We all dream of taking a shot at a Deer with our big bore airgun and having its legs buckle and anchor in place. We crave the visualization of watching the immediacy and drama unfold through our scopes for that immediate rush of heart pounding success. It is even better if it can be recorded and share it with all you air heads later on!
Check out Tactacam FTS with 5.0 video camera kit which was used to capture theses scope images: https://www.tactacam.com/
So can the Deer "off button" switch get flipped when you take the shot - yes. Does it always happen - NO FRICKEN WAY!
If some mighty hunter in the online hunting group you are part of says they "always drop their Deer dead right there (DRT)" THEY ARE LYING!
So if DRT shots don't always happen, then what type of shot is statistically the best to take? Head shot? NOPE! Not shooting subsonic relatively loopy trajectory big bore airguns anyway.
Deer have crazy good reflexes and I don't care if you are a Rick Rehm special ops sniper wannabe - DO NOT take that head shot. One inch off with the Deer flinching the slightest and you are in the sinus cavity vs. the brain or spine. You now have a wounded Deer and not a pretty ending.
Over the past few years of obsessing and big bore airgun Deer hunting like crazy I think I have it figured out. The key is achieving a good blood trail which in my opinion is more important than anything. So how do you ensure a good blood trail?
Your goal for the best blood trails is a full pass through with clean entry and exit wounds - Double Lung - PERIOD!
Pop Quiz: How many holes will you get blood from when you double lung a Deer with a full pass through? Is the answer two? NOPE! The answer is three!
Here is the entry wound:
...and here is the exit wound:
When you double lung shot a Deer you get blood trails from both the entry and exit wounds and the passthrough relieves the pressure of the chest cavity making the blood flow better.
The third hole I speak of is through the mouth. When the Deer is double lunged it will expel blood through the respiratory system through the mouth as it exhales when it is running and is often the spray on the ground you see towards the end before it goes down.
In my opinion, this double lung shot is the most ethical shot with the highest statistical probability of a clean harvest with as little tracking as possible with a big bore airgun.
In the shots you see here from my Tactacam FTS scope kit I attempted a few higher shoulder / double lung shots and the results were awesome. Both Deer went down within 30 yards and great blood trails with the NSA 290 grain HPs. Still no "off button" though.
Using the Nick Nielsen NSA 290 grain HP slugs paired with the AirForce Airguns NEW .45 Texan with Carbon Fiber Bottle from Airgun Depot is hands down the best Deer hunting combination on the market right now.
I see airgunner newbies asking questions here on AirgunNation.com about which big bore airgun to get and I would like to provide my journey as a big bore airgunner as an example.
Just go big right away and go with the Texan .45 with the new carbon fiber 3625 PSI bottle. I am not just saying this because I am a Fan Boy of Airforce Airguns (which I am), but I am telling you this because it is true.
I know there are big bore airgun options out there in the $550-$750 range, but trust me you want that double pass through and a 200-300 FPE big bore airgun is marginal. When you get into that 75-100 yard range it starts getting questionable if you will get through both sides of the Deer.
After owning those 200-300 FPE guns for awhile you will most likely be looking to Chad Simon from Lethal Air with his African Air Ordnance upgrade kits (which are a great option), but why not just do it right the first time a get a Texan .45 with Carbon Fiber bottle with 700+ FPE capabilities?
Hit a bone or shoulder with those less powerful guns and statistically speaking, you are going to have a single entry wound. Will the Deer still go down - yes eventually. But when I am in the woods and after obsessing and planning all year long, I want to take that X factor of passthrough out of the equation.
Even with the Texan .45 CF Series - if you have a quartering shot, you still might not get the full pass through. I was lucky to have hit the liver upon entry on this one and got immediate blood trail. The slug still broke through the back shoulder and embedded into the rear hide. Watch here: https://youtu.be/gf3S5_T8MFw
The lower powered .357 big bore airgun options on the market are good guns and yes - they have taken Deer. As a matter of fact, I started this journey with a .357 Texan and shot 3 Deer in the first year, but had some issues. The first two went down within 75 yards, but with little to no blood trail.
The 3rd Deer that year was a 6 point buck shot at 75 yards and was perfect heart / lung shot placement with mule kick reaction. We didn't recover till the next spring. Zero blood trail during a cold November rain storm and he slid down a steep ravine into thick cover after about 150 yards. My uncle found him the next spring while Morel mushroom hunting. So we have the antlers on the wall and the story to tell.
I have had a lot of success in recent years with this Texan series of big bores, but not like this year! I haven't had a single Deer go more than 40-ish yards and have had two drop within 25 yards. With that said, I haven't found the "off" button where they drop right in their tracks. I think the key to that "off button" is hitting a nerve bundle somewhere within the system.
So this year was hands down my most successful year so far for Deer hunting and it isn't fully over yet. Here in Michigan we still have Dec. 23, 2019 – Jan. 1, 2020 for the late antlerless season and I have 2 more tags to fill.
So I hope you can use some of this info to help your decisions with both purchasing of a big bore airgun and your shot placement on Deer.
In 2019 we had more states than ever before with legalized big bore Deer hunting (thanks to the AIRGUN SPORTING ASSOCIATION) so we are getting more intel from the field.
Please share your stories even if it ended in an unrecovered Deer. We learn more from our failures than our successes and sharing as a community will make us all better big bore airgun hunters!
Check out Tactacam FTS with 5.0 video camera kit which was used to capture theses scope images: https://www.tactacam.com/
So can the Deer "off button" switch get flipped when you take the shot - yes. Does it always happen - NO FRICKEN WAY!
If some mighty hunter in the online hunting group you are part of says they "always drop their Deer dead right there (DRT)" THEY ARE LYING!
So if DRT shots don't always happen, then what type of shot is statistically the best to take? Head shot? NOPE! Not shooting subsonic relatively loopy trajectory big bore airguns anyway.
Deer have crazy good reflexes and I don't care if you are a Rick Rehm special ops sniper wannabe - DO NOT take that head shot. One inch off with the Deer flinching the slightest and you are in the sinus cavity vs. the brain or spine. You now have a wounded Deer and not a pretty ending.
Over the past few years of obsessing and big bore airgun Deer hunting like crazy I think I have it figured out. The key is achieving a good blood trail which in my opinion is more important than anything. So how do you ensure a good blood trail?
Your goal for the best blood trails is a full pass through with clean entry and exit wounds - Double Lung - PERIOD!
Pop Quiz: How many holes will you get blood from when you double lung a Deer with a full pass through? Is the answer two? NOPE! The answer is three!
Here is the entry wound:
...and here is the exit wound:
When you double lung shot a Deer you get blood trails from both the entry and exit wounds and the passthrough relieves the pressure of the chest cavity making the blood flow better.
The third hole I speak of is through the mouth. When the Deer is double lunged it will expel blood through the respiratory system through the mouth as it exhales when it is running and is often the spray on the ground you see towards the end before it goes down.
In my opinion, this double lung shot is the most ethical shot with the highest statistical probability of a clean harvest with as little tracking as possible with a big bore airgun.
In the shots you see here from my Tactacam FTS scope kit I attempted a few higher shoulder / double lung shots and the results were awesome. Both Deer went down within 30 yards and great blood trails with the NSA 290 grain HPs. Still no "off button" though.
Using the Nick Nielsen NSA 290 grain HP slugs paired with the AirForce Airguns NEW .45 Texan with Carbon Fiber Bottle from Airgun Depot is hands down the best Deer hunting combination on the market right now.
I see airgunner newbies asking questions here on AirgunNation.com about which big bore airgun to get and I would like to provide my journey as a big bore airgunner as an example.
Just go big right away and go with the Texan .45 with the new carbon fiber 3625 PSI bottle. I am not just saying this because I am a Fan Boy of Airforce Airguns (which I am), but I am telling you this because it is true.
I know there are big bore airgun options out there in the $550-$750 range, but trust me you want that double pass through and a 200-300 FPE big bore airgun is marginal. When you get into that 75-100 yard range it starts getting questionable if you will get through both sides of the Deer.
After owning those 200-300 FPE guns for awhile you will most likely be looking to Chad Simon from Lethal Air with his African Air Ordnance upgrade kits (which are a great option), but why not just do it right the first time a get a Texan .45 with Carbon Fiber bottle with 700+ FPE capabilities?
Hit a bone or shoulder with those less powerful guns and statistically speaking, you are going to have a single entry wound. Will the Deer still go down - yes eventually. But when I am in the woods and after obsessing and planning all year long, I want to take that X factor of passthrough out of the equation.
Even with the Texan .45 CF Series - if you have a quartering shot, you still might not get the full pass through. I was lucky to have hit the liver upon entry on this one and got immediate blood trail. The slug still broke through the back shoulder and embedded into the rear hide. Watch here: https://youtu.be/gf3S5_T8MFw
The lower powered .357 big bore airgun options on the market are good guns and yes - they have taken Deer. As a matter of fact, I started this journey with a .357 Texan and shot 3 Deer in the first year, but had some issues. The first two went down within 75 yards, but with little to no blood trail.
The 3rd Deer that year was a 6 point buck shot at 75 yards and was perfect heart / lung shot placement with mule kick reaction. We didn't recover till the next spring. Zero blood trail during a cold November rain storm and he slid down a steep ravine into thick cover after about 150 yards. My uncle found him the next spring while Morel mushroom hunting. So we have the antlers on the wall and the story to tell.
I have had a lot of success in recent years with this Texan series of big bores, but not like this year! I haven't had a single Deer go more than 40-ish yards and have had two drop within 25 yards. With that said, I haven't found the "off" button where they drop right in their tracks. I think the key to that "off button" is hitting a nerve bundle somewhere within the system.
So this year was hands down my most successful year so far for Deer hunting and it isn't fully over yet. Here in Michigan we still have Dec. 23, 2019 – Jan. 1, 2020 for the late antlerless season and I have 2 more tags to fill.
So I hope you can use some of this info to help your decisions with both purchasing of a big bore airgun and your shot placement on Deer.
In 2019 we had more states than ever before with legalized big bore Deer hunting (thanks to the AIRGUN SPORTING ASSOCIATION) so we are getting more intel from the field.
Please share your stories even if it ended in an unrecovered Deer. We learn more from our failures than our successes and sharing as a community will make us all better big bore airgun hunters!
