Close Range Bullet Fragmentation

[GeauxTide]

I've seen quite a lot of deer killed with quite a variety of weapons, bullets and broadheads. I've also talked to guys who have seen a lot more. Most importantly, guys with dogs that track wounded animals. They tell me all kinds of stories about "perfect shots" and "bullet failures", that turned out to be gut-shot, leg-shot, something other than vital zone shot, animals. Interestingly, I have yet to hear a single story from such a dog tracker, wherein the animal was hit in the vitals and the bullet or broadhead failed to perform.

PerZacklee! Thanks, Peetza!

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

For one, I wouldnt be using a 30-06 at 30-40yds.

I like the SST's and we have excellent results with them in 30-06, 243, 270, and 280. We have had terrible results the times we tried Barnes and Nosler. We refuse to buy them, especially costing twice as much as other bullets.

So if the animal you're after steps out at 40 yards and you're carrying a 30-06, you don't shoot?

Barnes bullets are expensive but I've almost never heard of anyone having problems with them. What are these "results" you speak of?

 

[Art Eatman]

If what I have available is a thutty-ought-six, I don't care if Bambi crawls from beneath a rock that's right by my feet. He's gonna have a lot more problems than I will.

 

[AllenJ]

I once shot an antelope at 200 yards broadside with a 30/06 using a 180 grain Speer SBT. I had a decent rest and shot the animal in the shoulder hoping the put it down as we were on private property and close to the property line. At the shot a large cloud of dust rose at the antelope’s front foot. I felt very good about the shot and knew there was no way I had just missed my mark, especially by that much! The antelope limped over a hill before I could get another round off so I high-tailed it to the top and finish it with a spine shot. What I found while working on the animal was that the first shot had hit exactly where I was aiming, dead center of the shoulder. The bullet penetrated the skin, struck a bone hard enough to break it, then turned 90 degrees and exited the lower shoulder striking the ground next to the foot. That particular hunt was a combo and I shot an elk and a deer with the same reloads and had no problems proving to me that something had to be very wrong with that one bullet. Air pocket in the core? Bad jacket? Your guess is as good as any I can come up with. Since then I have always used premium bullets on game

 

[hooligan1]

I once shot a large doe at three yds with my 30-06, 150 grain Ballistic Tip from Nosler, went through the ribs behind both shoulders, complete pass through. Gues what,,, dead deer.
Sometimes what people tend to think about certain bullets just sounds stupid to me.

 

[AllenJ]

This is a VERY GRAPHIC picture of my oldest son's first deer. He shot it using a Model 700 in 7mm Remington Magnum and handloaded 154 grain Hornady SST. The first shot was to the neck and put the deer down. As my son got to the deer it started getting up so he quickly shot it again in the neck, from a few yards away. What the picture is showing is the entry wound.

 

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Wow!! such damage. Well I guess: better the neck than a back leg no doubt. Curious: How far down its Back Loin did you find bone chips in the meat?

 

[AllenJ]

How far down its Back Loin did you find bone chips in the meat?

We got very lucky there, less than 8".

 

[warbirdlover]

I've used a .300 Win Mag deer hunting for over 20+ years and have never had one run. They drop on the spot (lung or neck shot) from 40 yards to over 200 yards. I use cheapo 150 gr Remington CoreLoks or Winchester PowerPoints as they both group really well in my Ruger. All the deer I see shot on tv using those expensive bullets run. I don't think they expand soon enough and just blow through without expending any energy in the animal which (IMHO) is what you want for a quick kill.

The only premium bullet I would ever use are Nosler partitions. The best bullet ever made.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

All the deer I see shot on tv using those expensive bullets run.

Almost every deer I've ever seen shot runs away, and that's quite a few. At least several dozen.

I can count the ones that were DRT on one hand.

I've seen 75lb button bucks shot square in the chest from 40 yards away with a Savage ML10II smokeless muzzle loader throwing a 300gr bullet at 2,300fps, leaving a fist sized exit hole run 50 yards plus.

I saw a doe shot from just a few feet with a 12ga slug that blew her aorta off her heart, run 150 yards+.

I've seen them shot with 243Win, 7m-08, .30-06, 12ga, 20ga, rifled slugs, sabot slugs, "premium" bullet and standard cup and core bullet, muzzleloaders of all kinds, and who knows what else.

Almost all of them run.

In terms of expanding "soon enough", watch videos like those on Barne's website and tell me how far that bullet penetrates before it expands.

http://www.barnesbullets.com/videos/308 130 TTSX 2906fps 3Gel_WMV9_640x480.wmv

 

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Well if you have to give up a chunk of meat for being too damaged and bloodshot. Surrendering the neck for that purpose is far and away the best place to start. I could see why He wanted that deer to stay put. That's a pretty nice 1st. Buck your Son got there AllenJ.

 

[shootniron]

I must have the worst luck with Remington Cor-Lokt,s. Others swear they are great bullets, deep penatrating and hold togeather well.

X 2

I had miserable performance from the Core-Lokt's on 4 of 7 deer that I used them on. The performance was such that I gave them up many years ago. With that said, others seem to have great service from them...IDK.

 

[AllenJ]

Thanks Sure Shot Mc Gee, we were both very excited to say the least

Warbirdlover, have you ever used a Barnes TSX or TTSX? I was a big Partition fan until trying the Barnes and now I'm a converted fanatic. I tried them because I shot an elk a little far back with a 180 grain Partition at less than 200 yards using my 300 Winchester Mag, and the bullet did not exit. I tracked that animal for an entire afternoon before finally catching up to it and I came away thinking how much easier it would have been to track it if there would have been two holes instead of only one. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still a fan of the Partition, but the elk I’ve shot using the Barnes bullets have all had 2 holes, and both were much larger around than the original bullet. I’m very impressed by them.

 

[kilotanker22]

I don't think your SST fragmented. I used to hunt with a 300 winchester magnum and in 2008 I shot a buck from about 25 yards with a wins heater 150 grain power point. It entered the front shoulder quartering toward me exited the second shoulder and lodged in an iron wood tree behind it. Funny thing is I found two exit wounds but both shoulders were broke and the insides of the deer were mush. Needless to say it was a bang flop.

My point is these bullets are not designed to flat out penetrate. They are designed to give rapid controlled expansion. Expending almost all its energy while giving acceptable penetration. Also I believe that your 30-06 is slow enough plus even if that bullet did frag on impact there is still 165 grains of bullet travelling at whatever your speed is and would likely cause massive trauma and a very quick kill.

Not trying to call you out but I would tend to believe that the shot was not placed correctly. Like I said if that bullet f ragged on impact it dumped 100 percent of its energy into the deer.

Also the SST is a design not so different from the Remington corelokt.