A most interesting thing happened earlier this week. I was doe hunting and wasn’t seeing any deer at all. Wondered where they were, but finally a small herd snuck out of the woods behind me. It was about 8 doe of all sizes and ages, and the big buck I mentioned some time back. He’s a nine point with a nicely shaped big heavy rack...but I was doe hunting. I finally decided which doe to take, and put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder for a lung shot. At the shot, the doe jumped a fence and went into the woods (tail down). Satisfied with the shot, I had a couple of cups of coffee and waited 25 minutes. I climbed out of the stand and walked down to look for the blood trail, and was shocked to find a dead head-shot doe. Well, I sure didn’t attempt to head shoot a deer, but there she was. Facts are facts, and somehow I did shoot the doe in the head. All I can figure is that, as the deer milled around, one stuck her head into the path of the bullet. I didn’t see that in the scope, but I was focused on the other doe at that moment.

As for the deer I intended to shoot, there was a tiny amount of blood, and it wasn’t lung blood. The bullet must have fragmented on the skull of the dead deer, and only fragments reached the intended deer. I searched for the other deer for an hour, and went back later to look again. No blood trail and no dead deer.

Very strange.

It's more likely you had a high chest pass through on the doe you were aiming at and the bullet exited into the head of a doe behind her.

This was my first thought as well. Either way, meat in the freezer. Too bad you weren't able to recover the doe you intended to kill.

Be Sure of Your Target and What’s Beyond It

There wasn’t a deer on the other side of the one I was targeting. The dead doe had to be in front, at the very last instant. No other possibility. I’ve been over this in my mind again and again. The doe I shot at was the lead doe, and was out front of the others. Some of the young ones were milling about, apparently excited by being around the alpha male buck. One of them had to run in front of the bullet at the very last instant.

I stood and looked at the exploded head on the smaller doe and wondered just how in the heck that happened. Just not possible, but there she lay. It was an 80 yard shot on a standing doe, with the crosshairs right where they should be when the rifle fired. Naturally, I immediately went to my range and check the scope and POI. All was dead on.

Yea we had two weird ones like this over the weekend. One on a hog and the other on a buck. The first one on the hog was by my uncle, he aimed and hit the neck area but somehow the bullet turned and exited out behind the shoulder almost by the gut, luckily no gut material was created. We weren't so lucky with the buck which was shot by me. I aimed just behind the shoulder for a lung shot and i either i pulled the shot just a hair or the buck took a step as i was pulling the trigger. None the less it entered right in the middle of his shoulder and hit something and completely fragmented the bullet. some took off towards the gut, some went into the opposite shoulder, and the weirdest part was there was no pass through. I was shooting a 165g Core lokt 30.06. Deer ran a good 250yds before falling over. The insides looked like chili meat, the opposite shoulder was destroyed, just a mess. Can only imagine the bullet clipped the elbow, fragmented, and just wrecked havoc. I have never not had a pass through on this round