Thread: Beginner Hunter - need advice

Originally Posted by JustAnotherSpearo

As a newbie myself, yet to take my first deer. I have been consistently bumping into deer in different areas of the country (pureora and my two trips into the ruahines) and the main reason to having not have them on the deck to date sofar is.
1. Bullet type, shot a hind in the shoulder / higher up in the shoulder than I would have liked with Hornady 165gr Sst 308 and it went through and through at very close range. Spent 2 hours trying to find the animal with no success (had 5 of them so trying to follow all 5 tracks in steep thick bush crossing over with minimal blood trail was challenging). I've since done some homework and will be having soft points (deer was maybe 10m away at best)
2. I've been going too fast and bumping into them and having deer take off. Walk like a deer was the advice I got from here and it works. (I have also had days where I'm trying to cover ground, you've gotta walk the distance to learn areas and I've now clicked up a few 100kms of walking public land)

My own observations, some may disagree but deer can be thick as two short planks just after dawn and before dusk. I've had a few occasions now where I'm walking along not very quietly and have been able to stop, have the deer look at me and I've had time to remove scope cover, put one up the spout and then decide not a clear enough shot with the back drop / bad shot placement opportunities.

thats a one off - high shot -dont do any thing stupid with loads etc your shot placement was to blame not your load bullet - the only thing that would have improved your outcome with high shot placement would be 45-70 or 50 cal ( yuk yuk ) dont sweat it