Last day of season a new buck showed up I had never seen before. I made a split second decision to take him. He showed up on the back side of feeder pen but the feeder didn’t go off that morning so I was worried he wouldn’t stay long. Shot him broadside behind the shoulder. Heard the hit, saw a cloud of hair on impact. The problem was I shot him with a 22-250 that I had carried with me since my wife was with me and she was going to shoot a pig or a varmint if they showed. Hair and blood at the shot site, little more blood about 50 yards into the brush and that was it. I called a tracker and his dogs couldn’t find the deer either. Sucks to lose it, it wasn’t a 160” deer but a solid 8 pt. I may go back again and look for buzzards. Not the way I wanted to end the season. First animal I have ever lost in 30 years hunting.

Sorry to hear, sounds like you did everything you could.

Boy that stinks man for sure. I have never lost one but had an experience 2 years ago that I do not want to have again. Took me 4 hours to find him and put him out of his misery. Honestly brought me to tears. If you have the chance, go back and look. It may help you mentally to exhaust all options. Good luck I hope it turns out well for you because as hunters that is the last thing we want to have happen.

At least two more things he could have done...

Two more things he could have done? Like what?

22-250 that's your problem right there.
Sorry the deer was not recovered.

I can't understand why people think a .22 caliber rifle is acceptable for deer size game.

OK pile on.

I’ve done the same thing with a 220 swift, he was shot and killed 2 weeks later and the 220 had exploded before going through the ribs completely. Piss poor decision on my part but like you I was varmint hunting. It had bled really good for a while but the bullet exploding had taken out a pie plate sized chunk of hide and muscles nothing more.

I do not want to start a debate about 22250 not being enough gun, especially cause I feel bad for the OP. I will simply state a fact as it applies to me and im not pushing this on anyone else, but if a mature Trophy buck was standing there and all I had was a 22250 I would not shoot.

Should have neck shot him.

I was being compassionate to the OP as I almost was there as I described but in the grand scheme of things you are correct. Prolly the wrong place for this though guys

I lost my first deer this year, a doe.

Made a bad shot plain and simple. You hunt long enough and kill enough animals it’s gonna happen to you

Too bad! Won’t say anything else.

Doesn’t happen often, but over time at least one deer will be lost by us all. I lost a couple in south Texas, and it was a bullet problem. I was varmint hunting while guiding deer hunters, and the radio from the ranch house told me I had to shoot a couple of doe. I had my 220 and 55 gr Solid Base Boattail Noslers. I know I lost two. And a few years ago, just as I pulled the trigger on a nice 8 point, he ran into a low spot. I knew the bullet went high and too far back. I found the rack and bones a year later when fence fixing. It happens.

I have lost deer before. I dont know of anyone that hunts a lot that hasnt lost deer. I hope you can go back and find him. Best of luck.

While the cartridge is definitely NOT the problem, the projectile may very well may have been. High impact velocities and lightly constructed bullets can certainly result in failures to penetrate to the vitals.

There are a handful of .22 caliber projectiles available today that solve this problem (even with standard "slow" twist rates).

Truth is, there's really only two kinds of folks: those who HAVE lost a deer at some point in their hunting career and those who haven't YET. Jskin, it took you thirty years for it to happen and when it did you made a serious effort at recovery. You're doing a lot of things right. And, I expect, you've already decided how you're going to prevent this particular circumstance from happening again.

Plan for next season.

Mark

Neck shot would have been the only way I would have tried it. Only deer I lost was a doe my teenage son shot with a 243. She fell right there. We climbed down out of the stand and hid behind a cedar tree for a while. Went to where she was and there was no sign at all and she was gone.

The one I lost(that I remember--surely others) was a mule deer in Colo. At 20 yards I shot him in the neck with a 3006. Yall shoot em in the neck if you want but I will NEVER do it again. Went straight down and then up and gone. Only reason I didnt shoot him when he got up was I was taking a stupid picture from where i shot from. I will NEVER do that again either. I was VERY young when I did that--live and learn.

None of us want to lose a deer. You did what you could to recover it. If you made 30 years you did much, much better than many of us.

Lost a wide, 7pt. cull buck Saturday. Probably hit him too high in the shoulder. My 8 year old grandson found the first sign of blood. I was embarrassed that I'd missed it and exceedingly proud, all at the same time. Just a few drops of good blood, then nothing. Those who say they never miss, or have never lost a deer have either not hunted very much or are dam liars.

Those that love to suggest what you "shoulda done" are idiots.

We have all done it or will do it if you kill enough deer. The more you kill and would deer will happen a bit more over time...just the way it goes. How far behind the feed pen was the deer? Did you try to shoot thru or over the feed pen? Did you look to see if you knicked or hit the wire on the pen?
I shot at a buck that I thought was far enough behind a feed pen so I would shoot over the top wire on the hog panel. I did not and hit the top 6 gauge wire with a 130 grain .270. I seen what I thought was hair fly everywhere and watched the deer jump, then run about 20 yards and stop to look back where he was standing. Chambered another round as he was turning and put it on the point of the shoulder....that dropped him in his tracks. What I thought was hair was bullet fragments in the air from when it hit the wire. The deer was not hit and no blood or hair anywhere from the first shot location. I walked over to the pen and found the spot where I hit the top wire and knew what happened then.
I will add if you happened to knick the feed pen then the deer will probably live and be back again next year. The blood and hair maybe from a flesh wound from bullet fragments.

Sorry to hear that. What a horrible feeling. A number of years ago, I shot a deer at dusk. Very soon, it was dark. I had a flashlight, and a blood trail, but lost the trail and my light went out. I felt sick to my stomach, and did not sleep well. I hunted the same stand the next morning, and could see the deer from the stand. It had been a cold night, in the low 40's. I tagged and kept the deer. Sometimes things don't go as planned. You made an effort, and it did not work out. Maybe you can learn something from this experience. I now carry one primary rechargeable flashlight, and have two rechargeable work lights in my truck, plus two battery flash lights. I have also wounded at least one deer that I did not recover. It happens.

I've killed at least 40 deer cleanly over the last 40+ years with .222, .223, and 22-250. Most of these (20+ were with 22-250).
This deer did not get away because of the caliber. He simply was not hit through the vitals and nothing more.

Furthermore, of those deer stated above, NOT a single one was wounded and lost.
Though I have wounded and lost a couple over the years. One was a 130 or so yard shot with a 7mm mag shooting 140 gr and another was about a 150 yard shot with a 270WSM with 130 gr.

It is NOT about caliber, it is about bullet placement!

I WOULD NOT hesitate shooting any deer in this state up to 200 yards with my 22-250 provided I had a rock solid rest and a completely broadside target!


To the OP, very sorry to hear you did not get this deer.

I completely agree with you on this!

Sorry you lost the 7 point

Sorry to hear.