My dad shot a nice 8 opening a couple inches lower at about 50yrds with a 22-250. By his description I was pretty sure I knew which deer he shot. We looked for hours. No hair, no blood, nothing. Looked again the next morning thinking maybe we could smell him. Nothing. Decided to pull he cards since I was back there and the deer was in my feed pen @3:15am. Hole in his shoulder the size of you fist. Seemed to be fine in the pictures, jumped in the pen, appeared to put weight on it. It was just a matter of time. Constant night pictures at all times. My son shot him the first weekend in December. Wound was still very visible but totally scabbed over. Lots of scar tissue with not her visual damage.
Years ago I had a decent 10 show up early in the season with a big hole in his left hind cheek. It didn’t seem to bother him so I left him alone. By the end of the season if you didn’t know there used to be a hole there you wouldn’t have been able to tell.
22-250 is a varmint gun. Period. Trust me. I’ve shot over 400 woodchucks/groundhogs in my younger “northeastern” days with mine. Rarely an exit wound. That caliber should not be used on any animal over 30 lbs. Ever! IMHO...of course.
Looks like an arrow hit the top of the "deadly V" and bounced out. Maybe a small caliber with ballistic tips, or varmint rounds, but I doubt that. They usually die days later.
Hope he gets through, looks healthy enough otherwise.
He’s still alive but looks poor. He has already shed his antlers which is fairly early here. He’s still healing but don’t know how he will end up. His body is using so much energy to heal that injury that he will probably have a smaller rack next season.
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