*UPDATE*Hitting a deer with a ricochet...

[OpticNerd]

Have any of you guys ever hit or heard of anyone hitting a deer with a ricochet? About a week ago I was on a muzzleloader hunt with a guy and this happened to him.

So the guy shoots at a bedded buck 180 yards below us. After the shot he jumped up out of his bed ran about 10 ft and stops. He stood there panting for about 20 to 30 seconds and it look like there might have been a little blood coming out his mouth but it was hard to tell for sure because he kept licking all around his mouth. He then sat down on his butt for about 10 seconds then proceeded to lie down. He laid there for about 30 seconds and then he rolled down to the bottom of the canyon. At this point in time I was thinking "heck yeah dead deer!" Long story short we jumped the buck up about 2 hours later and it didn't look hurt at all as he left the country. We found no blood where he was laying or anywhere else either. He laid there for over an hour and we still couldn't find a drop in the spot he was laying. 

The whole time as we were looking I thought the buck took a direct hit. It wasn't until I got home and watched the video and I could see that the bullet hit about an inch under his shoulder. This whole experience was absolutly crazy and I've never heard or seen anything like it before. So have any of you guys ever experieced something like this before or even heard about something like this happening to someone else? 

[jdown]

Not really a ricochet but I knocked a doe in Mo unconscious with a bullet one year. I shot my buck the day before and just wanted a doe to fill the ice chests for the drive home and she dropped in her tracks. I figured done deal and packed all my gear back to the truck (rifle too) and just kept my pack. I got up to her and she was still alive, so tried to a throat cut her real quick and she jumped up and walked off.. no blood anywhere and after about 40 yards of a slow walk, she fell over in a ditch. So I went back, grabbed rifle and put her down.  When I skinned her out, the only hole in her was the neck shot and then I found a bullet graze type path on her scalp.  The only thing I can think of was I knocked her out from the bullet percussion and it scrambled her brain.. I really don't know to this day.  

[idgaf]

My brother has.  A triangular shaped particle of the bullet fragment went just below the antler and dropped the deer in its tracks. 

[lancetkenyon]

Could have hit the "no-man's land" just under the spine and above the lungs.  Nicked a lung just enough to cause the deer to bleed some and pass out.  Deer got his wind back, and boogied out.  I have seen that happen before.  

[CatfishKev]

1 hour ago, jdown said:

Not really a ricochet but I knocked a doe in Mo unconscious with a bullet one year. I shot my buck the day before and just wanted a doe to fill the ice chests for the drive home and she dropped in her tracks. I figured done deal and packed all my gear back to the truck (rifle too) and just kept my pack. I got up to her and she was still alive, so tried to a throat cut her real quick and she jumped up and walked off.. no blood anywhere and after about 40 yards of a slow walk, she fell over in a ditch. So I went back, grabbed rifle and put her down.  When I skinned her out, the only hole in her was the neck shot and then I found a bullet graze type path on her scalp.  The only thing I can think of was I knocked her out from the bullet percussion and it scrambled her brain.. I really don't know to this day.  

I know a guy shot a javelina and they coulnt find entrance or exit. Hung him by gambrels and when they started to open him up he woke up and started squealing and kicking, pissin all over himself. They put one in his head and finished up. Best he figured the projectile grazed the skull and knocked him out.

[Huntnfish]

Was helping a champ hunter for deer and he laid his rifle across the hood. Deer were funneling through junipers, I tell him shoot the next deer. He shoots, looks like a land mine went off. Dust clears, and I see does looking back. We get over there and buck jumps up, but limping pretty bad. He shoots it again and puts it down. Back at camp my buddies kid is skinning it, and the bullet falls out of the deer. We look at the bullet and it has a 45 degree angle to it. Hit the ground and ricochets in front leg of deer. He was was using copper bullets in a 300 Win. mag. Would never believe it if I hadn't seen it happen. Was pretty crazy.

[jdown]

1 hour ago, CatfishKev said:

I know a guy shot a javelina and they coulnt find entrance or exit. Hung him by gambrels and when they started to open him up he woke up and started squealing and kicking, pissin all over himself. They put one in his head and finished up. Best he figured the projectile grazed the skull and knocked him out.

That is crazy.  I'm pretty sure that old doe and I both looked at each other in disbelief.   

[07Guardian]

Shot low on a Javi with my bow, hit a rock, snapped the carbon arrow in two and the front half double lunged him.  Dead in 10 yards!

[OpticNerd]

Dang! Some crazy stuff! Good to see it doesn't just happen to us.

14 hours ago, lancetkenyon said:

Could have hit the "no-man's land" just under the spine and above the lungs.  Nicked a lung just enough to cause the deer to bleed some and pass out.  Deer got his wind back, and boogied out.  I have seen that happen before.  

Definitely didn't hit him directly. You can actually see the bullet and where it hits. I re-watched it frame by frame and it looks like something hits the bucks neck. It could have been a rock or a piece of the bullet who knows. I'll try and post the video or pics when I get the chance. 

[hunter4life]

Just to be clear, there is no such thing as "no man's land" underneath the spine.  I hear it all the time but it is not anatomically possible.  The lungs go up beside the spine on either side.  There is no empty space, the projectile is either in the spine or in the lungs (or both).  Take a good look at your next deer carcass and look at the chest cavity.  All the smooth lining inside the ribcage is the pleural cavity and this space is entirely filled with lung tissue in a living animal.  There is no dead space.

Now above the spine, where the backstraps sit, there are the spinous processes and a projectile can go through this area without hitting anything vital.  The animal can be stunned temporarily and then run off.  

[OpticNerd]

Finally got around to making a short video of what happened.

 

 

 

[AzRaised08]

Wow that video provides a good view to what happened. Crazy that there was enough of a ricochet to cause bleeding and get him to stumble down. Wonder if the injury ended up killing him. Definitely never heard of anything like this before….

[deerslayer23]

Nice buck

[Roosevelt Mark]

On 11/18/2021 at 5:16 PM, CatfishKev said:

I know a guy shot a javelina and they coulnt find entrance or exit. Hung him by gambrels and when they started to open him up he woke up and started squealing and kicking, pissin all over himself. They put one in his head and finished up. Best he figured the projectile grazed the skull and knocked him out.

Dang, that would be some hard eating after all that....Savage for sure.lol

 

 

[Big Tub]

On 11/18/2021 at 4:16 PM, lancetkenyon said:

Could have hit the "no-man's land" just under the spine and above the lungs.  Nicked a lung just enough to cause the deer to bleed some and pass out.  Deer got his wind back, and boogied out.  I have seen that happen before.  

My son had a similar incident.  Shot a little high and back.  Deer stood or many minutes then laid down.  We gave it 30 minutes and he went in while I watched.  That deer took off like a rabbit when he got close.  BUT I was able to watch it:  one ravine, two ravines and getting ready to go over the last hill but disappeared.  My son found him inside one of the three Junipers on that hill due to his final death kicks making noise.  Did not need a follow-up shot.  The deer had wallowed out a cavity inside one of those Junipers and could not be seen.  That ended up with a 2.3 mile pack out on the biggest bodied deer either of us have ever gotten.  

The other deer of question, I lost.  Hit this small mule deer buck and his feet were kicking in the air.  Next minute he ran over the nearby hill.  I found the exact spot where he stood WITH NO BLOOD!  Searched for many hours with no blood and no deer; but I did kick up this GIANT buck but did not shoot since I was not yet sure about the one I knocked down.  I figure I must have either hit him in the antlers or just scared the crap out of him.  This one was pretty discouraging but not long pack out!