How far can they go?

[Sharpster]

I watched a buddy shoot his first deer many years ago from a treestand on the edge of a cut cornfield... bullseyed the heart and that deer went over 300 yrds on a dead run before piling up.

Couple years later I shot my first doe with a very dull stump shooting arrow by mistake (I haven't hunted with one of those in my quiver since). Again bullseye through the heart and this doe exploded out of there but only made it 80 yrds.

I prefer lung shots whenever possible.


Ron

[Doc Nock]

Originally posted by overbo:
How ever far they can get in under 10 seconds

I've read similar accounts that they can go with sufficient 02 in their system to make a 5-10 sec dead run...

Deer have been "timed" (who did that?) to run the 100 in 4sec! Do the math.

Longest I remember was 125 yards... and when I zipped her open, the heart rolled out on the ground. Totally severed from the circulatory system.

Amazing animals.

[southernarcher]

I have never thought as the heart shot as the perfect shot myself, I much prefer the lungs. Had a buck run about 150 on a heart hit. I've had others run for shorter distances, but some left very poor blood trails, my guess is the pump stopped pumping?

[Kris]

White-tailed doe through the heart with 4 blade Zwickey Delta, 85 yds.  Amazing animals, beautiful and inspirational.

Kris

[Ryan Rothhaar]

I too have experienced less blood on center heartshot deer than lung shot deer.  I think when you center the heart and shut it down there is less blood pumped out than the lungshots.  On average my heartshot deer have also gone farther than center double lung.

Also a heartshot that doesn't severely cut into one of the chambers - either only through heart muscle or merely nicking a chamber - can take a while to kill a deer.  The buck I killed in Iowa this year I heartshot, nicking a chamber, and he went close to 250 yards - albeit most of it was down a steep hill.

One of Dad's neighbors in Iowa killed a deer this year with a Montec 3 blade head healed into the heart muscle - the broadhead was gristled into the heart.  Obviously the chambers were not cut - and the deer had been shot 2 years before (as I recall) by a friend of the guy that killed it.  Of course this would be a rare event - but strange things happen in the woods!

Every shot is different - but given a choice I'd take a center lungshot any day over a heart shot.

Ryan