Bob2010
Senior Member
Ok. So we can't talk about slugs, 30/30s, or bullets??? Of course it's my fault the deer was lost or missed. Never denied that. Just getting old and figuring things out. That's all.What does any of this even mean? Had your "adjustment dialed out for longer range"? "Resulted in a shot that hit 4" and 3" left"?
If you didn't recover the animal, how do you know where it hit?
I've shot quie a few deer, all well under 100yds and all with either a .243 or .270. In the .270's, I have 3 currently, I shoot either 130 or 150gr soft point, have never shot a BT, and in the .243 I shoot 80gr Core-Lokt. In every case except one all of them were either DRT or ran a maximum of 75ish yds in a straight line. The one exception to this I made a bad shot resulting in a high, back shot placement. With the aid of a tracking dog I was still able to recover the animal several hundred yds later. With .243 I have yet to get a pass through so I have never had a blood trail, and had no need. Simply went to where it was when I shot, walked in the direction it ran, if it did and I did not actually see it fall, and within 100yds I've recovered every one.
3 of these 4 rifles are topped with various 3x9 scopes that are kept on 4x when hunting unless I want to see something further out and that's all I need for anything out to 100yds, and is great for anything under 50, no adjustment necessary.
As for the "4" high 3" left", if you were aiming for center of vital, that's still a fatal wound, and fairly quickly I would think, and if you did in fact somehow figure out that's what you missed on an animal you say you didn't/couldn't recover, that is an extremely poor shot on a stationary target at 20yds even for a "rushed" shot IMHO.
Best case scenario, you clean missed this animal. Worst case, you made a really poor shot and merely wounded it. Whether that wound was ultimately fatal? Who knows. Fact is, the problem was YOU not the round IMHO. YOU made a poor shot, for whatever combination of reasons, that resulted at best in a clean miss, or at worst a wounded animal that traveled further than you are/were able to recover. OWN IT!!!!! It's happened to all of us at one time or another.
The blame lies entirely with you. Stop trying to make yourself feel better by blaming the round. Deal with it and move on or quit hunting if you can't.