Explain This Please

[Flyingdaddy]

This old Montana guy is just sitting here scratching his head. 800 yards with a 338 pushing. 300 grain pellet? Are you NUTS? Do you realize how small an antelope really is? Your moose gun should have stayed home. You too, IMO.

 

[Les in Wyoming]

It is too far back for my taste, but I have hit them there and recovered. I shoot the front shoulder. But at 800 yards anything could happen. I shot a pronghorn buck at 500+ Yards once who completely spun around by the time the bullet arrived. I would guess you hit behind heart/lung area but apparently did not hit guts.

 

[257WTBY]

No mans land shot my biggest whitetail ever with bow between to of lungs and spine. I know this for certain because my buddy smoked him with a rifle during late season. The broad head hole was almost completely healed over. If you were forward 6in dead antelope.

 

[Hard rock]

Spot on yote!

It definitely is not a gut shot it's hard too tell it is either one of the 2 no man's land or high graze on top I hope it's the later gentlemen the no man's land shot does happen

 

[ButterBean]

It definitely is not a gut shot it's hard too tell it is either one of the 2 no man's land or high graze on top I hope it's the later gentlemen the no man's land shot does happen

High Graze I say

 

[Calvin45]

At first glance, I'd call buzz cut on hide. At second look and reviewing the video in slow mo, there's evidence of hydrostatic shock around the thorax tissue, and hair in the wind upon bullet exit.

However, a spine shot would 100% lead to some type of CNS disruption. So it would appear the bullet entered just below the spine in the rib area, and exited through the adjacent rib side. Perhaps the hole clots and the animals lives, or at worst the animal has a tension pneumothorax and needs a 9 lined called up and to be medevac'd to a echelon 3 medical facility for a chest tube and antibiotics…

I think this is the correct interpretation of this as well…I had this happen once (at 200 yards mind you, with a .270, whitetail doe). Another poster referred to "no man's land", a vital-free zone right under the spine. It's the only way I can make sense of the experience, never did recover her, it got too dark to track in the thick bush even with snow and when I went the next morning I followed tracks for about a mile…they ended at the river so that was that. By the end of trail the snow was full of coyote prints so there wouldn't have been anything much to recover even in there was no river.

I was young and constantly overestimating how much bullets drop at normal hunting distances. Just hit high plain and simple. It was close enough to the spine that she dropped like a sack of hammers at the shot and I thought "done!" and immediately ran over there. Well imagine my panic when she jumped right back up upon my approach and ran off full speed. I figured out that high hit theory based on how high up on the spruce branches I was seeing blood the next day. I know it wasn't above the spine because a) I don't know that an above spine hit would drop them like that, and b) the sound. You know that sound when you make a solid hit…Boom…thwack!

Was a learning experience. Learned a few things and have not repeated these three mistakes:

1 learned that my natural instincts have me almost always miss high, not low…I take a minute before I shoot now and remind myself

2 never approach a downed animal with your rifle slung over your back!!! I was 17 or 18 and certain that I was running up on a dead animal. If I had not assumed that and if I had the rifle in my hands and ready to shoot I don't think she'd have gotten away like that

3 don't get up right away. I actually practice counting to myself for even just 3-5 minutes after I make a hit before getting up and, not in a hurry, make my way towards the animal or where I last saw it. In the meantime I stay where I am and keep an eye on the area. Again, things might have gone differently

Most of these have nothing in common with the op and the situation he experienced, just stating I've seen this happen before and learned a few necessary lessons as an over eager teenager

 

[orkan]

I stopped hunting pronghorn and deer with anything larger than a 7mm a long time ago. Got tired of the bullet zipping through and no energy being transferred to the animal. 7mm flattens them out properly. 6mm's and 6.5's are just fine for pronghorn. They are tiny. 338 guarantees a pass through with almost zero energy transfer. Not enough critter there to even let most bullets open at all... unless you're using the lightest bullets in that caliber.

Looks like it's just a combination of too much gun and a poor shot placement. Improperly shot antelope basically turn into a terminator that can run 50mph+. Sometimes they won't stop running for 20 miles.


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[APDDSN0864]

You hit him in what is called no man's land above the lungs there is no vitals you basically poked a hole through and through bullet didn't expand he may or may not survive I'm sure this happens with bow hunters more than rifle hunters

It happened to me with a Kansas whitetail doe at roughly 75 yards, offhand with a 45-70 and a 485gr cast bullet @ ~1200fps. Saw the bullet skip off of the prairie on the far side of the deer, she buckled, and took off running.
We tracked her for a couple of miles, ran into another hunter who asked if we had shot a doe. He said that he could see the blood stain high on her side and it looked like it was drying up.
He said that she was grazing along fine with a couple of other does.
We saw her again the next day on an adjoining property that we didn't have permission to hunt on and she looked fine, feeding along with other does and fawns.
It happens...

Ed

 

[JAYgs8163]

Definitely a gut shot in my opinion. Not sure what the bullet did but they don't just drop on a gut shot. He can live a few days with that wound.

Never seen a gut shot with hair flying over the back of the animal. Super slow motion shows the bullet deflected off the top of the back and impacting the back ridge above the animal.

 

[thomasbangs]

View attachment 303682This is an antelope that I shot at the other day. The shot was 800 yards on the button. I am shooting a 338 rum pushing 300 grain Berger EH's. This is the first antelope I have shot at with this setup. I was expecting different results to say the least.

I made the shot and he took off. Initially I thought I missed. After reviewing the video I realized I put a pretty decent hit on him. He ran over the back side of the ridge so I figured he would be toast just out of sight. I walked over to retrieve him and as I crested the ridge he was on, I saw him on the next ridge back, over 1k yards away, with the same 3 does. I got a look at the exit side and there was a good stream of blood all down his Left side to confirm the hit and placement. He went up and over and I figured I would leave him for the night.

The next morning at daylight i was back with a buddy to recover him, as I was sure he would be toast. After a bit of hiking around sure enough there he was, running down a ridge a couple hundred yards away. Into a draw and up and over another ridge. Then up and over another. I could see blood stains all down his entry side which confirmed he was the same one.
I did not get an opportunity for another shot. I continued hiking in the direction he went and hiked and glasses for the next couple hours with no luck finding him. At that point he was alive and appeared to be doing just fine. Neither one of us were able to locate him again.

I have attached a link to a video as well as a screenshot of the impact frame.



From the more experienced guys, whats the consensus here? Too far back? Too high? Bullet did not perform properly? Antelope did not have enough mass to instigate terminal performance? Ex-con goat who was just downright tough as nails?

I must say I was expecting more of a bang flop type of scenario on an antelope with this rifle.

I would like to know where I went wrong.

In my humble opinion and experience I would say way too far a shot, way too much gun, and way to much bullet. You probably punched a hole the diameter of the bullet through the antelope and never touched a vital.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

This was where the bullet impacted the animal. This to me definitely looks like it's below the spine.

Sure looks like it hit the top of the back. There was a little dark SPOT on the hide through the video where the arrow is pointing

 

[Nipper]

You hit him in what is called no man's land above the lungs there is no vitals you basically poked a hole through and through bullet didn't expand he may or may not survive I'm sure this happens with bow hunters more than rifle hunters

Agreed on my end. 100%. Did that on a few deer. No Mans land!!

 

[dogz]

This old Montana guy is just sitting here scratching his head. 800 yards with a 338 pushing. 300 grain pellet? Are you NUTS? Do you realize how small an antelope really is? Your moose gun should have stayed home. You too, IMO.

I've had more than a bit of experience on antelope when using my old 700 when it was wearing a Schneider barrel in 340 Wby. As I recall I never took a lope further than 500 with it. I used several different bullets those that I recall are the 180 NBT, 200 Horn sp, 200 NBT, 210 Part, 250 Sierra BT and the 250 Horn sp.

Can't recall ever feeling like I had used too much gun, typically it was boom, whack and down and out.

Again, this is only my personal opine but there isn't a thing wrong with the 338's on lope. Hit them right and the go to Croak City Wyo very quickly. Hit them wrong and well........they can go a long darn ways!

I find it interesting how we're all seeing the same video and yet we can't agree if the slug entered above or below the spine. I stand by what I originally said, if the bullet had been 7 to 8 inches closer to the shoulder it'd of been down and out.

 

[ClearCreek]

Your post title asked to "Explain this please".

After reading all the comments in the thread it does not appear the situation is any more explained after 69 comments than when the thread started.

ClearCreek