KinleyWater
Handloader
- Jun 15, 2019
- 1,071
- 1,421
I'm sure some of you have had this experience, but this morning was a bit odd for me. Had a couple of does bound into the clear about 45 yards from me. The first caught me off guard, and was running hard, flag up. The second, the larger of the pair, came charging in a few seconds later, but stopped to look back and see if she was being followed. I have no idea if she was, but I dutifully put my reticle over her ribs and pulled the trigger. To my amazement, she bounded off as if unhit, running some 80 yards before disappearing into some brush. Rather than waiting a full half-hour, I thought it was worth taking a look to see what sort of blood trail there was - I figured she'd run far enough that I wasn't going to spook her.
No blood where she was standing. None along the path she'd taken. It was, I figured, a clean miss. I was so upset by missing such a shot, that I decided to just hang up my rifle, at least for this season. I unloaded, put my rifle int he cleaning rotation, and unloaded and cased my revolver. An hour passes and I tell the wife I'm going to go have a look, just to be absolutely certain. I follow the path the deer took - t-shirt and jeans, now - and sure as muffins, there's a dead doe lying right at the property line. Well, I'm excited, and I get my stuff and start to work cutting away to begin pulling meat off of it. I'm doing my own processing this year, for a start (more on those poor choices later, perhaps). Anyway, I get one side done, flip her over, and start on the other side. I'm skinning when I find what is clearly much too small a bullet under the skin of one leg.
Oh, crud, I think. I'm cutting up someone else's deer. I really did miss and now someone is going to to be angry, or worse, their kid shot it and now I've ruined some first-time hunter's big day. So, I save the bullet and keep cutting, because now I'm thinking about spoilage and I want to get it done. I figured that if anyone came along later, I could apologize, offer them the meat, and ask if they wanted to tag it, or for me to tag it. I was really okay either way. But no one comes. Then I'm thinking that maybe they don't know they got a good hit - there was no blood trail after all - and they think it was a clean miss just like I did. So, I resolve to drive over to the neighbor's house and ask if they made any shots this morning. Come to find out they did not.
Okay, now I'm really perplexed. Well, I figure I've waited long enough and I call in to tag the deer, then I start processing the meat. As I'm cutting up the one leg, what do I find? A slightly mangled copper cup. That's when I figure out what happened:
I did make a good shot. The bullet tore up the liver, the lungs, etc., then passed into the foreleg on the opposite side. At that point, the bullet experienced core separation, with the jacket getting stuck in the muscle. While dressing, I found the bullet core, mostly just the shank, really, and mistook it for just a much smaller diameter bullet.
So, what did I learn? Always make sure; had I not taken the extra step, there would be a wasted deer on the back of my property right now. Deer sometimes do not leave blood trails; an exit wound really helps. Don't overstress a bullet. I was using the Hornady FTX bullet which was likely designed for much more sedate 35 Remington velocities. I am not a fan of core separation. Always be amazed at nature - I watched a doe run about 100 yards with no liver and two shredded lungs. That's pretty awe inspiring.
No blood where she was standing. None along the path she'd taken. It was, I figured, a clean miss. I was so upset by missing such a shot, that I decided to just hang up my rifle, at least for this season. I unloaded, put my rifle int he cleaning rotation, and unloaded and cased my revolver. An hour passes and I tell the wife I'm going to go have a look, just to be absolutely certain. I follow the path the deer took - t-shirt and jeans, now - and sure as muffins, there's a dead doe lying right at the property line. Well, I'm excited, and I get my stuff and start to work cutting away to begin pulling meat off of it. I'm doing my own processing this year, for a start (more on those poor choices later, perhaps). Anyway, I get one side done, flip her over, and start on the other side. I'm skinning when I find what is clearly much too small a bullet under the skin of one leg.
Oh, crud, I think. I'm cutting up someone else's deer. I really did miss and now someone is going to to be angry, or worse, their kid shot it and now I've ruined some first-time hunter's big day. So, I save the bullet and keep cutting, because now I'm thinking about spoilage and I want to get it done. I figured that if anyone came along later, I could apologize, offer them the meat, and ask if they wanted to tag it, or for me to tag it. I was really okay either way. But no one comes. Then I'm thinking that maybe they don't know they got a good hit - there was no blood trail after all - and they think it was a clean miss just like I did. So, I resolve to drive over to the neighbor's house and ask if they made any shots this morning. Come to find out they did not.
Okay, now I'm really perplexed. Well, I figure I've waited long enough and I call in to tag the deer, then I start processing the meat. As I'm cutting up the one leg, what do I find? A slightly mangled copper cup. That's when I figure out what happened:
I did make a good shot. The bullet tore up the liver, the lungs, etc., then passed into the foreleg on the opposite side. At that point, the bullet experienced core separation, with the jacket getting stuck in the muscle. While dressing, I found the bullet core, mostly just the shank, really, and mistook it for just a much smaller diameter bullet.
So, what did I learn? Always make sure; had I not taken the extra step, there would be a wasted deer on the back of my property right now. Deer sometimes do not leave blood trails; an exit wound really helps. Don't overstress a bullet. I was using the Hornady FTX bullet which was likely designed for much more sedate 35 Remington velocities. I am not a fan of core separation. Always be amazed at nature - I watched a doe run about 100 yards with no liver and two shredded lungs. That's pretty awe inspiring.