Has any one else ever seen this?

[hawki]

I filled one of my antlerless tags the other night and had a unique sight, for me anyway. I was sitting overlooking a soybean field on a cold Iowa afternoon, temp was about 5 above. About an hour before sunset a doe came in to the field opposite from me at about 100 yards. This is rolling hill country and she was on the other side of a small rise, with the lower part of her legs covered , but her body above the hill. The hill behind was a perfect backstop. When she turned broadside I shot her behind the shoulder. It was a dead right there shot. The first thing that I see as the smoke clears is her laying on her side, legs stiffening, right where she stood with steam coming from the middle of her body. It was one of those shots that leaves no question of the out come. I don't believe I have ever seen steam from the bullet hole before. I was using a Knight .45, 120 grains of BH209 and a 200 grain shockwave. There was no bullet recovery, it was a complete pass through.

 

[ShawnT]

Yup. When the warm air inside the body cavity comes out of the bullet hole and hits that cold air you get the steam. Sort of looks like the bullet hole is smoking. 8)

 

[03mossy]

Pretty cool! I've seen it once too, also in temperatures like that. It was a small buck that I punched a hole through both lungs with a .290 Barnes. His final few breathes were like a steam engine blowing out the entrance hole.

 

[cayuga]

Me and a friend were doing small drives to each other in the hardwoods one afternoon. It was a little below zero, but if you were walking it was not cold. A doe jumped up (all we had were doe tags) and ran between us. He pulled up his .50 caliber Tradition's Kentucky long rifle and took a shot at her, as she was pretty close. Well she kept running and we kind of thought he missed. But forty yards ahead, we see her there with a little cloud of steam coming up off her. It was the gas escaping her body cavity I figured.

A stranger sight was, I lung shot a deer. When I tracked to it, it was laying there with part of its lungs I am guessing, hanging out its mouth. And they were steaming. It ran until if just could not get any more air.