned it. We had a tag for it (that went unfilled), but I didn't know it was hit, so I never looked for blood. Momma dropped instantly, and a couple of them scattered right away, and the others lingered for a second and then took off. I couldn't hear a thing - which is another reason to get electric muffs (I have them now). The fawn only made it about 80 yards, so it didn't suffer too much.


The whole point of this thread is that I'm responsible for that bullet till it stops moving, and I failed this time. Hopefully this might make someone else not have the same happen to them.

[mitchx3]

This is serious ****.

Get a lawyer.

Stop talking about it.

Delete your posts in this thread.

Get a lawyer. (I hear Marc Berris is good.)

[FJ540]

I can only hope the bereaved family comes after me this fall.

[Snowgun]

My experience with deer shot placement is that center mass double-lung + heart bonus is always the way to go, even if you are 20 feet away. Heads are too unreliable, and due to the morphology of the deer skull people end up shooting too low and just hitting the jaw. (ouch). Same thing goes for the neck. there are way to many places for the bullet to pass through before it even expands, so you pretty much have to hit the spine-> which means you will probably have to do a coup de grace again anyway.

When I was younger I had a couple spine shots that I had to coup de grace with a knife to the throat...and it's a lot tougher than it sounds with the fir in the way, you have to punch it in rather than slice. A couple experiences like that and you will hit the range more and look for the heart shot.