In my part of the world, here in S.C., yesterday was "the day" as far as rut activity and deer movement. We all knew, and had waited for this day and everything fell together, almost perfectly. Then, without warning, it turned into dissapointment and left us wondering what we could have done. Here is the story.

I rose early to make the 2 hour drive to the hunting area. A 300 acre lease east of Columbia. As 0500 came I found myself slamming on the brakes several times to avoid deer and even saw a good buck. Most were just watching where my headlights were lighting the landscape. They were all looking for one another. Now that should tell ya something. I met my buddies and we decided our positions and settled in for the days hunt. I chose a ladder stand looking down a road with a corn pile at 80 yds. Deer cross this road a lot at several places and it is planted with oats for about a 100 yd stretch. It is one beautiful stand site.

I had been on stand about 20 min. when I heard a noise off to my right, and after checking it out I rerurned my gaze to the corn pile and there was a deer there with it's head down. Now I had a doe tag and no venison in the freezer yet so I was in the "if it's brown it's down" mode so shooting this deer was allready decided. I had checked earlier on the sight picture and knew my view was a bit fuzzy. The low light and a situation with my scope made the animal not real definite in the scope but I could not help but see there was something that resembled headgear on that nogg'in. I put the crosshairs behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger and he was gone. No reaction or noise at all. He just dissapeared. I sat there about 10 min. and one of my buddies shot also. He radioed that he had shot a buck and was on the trail. We were not too far apart so I decided to check my shot. I had already convinced myself I had missed.

No sign at the shot site but I diligently started off in the direction he was heading.Following natural spore in a carpet of pine needles can be rough but there was enouph to keep me on him and to my glee I found a spot of blood at 30 yds. A few more spots and nothing for 30 more yds. I am watching spore and fingering tracks and 2 hours later and 30 more yards another spot and then nothing. Never any blood on anything but the ground. Never a sign of a stumble or laybored walking at all.

I tracked what I thought was his trail to our large thicket and we tried to scare him out but then the rain started. Long story short, we did not find either of the deer with two experienced trackers and one rank ametuer.

Now to the rifle part and the bullet performance. I was shooting my 760 Rem in 30.06. The round has a 165 gr Hornady sp over 44 gr. of varget. Not a fast round but very accurate. I had let my son use my rifle the previous weekend and his focus was much different from mine and we changed it. I had changed it back but I found later I was not as sharp focus as I needed. This did not effect things in good light but in that low light situation it was devistating. It really threw me off. I remember thinking man that deer looks small and fuzzy for 80 yds and because of the focus being out of wack it was. My guess is a high muscle only hit and possibly my buddy shot the same animal. We can go into that later.

That's all the info I have except to say this is our third year on this lease and I have lost 2 deer and have put none in the freezer. The place is loaded with deer but between the three of us we have lost 5 deer to this one small section of the place. The theories are getting pretty wild.

Well, there's no problem with the lease, and no problem with the caliber.

That leaves you and the rifle. If it were me, I'd spend some time at the range to become intimately familiar with that rifle...

and if ANY changes are made to the gun, go back and check the sight in again.

Not to sound authorative, but 5 deer lost for three hunters in three years is unacceptable IMO. I'd spend a lot of time at the range to insure it doesn't happen again.

Good luck!

Drifter

If you are going to use a .30-06 in that type of terrain I would switch to a lighter bullet. That may sound odd but if you often get lung shots the 130 grain bullet will give you a quicker kill.
I have seen many blood trails that have a splash of blood at the start and the nothing for 25 yards or so. These are hard to follow. The .307, .356 and .444 leave a better splash initialy but even they often have a dry 25 yards or so before the bleeding starts again.
I hunt in similar heavy brush conditions and if I dont get a shoulder I often have a hard time following up after the shot. Believe it or not my wife has proven to be a good tracker. you ,ight take your Honey with you!

Sounds like a good lease.
I would head to the range, forthwith. You need to find out how the rifle/scope is performing. How accurate is it? Where is it zeroed?
I would take a long hard look at 2 things: 1) the scope 2) the operator :)
If the scope is clear, the rifle is accurate and zeroed appropriately, then the problem is......well, you know what it is :)
BTW, the cartridge/bullet combo is NOT the problem.

Boy! You guys are brutal, but fair. Those that know me will attest that the problem is not range time. Now range time and position shooting is another story. The combination of low light, mist, old eyes and improperly adjusted focus was part of the problem but only because it contributed to the real problem. My confidence has been shaken badly in the last three years. I can knock a squirrel off that corn pile all day long. I can shoot little tiny groups at the range on paper. The problem lies with only seeing two deer to shoot at in 3 years. It comes from brain battle I have been fighting since 4 years ago when I shot low on a buck of a lifetime with my bow. I had taken a deer using the recurve and shooting instinctive and had the confidence and ability to make the shot on the large 8 pt. and I missed. I think it has carried over to the gun somewhat. The only cure is a well placed round in the boiler room.

The deer I shot last year, off the same stand and corn pile as yesterday, was 80 yds with my 1894 iron sight lever gun and I just misjudged the shot distance and proper hold. I have no excuses for the optic advantage of the 760 Rem. It shoots MOA groups all day long.

I'll beat this thing but it is going to take a dead deer with a good shot placement to do it. The other three bad hits are just about the same problem but a little different. Not seeing deer for many hour on stand and then taking a frontal shot with a BT bullet always spells disaster to me. I have had frontal shots with sp's that did not do well and my buddy is trying to make that shot with a combined tech 140 gr BT in 7mm08. I am trying to talk him into some partisions in that gun but he will probably just go back to the corelox.

The lighter bullet on the shoulder idea is interesting. I have loaded some 125 gr BTs in the .308 my son shoots but because of the rare, to this point, deer sightings at our lease, these are unproven also.

OK guys, there is the whole story. Keep it coming. I promise I have run out of excuses and will not discount any of your critisism.

Your rifle/caliber/bullet combo is good, and I wouldn't change it. I think that in the future, once you have your rifle/scope/ammo combo sighted in prior to the season, I absolutely WOULD NOT loan it to anyone, for any reason. The reason for this, which you have already experienced, is messed up optics, and no confidence in zero. It's been my experience that you never get the weapon back in time to do a thorough rezero. Also, unless the party to whom you have loaned the rifle rezero's it for his physique and hold, he'll suffer the same thing. Another suggestion would be to practice position shooting with a sling, and using a field expedient rest if at all possible.

As far as wounding game goes, there are very few of us who have not done this. If you hunt often enough, it will happen. Our responsibility as hunters is to show respect for the game that we hunt by becoming the best shot that we can, knowing our limits, and staying within those limits. I'm sure that you know this, so I won't belabor the point.

Chief - I shared your problem some years ago and the fix is pretty simple when you think about it.

You're in an elevated tree stand shooting down on the deer. When shooting uphill or downhill, you must hold lower on the target. Bet if you had put the horizontal crosshair on the belly instead of the dead center shoulder hold, you'd be eating venison backstraps now!

The advice on the scope and the rifle loaning is valid. Once you sight-in for your particular needs, DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE USE OR FOOL WITH IT!!!

I have always had a tendancy to shoot high on game. I am pretty sure it is a poor follow through that causes it. I am so confident in my shooting ability that I think I actually raise my head to see the animal fall. This causes the the butt of the gun to be pushed down as I try to see over the scope. I have done the same thing with the bow but the result is a low shot as I drop my bow hand to see the arrow flight. I thought I made a concience effort to not do this Thurs. but I could have. I did aim mid line and back of the shoulder but the angle was not a lot. with that hold if I shot 4 inches high it could go right through the meaty section between the spine and the goodie box. That's what I think it did. I also believe that my buddy shot at the same deer and probably missed. We may never know but we will keep an eye out for buzzards.

Chief RID, I have to give you credit for posting something that was going to draw criticism. I think a lot of folks would not have the testicular sufficiency to do that.
I commend you.
Here's a brain game to try- it might help you.
Try to hold your sight picture AFTER you pull the trigger- see if you can watch the bullet strike THRU THE SCOPE- no fair looking around the scope, or over it- gotta be thru it.
The rifle will raise during recoil, but you can still see the deer thru the lower part of the field of view. If you work at this, there's no way you can pull off early.
BTW, I think one of the benefits of range time right before the season is confidence that you know exactly where the rifle shoots....

Low light is tough. Have you considered a scope with a thicker/heavier recticle? I've shot a lot of pigs at night.... the recticle is what you lose first, and then shot placement gets kinda iffy.

Further thought, if tracking is going to be rough, break one (or both!) shoulders. That definitely slows them down. Coyotes get a bit more meat, so what, share the wealth... :D

Hope this helps, and sorry to hear of your frustration.....

I am goint to try the thru the scope follow thru, that could help. As for the both shoulder thing, I had promised myself I would do that on my next deer and I just automatically moved behind the shoulder.

I cleaned the rifle yesterday because of the rain I sat in Thursday evening and because of the testing I had done this summer I decided to clean the bore also. I used to believe that the 1st shot on this rifle with a clean bore was a mystery and that it needed a fouling load. I proved that wrong this summer at the range so I had no problems cleaning it. To my surprise it was very dirty from the one shot. I even got a little copper out of it???? I think too much. Sometimes I wish I could be like the guys who never clean their gun and never think about there shooting and never go to the range and kill every deer they shoot at. BUT I AM NOT! I think I like shooting as much or more than I like hunting.