Close range shoulder shots make a mess .....

J

jimbob86

Moderator
..... and solid copper bullets don't help matters..............


.308 WIN with 130gr Barnes tipped bullet @40 yards ...... bullet hit the near humerus bone, smashed it, clipped a rib, sending pieces of it inside the chest cavity ...... holed a lung, the liver and paunch, and blew a 2 inch hole out through the short ribs ...... field dressing was disgusting.


Both sides of the ribs had considerable bruising/bloodshot tissue ..... not to mention the paunch contents stinking up the carcass .......


Admittedly, placement could have been better (new shooter) with the POI further forward .....
 

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After he opened the body cavity, I wished he had gone far, far away.

It was B. A. D. BAD.

the kid could not finish field dressing it ...... I had to take over ......
 
I dunno, I think a 308 130gr anything at 40 yards is going to make a mess of a deer.

I shot one this year at ~30-40 yards with a 168gr 30-06 in the chest. It didn't do as much damage as I expected. Higher velocity will get you a biger mess methinks.
 
I've shot several with my .270 and 150gr SGK's at that range, with the animal facing me...... none of the bullets/fragments penetrated past the diaghram.....
 
I've shot deer at 40 yards with a hot loaded 30-06 and a 165 grain Nosler BTBT. At close range the bullet breaks up instead of expanding like it does at longer ranges. A heart/lung shot leaves a bigger entrance wound than the exit wound. Heart and both lungs are completely destroyed and deer is always dead right there.
 
"Nothing better than lead" as I was told once by Hawg Haggen about a year ago. At the time we two had a warm discussion concerning these new copper Eco friendly bullets. Been shooting Ballistic Tips in my 270 for a few years by then. They too are gnarly on deer up close I found out. Now this year a hurried 100 plus yard shot. That nasty plastic tipped pill blew a elongated 10" hole going out the other side. Heart lungs a front leg all ruined not counting the ribs. Some non existence. Plus 3-gallons of water to rinse out the deer with. {have no well at my Bone Castle I have to haul in my water in from a spring 20 miles away} Or as I did this year. Break a hole thru river ice for rinse water 2-miles away. Something I don't relish doing when the outside temp is near -4 below zero. Thank Goodness my shot was in front of the animals diaphragm. So Mr.Haggen's opinion as I now see was right about lead or lead tipped bullets. I've got some old Winchester 130 gr. Silvertips here that were discontinued years ago. I'm going back to using those. To much mess to clean up after with these new fangled copper, E, plastic tipped bullet thingy's. BTW: I hope the smell and stomach content's didn't saturate your deer's meat. (especially if it had been eating corn earlier.) Perhaps a overnight soak in Baking soda would help pull the smell some. Good luck there.
 
I had the opposite thing happen to me years ago. I shot a doe broad side at 25 yrds and just looked at me. I went to shoot again and she ran off into a little bunch of trees, so I ran round because it was all open on the other side but she never came out. So walked into the trees and she only made it about 10 yrds in and was done. I looked at the holes and the lightbulb went on and remembered that I had got some FMJ 7.62 at a gun show that year and never took them out of my magazine before I went hunting. That was a lesson I never forgot as a 15 year old. The upside was it was a clean heart shot and did not ruin any meat. But I never made that mistake again.
 
Yes, close range shoulder shot do make a mess and in your case the penetration that Barnes bullets achieve seems to have made it worse. Long ago an uncle scolded me for shooting a deer in the shoulder while I was using a 30-06 and to this day that scolding has stayed with me. Since then I've shot for lungs or neck and have not lost any shoulders no matter what bullet I was using.

Congratulations to your new shooter, he may have lost some meat but he made the shot and the freezer has less empty space in it now!
 
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