Lost a whitetail East of Hunters, Washington

[Romulus1297]

Loose scope mount?

[duckmen1]

We have shot like 6 deer and 4 bears using 143gr eldx and 6.5 creedmoore combo. And all have been quick kills, quick recovery or seeing animals drop. Including pass through shots breaking both shoulders on some. But even if not a pass through no problem. Plenty of penetration. Point is its not the rifle bullet combo. Also used eldx bullets out of other calibers and have had great success on deer, bears, and even elk.
To those pushing an eldx at extreme velocities that may not be the best for the bullet construction. Same as sierra gameking bullets. Some say they suck and try to push those bullets like 3400fps. I push mine at 2800 fps with a 165. Last 2 shots at bull elk was 2 complete pass throughs. Breaking both shoulders. Both shots. Learn what the bullet constructions are made to do within their design and no issues will be had. Oh and on the berger study. Well ours is 100% on quick recoveries on deer and bears again. In fact even elk have dropped fast. I don't know. I guess I have seen animals run way further with these deep penetrating bullets. But still very effective. As pointed out in this original posts deer sounds like a sight issue.

[300rum]

Personally, I always have my scopes mounted by someone who knows what they are doing.  Can I do it? yes, but I have had good luck with using the experts.  With what you described and the blood, you probably just grazed his brisket.  He will probably lean to the side when he lays down for awhile.  Next year someone will take him and wonder what happened.    

I had my gun zeroed at 200 before I left hunting, 

I checked my zero later today.  About 6-7” low and 2-3” to the right. So somewhere somehow something happened to my scope, bummer

[Karl Blanchard]

Vortex or leupold scope I presume?

[callturner]

Vortex or leupold scope I presume?

Just curious why you would say that?

[blackpowderhunter]

Vortex or leupold scope I presume?

Just curious why you would say that?

because they're known to not hold zero/track well after repeated dialing up and down.

[jrebel]

If he was using hold over, sounds like he isn't dialing turrets.  I have never had a Leupold fail to hold zero...but I have also never had a leupold with turrets that I dial.  My Leupolds are set and forget with hold over only......usually for my rifles that don't shoot much past 300 yards.  I also understand ballistics very well so 300 yard holdovers are very doable.  I will also say, most of my leupolds are older models, if that matters.

Vortex....well, don't get me started....Garbage IMO. 

[Karl Blanchard]

Vortex or leupold scope I presume?

Just curious why you would say that?

because they're known to not hold zero/track well after repeated dialing up and down.

Not even just dialing. Just lousy zero retention period.

[Kvw4x4]

It’s a vortex viper hst,
I do have turret adjust but didn’t use it.

[Stein]

Send it back to Vortex, they'll glue the guts back together and send it back in a week or two.  From my experience, after they fix it once it seems to be much more durable than how it came from the factory.

[huntandjeep]

Vortex or leupold scope I presume?