Why so many DRT online?

[Double Naught Spy]

Why so many DRT online?
I frequently see people writing about how all of their deer "DRT"….stands for "drop right there."

As H&H said, Dead or Drop, but either way, you see so many of these mentioned online for many reasons. I think the biggest is because people embellish and misremember stories. As one guy told me about his kill being DRT, it was DRT, ... about 100 yards from where he shot it, LOL.

The other thing is that people are seemingly much better online than they are in reality. It doesn't matter if it is DRT, shooting groups, or guns that NEVER malfunction. What is reported online is what I think people most often like to tell you happened, but maybe not so much how it really happened in many cases.

I hunt hogs and not deer. My goal is to drop the animal as quickly as possibly. Anything not a DRT is something of a failure to me because it usually means I have to go searching in the bottoms or the briar. Sadly, I am much more proficient at searching the bottoms and the briar than I would like to be.

We all have good days and bad days. My hog videos certainly reflect this.

And what happens when you post online about less than optimal shots, non-DRTs and the like? People give you a hard time. That is especially true with videos where people can see what you are doing. They blame you, the gun, the ammo, and sometimes even create near-mythical stories about how _______ (insert animal type here) is so tough. So there is motivation to not say that you had anything other than an optimal shot with a perfect DRT lest ye suffer the wrath of the keyboard commandos.

I have to laugh. I shot a nice hog a few years ago that ran about 100 yards. It was a decent shot from a .45-70, but it took us a while to find it. My hunting buddy recounted the story to some of our friends. I loved hearing that story. While not a DRT story, I swear, it got better every time he told it. The hog got bigger, shot placement was better, it ran further, and we had more trouble finding it as time passed and the story got retold. I enjoy hearing HIS story about MY hunt. Sometimes, I think that is just the nature of hunting stories.

 

[jmr40]

My understanding is the term DRT originally came from the police and military years ago and it never meant "Dropped Right There". It has drifted into hunting jargon in recent years.

In my experience roughly 1/2 of my game animals have been DRT. Shot placement is a major factor, but the animals state of mind is part of it too. I've seen deer with very good shot placement run 100+ yards and I thought I missed at first. Some give up, lay down and die. Others run.

 

[gspn]

Critters react to bullets in different ways.

No it just means that some critters have more fight in them than others.

I agree with everything you wrote. I tell people that same thing all the time…critters have varying degrees of physical and mental toughness.

 

[gspn]

My hunting buddy recounted the story to some of our friends. I loved hearing that story. While not a DRT story, I swear, it got better every time he told it. The hog got bigger, shot placement was better, it ran further, and we had more trouble finding it as time passed and the story got retold. I enjoy hearing HIS story about MY hunt. Sometimes, I think that is just the nature of hunting stories.

I love hearing you talk about how much you love hearing that story!

 

[gspn]

DRT and BBD are phrases one never heard twenty years ago. It took television and internet forums and their hype to make their connotation important to a few folks. That's why those few folks feel the need to use them........for some reason they identify this with being a great hunter. Problem is for many of those, DRT is important, because if the animal is not DRT, they loose the bloodtrail within 40 yards.

This whole phenomenon of using a hyperbole to describe a kill is a recent one. The "whack 'em and Stack 'em!" , "Piled 'em up like cord-wood!" and others have somehow become some kind of badge of honor. Maybe I'm just old school, but I was taught to have respect for my quarry and to honor them in death, not to glorify the amount of blood drawn or to glorify the last moments before death. To tell the truth, I always preferred bow hunting because even with a boiler room shot, the deer ran off outta sight and died with dignity. Nowadays, besides the impact shot, the videos feel the need to show the animal suffering, while staggering and falling, then kicking until the last spasms of life are gone. Sorry, I just don't get it.

You managed to pack a lot of insight into a short post. Very interesting thoughts. It's interesting to consider that perhaps there may be a 'values shift' that has occurred in the history of American hunting.

Could it be that there is a group of hunters who was exposed to hunting not through the traditional method of friends and family, but through Cable TV and Internet hunting sources? Could it be that the traditional values of fair chase, respect for the animal, feeding ones family, self reliance, etc have been supplanted by values that place emphasis heavily on the size of an animals antlers and how much money you can make by selling sponsorships to support killing more big animals?

That would make for an interesting study.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

My understanding is the term DRT originally came from the police and military years ago and it never meant "Dropped Right There".

You know, my dad was a cop as far back as the mid 50s, never heard it as dropped right there. However, from what I find online...

http://www.policemag.com/cop-slang/d-r-t.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._government_and_military_acronyms

Other DRT, Dead Right There

http://neologisms.rice.edu/index.php?a=term&d=1&t=4966
http://www.internetslang.com/DRT-meaning-definition.asp
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=DRT
http://scrubsmag.com/top-47-slang-terms-for-nurses/
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/DRT - long list but none are 'dropped right there'


I am more inclined to believe that "dropped" was revisionist hunter usage, though finding anything definitive is elusive so far and so the apparent trend may be in error.

 

[gspn]

Doublenaught…great bit of research.

 

[d2wing]

The only 100 percent reliable kill shot is the heart lung shot. Deer rarely drop right there unless you hit them in the shoulders. Neck shots, head shot, and DRT are from studies and my own experiences of shooting over 50 large deer are BS. I have had a few DRT but because I hit them in the shoulders. I did shoot a large buck from long range that dropped right there. Turns out I miss judged the lead and hit him in the neck. But he was still alive when I got there several minutes later. Of course it is different if you are shooting deer at a feeder from a rest rather than in the wild. Most of the DRT there claims are shot with a keyboard not a rifle.

 

[ScrapMetalSlug]

I've taken five deer, and three did not take another step. First was a yearling doe shot with a MN 91/30, heart shot broadside from about 45 yards with 180 grain sp. second was a Four point buck shot head on at about 35 yards, heart shot from 7.5x55 Swiss k31 174 grain sp. The third was from a hornady sst 12 ga slug, shot at a doe about 80 yards broadside, but somehow the bullet exploded on impact and exited through the spine out the neck in pieces. Entrance wound just behind the shoulder, and smaller exit would out of the neck.

the two that ran a little ways were double lung shots on moving deer with 12 gauge sabot slugs who kept running all less than 75 yards and we're easily recovered.

In my teenage years I am fairly certain I lost two deer both from poor shot placement one a 7.62x39 and the other an 06. that kind of bothered me, so now I get as close as I can and only take shots I know I can make every time. I have no experience with the 7mm though.

 

[3212]

I've taken somewhere north of 60 deer,bucks and does.I used a 30-30 and a .243.My experience is that the shoulder shot with bone fragments put them down the fastest.Not always on the spot.I prefer the double lung shot with a run afterwards to bleed them out.I want to avoid dried blood in the venison if I can.

 

[rromeo]

The last two deer I've shot were on the ground within 5 feet of where they were standing when I shot them. Both of these were shot with a .30-30 at 100 feet or less.

 

[R.W.Dale]

In retrospect very few of my double lung shots were truly DRT.

TWO notables that were was a small buck I shot while me and him met going opposite directions down a half dry creek bed @ 25yds topps with my 223 ar15.

I did shoot twice as I always do to hedge my bets but the first shot produced the strangest reaction I'd ever seen. The deer probably jumped 10feet straight up the moment he hit the ground and before he could move out of his own body length I let him have it again just before launch and that one was lights out cause he did a pile drive right I to the water making a huge splash and didn't even twitch.

Another was a bigger buck that because if the rise and fall of the land from my blind I could only see part of his shoulders back and head. This was a couple hundred yards out with a 30-06 so I waited for him to turn his back to me as my plan was to shoot him in the back of the neck where any hit would be fatal. Instead the 150g Speer SPBT went in right in the middle of his back and pretty much traveled up the spinal column for over a foot.

He was quite dead too and a very strange feeling deer to drag

 

[Art Eatman]

Hey, it's not just the Internet.

A close friend of mine had killed several cougars on a big south Texas ranch, and pretty much just took it for granted that if he wanted another, it was no big problem. So off we go to the back country.

Baited up a big male. My buddy missed. Got excitedly upset. Naturally, he griped about it.

Back in Austin, a while later, he was telling the story. He got so excited all over again that he missed it three more times.

 

[osprey176]

In my experience,DRT on a hog meant I hit behind the ear, and he is doing the "Death Dance";perfect shot placement. With a deer,however, the few times it happens, means I shot too high and ruined the shoulders and hit the spine. Not perfect shot placement. Unless I hit them with my .444. That rifle dropped everything I shot where it stood except one deer who was running flat out when the first shot double lunged her,and a second hit shoulder and dropped her. I think some new hunters tend to exagerate their shooting and hunting prowess. No body brags about poor shooting,right?

 

[H&Hhunter]

Nobody who hunts enough doesn't have a bad day in the shooting department. I know I've had my share.

 

[Art Eatman]

I was still wet behind the ears when my father commented, "If you shoot 'em in the white spot, they don't go anywhere."

Indubitably.

 

[cowpoke]

If you break there neck with the shot, dead right there ( DRT )

 

[3212]

I don't try the neck shot after a bad experience with it.I shot a trotting doe in the neck with a .243.She stopped and stood with her head down,I shot into the neck again and she still stood there.I finally did the double lung shot and she went down and expired after a couple minutes.The spine in the neck is a small target and easy to miss.You just mess up the muscles and don't kill the deer if you miss it.

 

[3212]

Some of the best entertainment I've had was evenings spent in deer camps with large numbers of hunters.Especially the beer drinkers.The shots get longer,the deer get bigger, and the pranks that were pulled get more outrageous.One evening,some local women came to visit a relative in camp.A young camp member was taking a basin bath in the next room and didn't hear them come in.An old timer pointed at the doorway and said"LOOK AT THE POINTS ON THAT ONE".The crowd roared.

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

DRT out of the 20 or so deer i have shot 4 were DRT before they hit the ground
2 were head shot one was shot in the back bone (spine) ok this one was not DRT
but was paralyzed and one was shot with a 12ga Remington copper solid
put a fist size hole in her

 

[Elkins45]

DRT and BBD are phrases one never heard twenty years ago.

BBD?

I've killed 2-3 deer per year over the last 24 years. About half with a 50 cal ML and the other half with either a 25-06, 270 or 257 Weatherby. A couple were neck shots and DRT, but I can only recall two that were chest cavity hits that didn't take at least a few steps before piling up. Most usually run 20-30 yards downhill so I have to drag them farther. They always run away from the truck as their last act of defiance.

The most dramatic DRT was a 90 yard shot on a big doe with the Weatherby and a GMX bullet at 3500fps. She was facing me grazing and when she looked up I drove one right through her sternum. It was like each leg had a string tied to it and all of them were pulled in a different direction at once.

 

[MCgunner]

Sounds like you need to trade that 7 for a .257 Roberts. 2 dozen deer that thing has taken for me and they all DRTed except one. That one was a 117 hornady interlock that didn't expand. I went back to Sierra Game Kings.

I've had a few run, one I can remember a good 100 yards before dropping with it's heart shot out by a soft point from a 7.62x39 SKS. But, the majority DRTed. These are Texas deer, though, and a really good buck is well shy of 200 lbs.

 

[buck460XVR]

BBD?

Big Buck Down


Over the years I have had to finish off too many deer someone tried to head shoot and just blew off part of their face/nose/mouth. Have come across too many dead deer during the late grouse season after gun deer season, emaciated, with part of their face blown off. Makes one wonder how many days that deer wished the yote's/wolves would find them before they finally perished. Everyone has been an antler less deer where I assume folks either had a desire to not waste any meat, or the hunter was trying to impress others with their shooting skills. Either way, those deer paid the price for it.

Reasons like that are why I don't shoot deer in the head unless it's a coup de gras and I don't shoot at flying/running turkeys. But that's just me, others are free to do otherwise.

 

[Caliche Kid]

I've taken several hundred deer. I've grown to prefer the center shoulder shot. I've used about every cartridge out there. Mostly, 7mm Mag., in my youth, a few decades of .30/06, and for the last few years .308. The behind the shoulder shot deer usually runs for a few seconds. Anything high, think close to spine, drops them there. Center shoulder shot will typically hit bone and take out the transmission. If not a drop there, it will be only a few feet. No tracking but you lose the shoulder meat and the front end is a mess while field dressing. Exceptions to this have been several deer taken with .22 center fires and .243 rifles. They are less predictable. Bullet choice becomes very important. A good bullet allows bigger caliber performance but a typical bullet can result in some tracking. I've had doe go over 100 yards, with perfect placement with the .223. My favorite meat gun is a Ruger 77/.357. With 158 grain flat nose jacketed bullets deer typically go about 50 yards. But you can eat right up to the bullet hole. Almost no blood shot mess to deal with. Unfortunately, range is limited to about 125 yards for me. This does take care of most hunting though.

 

[gspn]

BBD?

They always run away from the truck as their last act of defiance.

I think I hunt the same genetic strain of deer that you do. I've long threatened to force them at gunpoint to march to the truck, and just shoot them when we get there.