Only a few times have I heard the bullet impact on a deer. One such animal was taken last year with my .308 Savage at 276 yards. Definite "whack" sound was heard and definitely dropped the deer in her tracks. Never flinched. Another Vertical Bloodtrail!
Most of my shots are under 100 yards and I think the roar of the shot and the sound of bullet impacting are so close as to be indistinguishable. Dallan, I follow the same rule of thumb. Every shot gets checked out thoroughly. Sign first then complete followup. I've lost very few animals over the decades.

Yotebuster

[b] Bushy.....Sounds like you and I have the same disease. Anal glaucoma. I just can't see my arse going into work either! LOL

Yotebuster

I have lost the hearing (70% of it) in my left ear and my right ear isn't that great either. I have never, even in my younger days, heard the shot hit from a rifle. I agree with checking out every shot from the point of impact though. I have recovered several deer that would have been lost just by studying the ground where the deer was shot. After getting a fix on the direction the deer went after the shot, and combining that with the "evidence at the scene" ( a little CSI lingo there ), I am happy to say I have never lost a deer when rifle hunting. I had a good teacher who taught me to read the signs when tracking, and his lessons stuck with me I guess. I wish I could[b] hear the "thump". That, coupled with the deers behavior would be a good indicator of how well the deer was hit.

Blaine

iI have both seen, and heard hits on game. Once you hear it from someone elses shot say 300-400 yards away you'll know it. You still can't relay on it, If you hit a tree behind, it could sound like a bone, the ground could sound like hitting a hind quarter. You just have to folow up no matter what. You owe it to your self, the animal, and the rest of us!

I agree with yotebuster,I have never heard a bullet hit from a high powered rifle inside of 100 yards,the blast covers up the sound of the hit.Once you get out to around 250-300 yards it is fairly easy to hear the impact. Shooting light loads in muzzleloader competitions I can usually hear the balls hitting paper at only 25 yards.

Southpaw wrote:

iI have both seen, and heard hits on game. Once you hear it from someone elses shot say 300-400 yards away you'll know it. You still can't relay on it, If you hit a tree behind, it could sound like a bone, the ground could sound like hitting a hind quarter. You just have to folow up no matter what. You owe it to your self, the animal, and the rest of us!

Southpaw, we must have better hearing on this side of the border ....... or maybe it's the wide open spaces........

Well If you push bush for someone enough you get to know it more, how ever, ya we just hear better!

I think that alot to do with hearing the impact of a shot is down to experience. Hunters who have not shot many deer say under 50 do not know what sounds to look for, once they have shot a deer with someone fairly experienced who points out what sounds to look for they are on the right track. I hear the thump of a hit at any range, and when the shot is real close say under 30yds you can FEEL the hit rather than hear it, like the bass you feel in the car when you have the stereo up!

deermanager,I guess thats my problem not hearing hits at close range,Ive only killed 49 deer.Cant wait to shoot another so I can start hearing hits.I imagine if we used sound moderators to make our deer rifles sound like 22 rimfires like you do(as stated in a previous post)we could all hear impact at 30 yards. I have killed well over 1000 groundhogs with highpower rifles and stick by my observation that at close range the impact is drowned out by the blast.Unless of course you are using silencer. At longer ranges the sound is very noticeable.At roughly 370 yards it takes a full second for the sound of a hit to reach a shooters ears,plenty of time for the blast to be gone.

Of all the misc topic discussions I've seen on hunting websites, this one really, really surprises me. I've never really thought about it, i just assumed most people do hear their shots. I find it surprising that most people dont hear it, nothing wrong with that of course, just surprising.

Makes me think of 2 more questions (which I'll post in new threads so dont respond here to them) 1 - How many people see rounds going down range when acting as a spoter and 2 - how many people see rounds impacting their targets? ... like I said I'll create new threads for those questions but its interesting questions I havent really seen discussed before.


-DallanC

Firstly i only have 2 moderated rifles my .22 and a .223, My.243 was beautifully threaded and a cap made out of the end of the barrel which can be screwed making it impossible to tell the rifle is or ever has been threaded, the sighn of a real good but usually expensive gunsmith!

I have given up using moderators 99.9% of the time on my deer rifles as really i have found there is no point, i can stick it back on in 1min if i need to quieten things down abit, but the shot is still pretty loud in the immediate vicinity, just the sound of the shot dosent carry as far.

I have already shot 65 deer this year and no word of a lie have heard and in some short range cases felt the impact of every shot! i even hear the secondary thump after the round exits the annimal and say impacts into a tree or earth. Indeed over the years after having shot over 3,000 deer and guided and watched a great deal more get shot you suddenly become acutely aware of the sounds bullets make when they strike. Every bullet makes a noise when it hits without exception! the only time you may have trouble is if you are shooting on a windy and blustery day with the wind roaring through the trees but even then most of the time you will hear it.

I always hear the thump or thwack, i guess after years of hunting for a living i have finely honed my senses to a degree no part time or amatueur sportsman can dream of taking just 1-10 deer a year (i have shot more in a morning) - that'll get some of you going i bet, sorry not trying to rile or bost but its true)

Do me a favour go and shoot another 1,000 ground hogs, this time you've got a reason! and count how many times you hear the round hit!............................cant imagine anything more dull personally!

shot 2 foxes tonight with my .222 , both inside 50yds, 55grain ballistic tip didnt exit, just made one hell of a thump. front on chest shots, on both picked the copper jacketing out around the groin area. Nothing left of the fraglie little bullet hardly, just fragments! now my cats are gonna have a nice fox skin blancket by the fire!

[b]Dallan, One other factor that I'm sure affects the ability to hear the shot is what type of terrain and cover I'm around. Trees, shrubs or areas of dense foliage will reflect or "trap" the sound of the muzzle blast back to you; whereas open areas will allow most of the sound to travel away with no "reflection" back to the shooters ears, thus giving you the opportunity to hear the impact of the bullet.
When I think back on the few times that I have been able to hear the thump or whack of the bullet, I have been in open areas such as power line right of ways, elevated stands over clearcuts or on the edge of a large field. When I've been in standing timber or thick swamps, which is 99% of the time, I've never been able to hear the impact. I'm smothered in muzzle blast.
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Yotebuster