TV Deer Hunting Shows

W

warbirdlover

New member
I know these "game farm" hunts are the farthest thing from reality and all or most of those guys would be totally helpless on public hunting land or on their own without guides BUT....

My question is "why do the deer run so far after they shoot them"?

I think they are probably using "premium" bullets which aren't expending their energy in the animal but just punching a hole through and the animal has to bleed to die (similar to an arrow hit).

I use cheapo, fast expanding, light weight ammo for deer hunting and never have had them go over five yards. The energy shocks the animal besides doing external damage. Very humane kills.

I mean, they're making special turkey loads that could kill a charging Russian Boar and other expensive stuff that IMHO is totally unnecessary. We used to kill turkeys before this stuff and now they're getting people buying these $60 boxes of ammo for deer.

So what's your take?
 
Obviously they must be shooting much tougher deer than what I shoot here. I have wondered the same thing. I've shot a few deer with a 30-30, more with a 7 mm mag and a few with a 243. Almost all of them were taken before I reloaded and for the most part they were shot with whatever was on sale the month before. Usually that would be Remington CoreLokt or perhaps the cheap Winchester ammo, just whatever was the cheapest. Even now that I reload I typically buy Hornady bullets because they are the cheapest and easiest to find. But like you I cannot recall ever having a deer take more than a couple steps. Granted, I was always within 125 yards at the very most, often considerably closer than that. Mostly I aimed for the lungs unless it was very close and everything was right in which case I would shoot them just behind the earhole. Either way, they were lying dead within 10-15' away from where I shot them. Premium bullets might have their place for elk or buffalo or such, but deer shouldn't be that hard to kill.
 
After last year (2009), my take now is there are absolutely no rules as to how far a deer will go.

My buddy shot a mule deer that was quartering away with a 7mm Rem Mag. Perfect shot in the pump house. Exit wound at the brisket was as big as my fist. That deer went 150+ yards, including jumping a fence. The blood "trail" was HUGE. Where the deer jumped the fence and landed, there was literally an explosion of blood and lung tissue, but the deer kept going. It was just amazing. Obviously, we found it no problem.

I have never had one run very far, but this year was my first DRT in my life.
 
I don't know....I see plenty of the TV guys wap deer that are DRT. As for the ones that run, it happens. Heart shot deer can go a ways before they know they're dead.

I do agree that the bulk of the TV shows are very far fetched. One exception may be Tred Barta. The rest, I would lay down the public land challenge any day of the week to any of them.
 
The blood must drain from the brain .A blown up heart doesn't guarantee anything ! My experience with lung shots is that they usually go 50 yds but that doesn't take long. Fortunately I've never had one of the exceptions !!
 
I've used Core-lokt and Winchester Silver Tips and I've never had a whitetail drop where it was hit. Most have run around 100 yards and drop with heart / lung shots. The buck I killed two years ago may have went 10 yards before he dropped and that is as close as I've come to dead right there.

Now antelope, that's a different story. I've never had an antelope do any thing other than drop right where it was shot.

I agree that you don't need any special ammo to kill a deer but how and were they drop can be a bit of luck of the draw.
 
It has nothing to do with TV shows. I've seen a lot of deer get shot and the VAST majority of them run. I've seen maybe 5 DRT. It doesn't matter if their 200 pound bucks or 45 pound doe fawns. They run some distance, generally 50 to 150 yards and drop. The question is, how long does it take. It's a matter of 3 or 4 seconds in virtually all cases, the variable is how fast they run.


My uncle shot a button buck at close range with a Savage ML-10 muzzle loader shooting a 300gr Barnes Original bullet at 2200+ fps. It was a solid vital zone hit and the exit wound was literally 4 inches round, and blew the opposite side leg almost completely off the animal.... it still ran a good distance, about 40 yards I believe.
 
Last edited:
I use cheapo, fast expanding, light weight ammo for deer hunting and never have had them go over five yards. The energy shocks the animal besides doing external damage. Very humane kills.
Click to expand...

Are you shooting them high in the shoulder or neck (on a broadside shot)? That is the only way I know to get the "DRT" effect (other than a head shot, which I think is foolish) - using a light fast bullet that fragments, damaging the spine ..... but this shot also has the side effect of ruining a good a mount of meat.

I prefer the heart/lung shot, as I don't care how torn up they are- I don't eat them.
 
I see the same thing on TV as you and I am not sure either. I watched a show last night where a guy shot a deer in the middle of a hayfield. The deer took 2 steps and fell down. Then they said the deer got up and ran off and they needed to look for it the next day. That part was not actually shown on camera, so I am not sure if they were building suspense or not. I am not sure how much is staged and how much is real.
As for how far deer go when shot. It has been my experience that lung shot deer generally go 15-50 yards depending on the deer and how close to the spine or shoulder you hit them. I have seen a few go farther. The area we hunt has a lot of planted pine less than 10 years old. It is as thick and gnarly as it gets. If I am hunting this area or on the edge of our property, I always try to take a shouder shot. I know if I take out the front shoulder I will not be trailing a deer somewhere I don't want to go. It will mess up some meat, but I will not loose the whole deer. I shot the 8 pt. I recently posted in the shoulder because he was on the edge of our property headed into the planted pine. I had about 2 minutes of daylight left and I wanted him right there where I was shooting. I prefer the lung shot and It sure messed up some meat. I wasn't in the briars all night looking for him.;)
 
Last edited:
I have hunted every Missouri deer season since 1978. I have shot many deer, close to fifty now, and the first thing that comes to mind is SHOT PLACEMENT..I've seen deer hit good and solid light out to parts unknown, later to be found dead 1/4 mile away. Some deer, DRT. An animal IS bound to do almost anything when hit, And the minute that I got that figured out, I'll let you all know.:rolleyes:Deer do amazing things. Now back to the point, a well placed bullet is the key to quick clean kills, stuff happens, and sometimes we don't get that bullet right in the money. I've shot deer through the heart with a 3006, and watched them buck straight up and leave, only to find them 40 yds away. Ive shot them through both lungs and dropped them instantly. There is no substitute for proper shot placement. If you hunt deer long enough you will see alot of different scenarios.:)
 
hooligan1 said:
I've shot deer through the heart with a 3006, and watched them buck straight up and leave, only to find them 40 yds away. Ive shot them through both lungs and dropped them instantly. There is no substitute for proper shot placement. If you hunt deer long enough you will see alot of different scenarios.
Click to expand...


I shot a doe at near point-blank range with a 12ga slug, right through both lungs and severed the aorta. She went farther than any other deer that I've ever shot, over 150 yards. There was snow on the ground and the blood spatter was literally 15 feet wide and 3 feet up the sides of trees as she ran.

Once, I shot a deer in the, uh, backside, with my bow and it went 40 yards.

Go figure.
 
Let’s face it, most hunters are not marksmen. Many only shoot for deer, not shot placement. I don’t fault them for it, but it’s true. In the heat of the moment things happen to well intentioned hunters. (Buck Fever) Time and experience usually cures this, but not in all cases. So be it.

After many years of deer hunting and trailing them through places a rabbit wouldn’t go, I tried something different, head shots. Every deer dropped on the spot. No more long walks at night in the cold, plus no bloodshot venison.

I don’t take these shots at moving deer and never over 100 yards. I have the ability and patience to do this so it works for me. After many years of head shots I don’t even consider any other location for shot placement. Sure, once in a while I’ll have to let one pass because I don’t have the shot, but less often than you might think. Sooner or later another one always comes along.

While I don’t advocate head shots to be tried by everyone, for obvious reasons, they do keep the deer from having to be tracked for long distances. What about the buck of a lifetime? Would I take a head shot and maybe spoil that rack? I don’t know, I haven’t seen him yet. Maybe in his case I’d have to make a neck shot. I’d sure hate to lose him in the woods.
 
Hey Pete, it seems to me it's always an old doe that gives me the fits!!:o Sometimes they just don't want to give up the ghost.:rolleyes:
 
I like the silver tips (30-30) and the core-lock (.243) for deer hunting. I have only had one deer that I had to track, that was a 75 yard shot from the 30-30 and I thought I had lost her.

I shot her and she and the two other deer took of to my left. I was waiting to hear the crash when she fell and all of a sudden I saw three does run back towards me from left. Long story short, I was tracking the wrong set of does and spent three hours looking for the one I had shot.

I was so disgusted with myself for having lost her, I swore I would never hunt again. Later that evening my father wanted me to help him to his stand and as we were walking in, I found the doe I shot, about 30 - 35 yards from where I shot her.

I learned to pay attention to the deer and not just the direction it goes. But most of the time the deer drops with 15 feet of where I shoot it.
 
DRT and such

Four deer in the last two years, 1-DRT neck shot and 3 that went between 30-60 yards, all three were Pump House shots. All 4 deer were taken with 165 grain InterLock BTSP. All were either on public land or at least fair chase no fences here!
 
I have shot deer with a bow, right in behind the shoulder that jumped up and never got their feet back under them. Dead within about 2 feet of where they were standing when I shot. I had a nice doe walk straight up a trail at me. I had to take a head on shot. I hit her straight in the chest with a 12 gauge slug. She turned and ran down hill about 60 yards before she slowed and then fell over. Blood everywhere. When we gutted her the heart was in 4 pieces. You just never know what they are going to do once hit. I was amazed that she ran at all.
 
You can blow the heart out of them and they can still cover 100+ yards before they 'run out of gas'. I've been shooting the center of the shoulder for ages now, and have just about quit tracking deer.
 
I recently watched "Raw and Wild" on the Outdoor Channel.They were hunting Mule Deer in S.D.
The host and his wife were driving around in a pick up until they spotted a group of deer with a decent buck.They chased that poor buck until he was out of breath and he stopped to see why in the hell they were chasing me.They bailed out of the truck and whacked him, he took a couple steps and fell over dead.Then proceeded to call him a 10 pointer! That's a Whitetail point counting,Mule Deer are counted 1 side and not eye guards since many do not have eye guards.So if you chase them in a pickup until they are out of breath they fall over DRT.
I have canceled the Outdoor channel,I am disgusted with what they put on.:(
 
They have hunting shows on tv?

Cant beat American Sportsman tho....... Cheryl Teigs narrater :) was on in 1965 and on.


Only had 2 deer drop right there, most jumped up and ran a short distance till they understood they was dead :) and fell down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top