Some opinions please, did I mess up?

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jonylandrover

jonylandrover

Well-Known Member
Morning All, went out yesterday morning looking for reds on my new permission. weather was crap, dull thick drizzle and no wind at all.

Ended up finding nothing but Roe and have been told anything deer must go so I decided to take a old big Roe Doe from a group of 3, just about to entre a woodland. they are just about to entre and stopped eating acorns.

That about where it all started going downhill.

Did I miss? or have I lost a deer here, 335 yards, .270 140gr Sierra TGK home load I shoot (I'm confident at this range and can do a 4" group consistently prone on bipod) I was prone on my bipod. took my 1st red in the same spot a few weeks back.
deer was broadside facing left so shooting at the left side of her boiler room, I know I'm 7 inches low at that range, my hold point was just below the spine inline with the back of the front leg. making impact point 7 inches ish lower than that.

bang, I hear a nice thwack but it sounded a little different to what I'm used to hearing, keep in mind the weather conditions being very wet.

check scope, no deer down. check thermal, nothing to bee seen, no heat anywhere at all.

walk to the shot sight and I find this, see photos below,

a crater in the ground, shattered stone in the earth. I think clean miss somehow. But on closer inspection of the area about a foot in front of the crater a little patch of hair, and a few more single and double hair strays in front of that. I lined up the impact crater with the hair using my shooting sticks and sure enough it all lined up with where I took the shot from.

I spent the next hour and a half looking for blood, I walked in ever increasing circles until i was at least 100 yards in all directions and found absolutely nothing at all on the floor, bushes or fences etc etc, thermal showed no heat at all also in all directions. all I have is the hair and impact crater.

now iv shot a fair few deer in my time, but if I have hit one iv never seen a impact crater from the bullet exit. but when I have shot deer I have seen hair go flying out the back and land in a trail like this before.

so what's your opinions?

have i missed and the hair is a coincidence?

shaved her belly with a bullet?

hit her and she ran off without blood?

not feeling very happy with myself here and concerned iv proper cocked this one up.

20260118_085004.webp20260118_084739.webp
 
jonylandrover said:
Morning All, went out yesterday morning looking for reds on my new permission. weather was crap, dull thick drizzle and no wind at all.

Ended up finding nothing but Roe and have been told anything deer must go so I decided to take a old big Roe Doe from a group of 3, just about to entre a woodland. they are just about to entre and stopped eating acorns.

That about where it all started going downhill.

Did I miss? or have I lost a deer here, 335 yards, .270 140gr Sierra TGK home load I shoot (I'm confident at this range and can do a 4" group consistently prone on bipod) I was prone on my bipod. took my 1st red in the same spot a few weeks back.
deer was broadside facing left so shooting at the left side of her boiler room, I know I'm 7 inches low at that range, my hold point was just below the spine inline with the back of the front leg. making impact point 7 inches ish lower than that.

bang, I hear a nice thwack but it sounded a little different to what I'm used to hearing, keep in mind the weather conditions being very wet.

check scope, no deer down. check thermal, nothing to bee seen, no heat anywhere at all.

walk to the shot sight and I find this, see photos below,

a crater in the ground, shattered stone in the earth. I think clean miss somehow. But on closer inspection of the area about a foot in front of the crater a little patch of hair, and a few more single and double hair strays in front of that. I lined up the impact crater with the hair using my shooting sticks and sure enough it all lined up with where I took the shot from.

I spent the next hour and a half looking for blood, I walked in ever increasing circles until i was at least 100 yards in all directions and found absolutely nothing at all on the floor, bushes or fences etc etc, thermal showed no heat at all also in all directions. all I have is the hair and impact crater.

now iv shot a fair few deer in my time, but if I have hit one iv never seen a impact crater from the bullet exit. but when I have shot deer I have seen hair go flying out the back and land in a trail like this before.

so what's your opinions?

have i missed and the hair is a coincidence?

shaved her belly with a bullet?

hit her and she ran off without blood?

not feeling very happy with myself here and concerned iv proper cocked this one up.

View attachment 456522View attachment 456523
Click to expand...
You shot low (with the info) get closer ;)
 
At that range, especially aiming at a deer in winter coat, I think you’ve gone through the fur and not hit body.

I’ve hit brisket with a .270, and you get a fair bit of evidence. Gristle, fat, bone fragments, clumps of hair with skin or blood attached.

I think your point of aim was way low. I’d have at least rested the cross hair on the line of the back.

However, with roe at that range, holding off is very iffy. They’re not big things, and a small error will translate into bad outcomes. If you’re determined to shoot them that far, I think a diallable scope is a must.

You also say 4” group. That’s on the very edge of ok for roe. Many would say over it.

I think you may get some critical responses here.
 
335 yards, and putting yourself under pressure to shoot.

You state you can shoot a 4” group off a bipod at that range. But where is that 4” group falling? Downhill, deer on the move. Time of flight will be about 0.3 seconds plenty of time for a deer to move quite a long way.

More than enough for a gut shot perhaps.

Roe are a lot smaller than Red deer.

I suspect you followed up far too quickly. Situations such as this, it is much much better to wait half an hour, if not an hour before following up. If the deer is hit - as seems probable, then leaving it will allow all the adrenaline to drain away, the animal will likely lie up and bleed out in peace.

Going forward to quickly you re stress the animal and prompt a huge flight or fright response sending it off into to the next county.

We all make mistakes. Mostly its a catalogue of compounded errors. I took a shot last week that was a bit too far, a bit too windy, not stable enough and I was blowing hard after a steep climb. I rushed the shot. Deer was clearly hit, it tumbled and then couched up behind a rock. We then followed up far far too quickly and had a long chase across a Scottish mountain. We got the hind and calf. But it could have been so so much easier if a) I had taken my time on the first shot and b) if we had sat on our backsides and done nothing for a while.
 
Red is a lot bigger then a roe so margin for error diminished when comparing between the 2.

I think the fact that you are asking is admirable and if you are confident in your abilities on paper then crack on...however the impact of a poor shot on an animal is way different and on this basis I would suggest limiting your range. 335 yards is a long old shot in anyones book.

However, only you can make the decision and if you dont make a mistake you dont shoot enough.....plenty out there who will criticise but arent brave enough to admit their mistakes.
 
Mike1979 said:
Red is a lot bigger then a roe so margin for error diminished when comparing between the 2.

I think the fact that you are asking is admirable and if you are confident in your abilities on paper then crack on...however the impact of a poor shot on an animal is way different and on this basis I would suggest limiting your range. 335 yards is a long old shot in anyones book.

However, only you can make the decision and if you dont make a mistake you dont shoot enough.....plenty out there who will criticise but arent brave enough to admit their mistakes.
Click to expand...
I'm happy to own up to my mistakes and errors, we are all human and we all make them. this was indeed an error and a mistake. a Roe at that distance is not a good idea, paper punching I'm confident and the red a few weeks ago was a much larger target.
 
Mungo said:
At that range, especially aiming at a deer in winter coat, I think you’ve gone through the fur and not hit body.

I’ve hit brisket with a .270, and you get a fair bit of evidence. Gristle, fat, bone fragments, clumps of hair with skin or blood attached.

I think your point of aim was way low. I’d have at least rested the cross hair on the line of the back.

However, with roe at that range, holding off is very iffy. They’re not big things, and a small error will translate into bad outcomes. If you’re determined to shoot them that far, I think a diallable scope is a must.

You also say 4” group. That’s on the very edge of ok for roe. Many would say over it.

I think you may get some critical responses here.
Click to expand...
yes i think your right, if i had hit body I'm sure i would have seen something more than fur. and the impact crater would have been so big due to energy lost when hitting the animal.

yes I'm expecting some critics etc, but I'm big enough and ugly enough to take it, and I'm sure they have made some too, but maybe wont like to admit they have.

yes i think 4 inch group at 300+ yards for roe is a no. iv learnt my lesson here and Roe are safe from me at that distance from now on.
 
Tim.243 said:
Go shoot a Red and you will find out :doh:
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I won't be able to shoot the same red and the same roe which the OP shot - and it was really a comparison between those two animals I was interested in; as the a hold-over on a beast's back might well work or fail depending on the depth of its chest.
Also, I should perhaps have been clearer that the question was directed to the OP: rather than anyone else!
:)
 
Last edited:
Dalua said:
I won't be able to shoot the same red and the same roe which the OP shot - and it was really a comparison between those two animals I was interested in; as the a hold-over on a beast's back might well work or fail depending on the depth of its chest.
Also, I should perhaps have been clearer that the question was directed to the OP, rather than anyone else!
:)
Click to expand...
Yes I thought that in the open closed thread... :doh:
The drop must have been more than he thought, chest to spine size height is miles bigger close to twice so aiming at a red at that distance then if his drop is correct it would have gone low and smashed the brisket of a Red
I have shot 40kg fallow at 288mts and it took the heart out aiming at the spine, the best result is at best grazed it and lived to carry on.
 
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