What happened?

ridgetops · Feb 16, 2014

My cousins wife shot at this antelope last fall and hit it somewhere in the leg. Maybe the bullet nicked the elbow (funny bone area) or just above the hoof. I've watched it in slow motion dozens of times and can never see any hair fly. We saw the buck several hours later and it was running around chasing does like nothing ever happened. She couldn't get back on the buck to make a good shot that evening and then we never saw it or the does again.
She was shooting about 300 yards to my right. So she had a more of a quartering away shot. Not the straight on broadside view I (with the video camera) had. There was a small rise between the shooter and the goat. After the shot, she couldn't see it anymore because of the rise in landscape. I didn't know that at the time and was wondering why she didn't shoot again.
Any guesses what that buck might have scored or why it started limping for a couple minutes?
Could it have just pulled a muscle
when it jumped?

Cornhusker · Feb 16, 2014

That was a real interesting video that I watched 3 times I never could see anything hit his rear leg and since he didn't initially limp on it I think your idea of a pulled muscle is as good as anyone's will be. I think he's an upper 70's buck. ( I know many will feel I'm incorrect ). It looks almost exactly like one I shot in 57 in 09. It has average big buck mass 5 to 6" prongs and might make 14". Mine scored between 77-78. Thanks for posting a nice buck an interesting video.

deerslayer88 · Feb 16, 2014

Did she check for blood or was this a lets shoot and see what happens sort of thing? I would say it was probably nicked as upon the initial impact the thing had a rush of adrenaline. I wouldn't say its a fatal hit at all, but a great possibility of a nick.

ridgetops · Feb 16, 2014

We checked for blood for a couple hours. The buck was heading West. We checked every draw and wash in the area, in case it was bedded down. While we were looking, I looked over and she was sitting on the ground with her head between her legs...crying.
She felt horrible about making such a bad shot. It was raining fairly hard. That's why the video is a little fuzzy.
We ended up relocating the buck about a mile back to the East but she was having a hard time keeping the cross hairs on the buck, so she didn't shoot.
She ended up taking a nice 77" buck the following weekend.

Adventurewriter · Feb 16, 2014

An antelop puling a muscle would be my last guess. Could have been a low nick or it kicked up some dirt/rocks could have got him with some rock scrapnel...

77ish decent cutters...poor mass low and high

deerslayer88 · Feb 17, 2014

Everyone makes bad shots, I pulled a shot on my first antelope, and blew its front leg off from the knee down. The second shot was a follow up when the thing was on a dead run, I shot it again and knicked it, the bullet grazed the thing front chest. Finally the darn thing stopped for a minute and I took the kill shot and it did not move a inch. I was surprised how fast that thing was on three legs, I was even more surprised that it did a tumble when I knicked it but ran when I blew the leg off. Go figure right, but from what I have been told is the antelope get way skittish after being shot at a few dozen times and run like a bat after a shot or two.

tailchasers · Feb 17, 2014

Small piece of shrapnel or rock kicked up from the shoot? Weird...

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."

TMas · Feb 17, 2014

I think she may have hit that leg, but just my guess. If you watch the video, you see debris fly right there by the leg, but after he starts to run I think you can see where the bullet actually hit dirt several feet away.

But then after watching it a couple more times, I think that buck wasn't necessarily limping but walking stiff in the rear end before the shot, so he may have had a previous injury that he re injured up when he took off. It's tough to say and there's probably no way of ever knowing.

littlebighorn · Feb 17, 2014

My initial impression was that he appears to be limping slightly, just before the shot. So who knows.
I often wonder with ungulates if they don't occasionally get a rock between their splayed hooves. No way to know for sure, but fun video.
He has great cutters but lacks some in mass and length. I think the high 70s guesses are pretty accurate.
Thanks for sharing Koby