Anyone notice?

Any deer hunters ever notice,,when you shoot a deer it pretty much always ends up laying on the side you shot him on?If you shot him on his left side,,it drops on the left side,,shot on right side,,ends up dropping on right side.Just an observation from 50 years of shooting deer.

I would say it's almost 50/50 for me

my buck this year was laying on the exit wound.
my sons buck an hour earlier was on it's entry wound.

then I have had a few outliers that were upright that collapsed on a fence or went nose first into the dirt front legs under the body when they expired

I am wondering if it has to do with where you hit them. I can't think of a high shoulder hit that didn't fall over on the exit wound right now

If I don't have a clean behind the shoulder heart lung shot,,,I don't shoot,so all mine are hit in the same spot,,just different sides.

then my 50/50 may have something to do with shooting a lot of running deer doing party drives for the last 29 years this years buck was no exception running at 125 yards and shot through the chest cavity front to back on a diagonal.

my sons buck was standing still it did about a half turn and fell over exit up.

yes. so far its 3 for 3 laying on entry wound this year. Works the same way bowhunting. If you dont get a good pass through they fall and break your arrow. Went to shooting heavier arrows with fixed points to make sure the arrow left the deer and stopped breaking them.

I always remember having to flip a deer over to see where i hit them.

I should have specified that its deer that don't flop in their tracks.If they run even 20 feet or so,,mine end up falling on the entry wound side.I have no idea why,,just an observation over the years.

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If I don't have a clean behind the shoulder heart lung shot,,,I don't shoot,so all mine are hit in the same spot,,just different sides.[/quote]

Since I only hunt the big woods of the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau, I have noticed if I waited for that perfect broadside shot , I would usually not fill my tag. Tracked and killed a Tug Hill 12 pt’er yesterday with one shot as he was running away from me.

Never paid to much attention. I was always to busy doing the "HAPPY DANCE".

I hate deer that run off after being shot so I shoot high shoulder a lot if I can , I also have learned to shoot them to the ground stay on the target and if it goes 2 strides without falling hit it again. a couple pounds lost meat is better than a 100% lost deer that made it over a fence.

I meat hunt and don't take shoulder shots.Thats my burger meat.To each his own.

That's how my older boy hunts also.Our camp is near Stillwater Reservoir (800 acres)You know where that is since your near Tug Hill..He wacked a slob 8 point this year then had the pleasure of dragging it out two miles.Wish I still had young legs and eyes.I mostly tree stand hunt these days.Shot a lot of grouse near Tug Hill in my younger days.

It totally depends on the shot and the opportunity but when hunting with a rifle i have never had a deer not drop dead in its tracks on the exit side for the most part on broad side shots. I have had a couple quartering shots where they just folded straight up on their legs. I do shoot different than most though with a rifle. Bow wise as i recall most of the deer that moved on past the target spot were laying on the entrance side. There were bow shot deer though that were folded up right on the spot. just depends on the shot for me really. I do not just shoot for heart and lungs. If given the opportunity i will neck shot a deer before i will shoot through the body. That's just me. I know dudes will be like oh my lord. Lol. I have shot my fair share of deer and the only ones i have ever had to track are the ones where the heart/lung shots were what I had and i don't take shots that i will miss so i rarely do.

Everyone hunts their own way.I always take the heart lung shot and almost all my deer run,,but not more than 30 or 40 yards..They are dead,,they just don't know it yet.

WOW,,,thats pretty lucky I would say.

My dad taught me a lot starting when i was a little kid. Shooting was one of them. He was an excellent marksman and hunter. His biggest issue with folks is that they could shoot aces on the range but get in the field and miss everything. drove him crazy. He swore that hunting coyotes was just about the best thing to do to become a good hunter. And heaven forbid if you missed one and it got away. Even worse was hitting one and it getting away. If you have a rifle that can hit a 2" pattern at 200 yards then why not just shoot them exactly where they need to be was his method. I don't knock other ways i know millions upon millions have been taken with solid body shots and some have for me too. I have seen many a dude pass on a buck at 100 yards because his shoulder was covered by something tree limb or cedar in a pasture.

What is it that you do 'different" than most when shooting a rifle?

I’ve never paid any attention to it but will for future reference. As for shot selection, gimme one. Losing a shoulder isn’t the end of the world. Not my intentions these days but if it happens, I’ll not lose a nights sleep over it. I’ll take the first shot that I think will kill it. Having said that, where I’ve been hunting lately, most of my shots fall in that 250-400 yard mark unless I’m in the woods. Then much closer obviously. But, at 250 and beyond, when they don’t even realize you’re in the same zip code yet, you can get more selective on the placement.

I've killed a fair number of deer with both a rifle and a bow but can't say I ever noticed which side it ended up on. One thing I have noticed, particularly bowhunting, is what I call the death lunge. The deer seems to know it's dead on its feet and plows headlong into whatever is in its path.

my great uncle would not take a shot if he couldn't neck shoot them , a lot of years with a little 20ga deer-slayer never once did any of his deer take more than a few steps and fall over he also never shot one further than about 35 yards

my dad neck shoots them most of the time also he is using a 300 blackout pistol now due to back injuries

shotgun and pistol only town ordinance the rest of the state is rifle now but there were a lot of counties that were shotgun and pistol only until about 2015

I will neck shoot them if they give me the opportunity but mostly the first opportunity to drop them safely I'm shooting.

I will take a neck shot before any other shot on a deer. Know the anatomy of the neck and know your shooting ability. And why is it taboo to shoot deer in the head? Small part and all of the worky worky parts are controlled there. Dead on spot.