Roadkill2228
New member
I just filled my whitetail deer tag here in northeast Saskatchewan. We had a seriously reduced season this year (Nov 20-Dec2) but I still got mine, a nice buck. Not much for antlers but I do not care about antlers I hunt for meat, the joy of hunting in and of itself, and as an excuse to disappear into the outdoors for awhile without having to explain myself to people. I got a real workout dragging the thing through the snow, even with the guts out me and my dad figure it weighed around 200 pounds or so and I had to drag the thing about a quarter mile by myself so my wrists are quite sore 2 days later. we got an even 80lb of meat off of it, that's with fat trimmed off and no bones or anything, just straight up meat. My tag cost 45 bucks so that's a real good return for my money if you want to look at it that way. Anyways, I thought I'd share some surprising terminal ballistics results...I shot this buck from about 80 yards I would guess, it was running flat out when I hit it and it was a quartering away shot...would you believe that the 220 grain Hornady Interlock round nose bullet fired out of my .300 Winchester Magnum DID NOT EXIT!!!!! It dropped the animal almost immediately, a super fast kill, but I was amazed. The offside shoulder stopped it (it busted the heck out of said shoulder) and I recovered 2 massive pieces and two little ones, as best I can tell it separated at the cannelure, recovered weight of all fragments was just shy of 190 grains. So it performed excellently in that it brought the animal down immediately, but...some treat bullet performance with the attitude that sectional density is the main thing affecting penetration, and I am telling you from experience, it is not. It matters, but bullet construction matters more. So for those thinking that a big 220 RN is an insurance policy automatically turning a .30 caliber rifle into a grizzly death ray or something like that...NOPE!!! I've seen 130 grain .270s go deeper (but not drop things like the big .300) anyway, I'm happy to have not come home empty handed, and I though you might find this interesting.