Critique my bullets performance

[ArcherAdam]

Here are the details:

Rifle-Ruger M77MKII 30-06. I believe the barrel is 22"
Ammo-Remington Core-Lokt 150 grain PSP
Shot Distance: Lasered 15 yards
Body Position: Quartering on
Distance to recovery: Lasered 90 yards
Deer weight: Estimated 100-120# live weight

After the hunt I did take this bullet to the local Gander Mountain and they did weigh it for me. The bullet still weighed 110 grains which comes out to 73% retention. The bullet was recovered in the hide just short of exiting.

About 10 years ago I had a similar situation with ~130# doe, 25 yard slightly quartering towards shot, and a recovery in the hide. The bullet weighed 100 grains on a grain scale. I have since lost the bullet.

I know a recovered deer is success, but should I be shooting something heavier with a little less expansion?

The pics show the deer, enterance hole, enterance would, and then where the bullet would have exited. As you can see, the front shoulder area took a pounding. When she ran off I would see I had a good hit but was supprised at how far she ran!View attachment IMAG0194.jpgView attachment 5View attachment IMAG0199.jpg

 

[DrMike]

Well, it definitely killed that deer. It looks like adequate performance with that bullet. Shot placement might have been improved by placing it forward a few inches.

 

[JD338]

Deer can sometimes cover up to 100 yds even with a solid hit. Looks like the bullet did its job well.

JD338

 

[Desert Fox]

The bullet did it's job. 150 grain is an ideal weight for a 30 caliber bullet on a thin skin animal like deer.

Animal react differently when hit. You did not mention whether the deer was spook and running when you took the shot. An adrenaline charged animal won't go down easily.

I shot this Texas Whitetail in the picture below at a distance of 150 yards with my 300 Weatherby, loaded with 180 grain Barnes TSX. The deer was not spook at all but still able to run 50 yards before going down. So no! to the question whether heavier bullet is needed for your '06. Your fine with 150 Core Lock and welcome to the forum. :wink:

 

[ridgewalker]

As close as you were to the deer you really cannot expect a Rem CoreLokt to hold up much better than that.

I have arrowed a mulie at 30 yards cutting the heart almost in half. It bolted and ran 90 yards where it collapsed. The heart was a mess.

I have shot elk with a 180 gr Nosler Partition over 300 yards with the bullet hitting the spine collapsing the elk on the spot.

I called in a coyote to 30+ yards letting a friend shoot it with 170 gr 30-30 soft point ripping it open end to end. It ran close to 100 yards and stuffed itself under a log where it expired.

You made a good shot and at that close of range and nearly muzzle velocity the bullet held together well.

 

[SJB358]

Looks good to me right there. I don't know if it gets much better than that. That is a serious test of a bullet when it is shot at 15 yards. The Core Lokt in a 30-06 is a pretty good combo most of the time.

 

[nvbroncrider]

Welcome to the forum. There's a bunch of great guys here who have a lot of expirence and knowledge and not afraid to answer questions you may have. Good performance with that bullet. It's amazing to see what an animal will do when hit, you just never know.

I've shot a few rabbits in the last few days with the 280AI and a 160AB @ 3160 at 100 yards. You can hit them through the lungs and heart and they will remain standing move 15-20 yards and expire. I saw one turn around and you could see the red spot where he was bleeding from the exit.

Then you take a .223 with a 55BT and it will DRT every one of them right them, split em open and gut them right there.

Just another reminder of how a bullet is constructed to do a job. Different bullets are made for different jobs.

After seeing what they do I dang sure wouldn't use a varmint bullet to do a hunting bullets job. While going the other way around it's not the best idea, but at the same time it is a good way to get familiar with your weapon both ballistically and to become comfortable shooting it and a confident marksman. Which will go a long way in making yourself a good hunter. As was said earlier there is no replacement for bullet placement.

As for expansion I think your fine. A bullet that doesn't expand can't expend energy on your target while a bullet that expands too rapidly can't penetrate to deliver the energy. I believe the article is on the Nosler site about how John started the company after a moose hunt that he shot a moose 8 or 9 times with a 300 H&H in the 1940's. I know it's in his reloading manuals.

 

[FOTIS]

I can live with that performance.

 

[Elkman]

The first and only deer I ever shot with a 300B was at a similar distance (20 yards +-) . When I pulled the trigger on the three point muley buck, I saw a spray of red mist behind him. The 180 PT eliminated the heart and the deer bolted and ran about 30 or so yards. Its very typical for a deer or elk for that matter to bolt and run when heart shot. I have seen it many times, its to be expected. Not many bullets will hold at that range, especially when hitting bone.

 

[ArcherAdam]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Desert Fox: yes, the doe was alarmed. Another one spotted me and snorted, she then cleared a tree and I let her have it. The other one mentioned was also spooked running into me and stopped when she spotted me (she ran about 50 yards after the shot). I was just amazed how far a deer will run after getting hit with that much KE. I would think that at that distance the bullet would pass through the deer, a few trees, and a rock! The first time it happened I though it was just odd. This time I was thinking I was shooting dud rounds. Opposite though my 2010 doe was 113 yards and with a perfect heart shot I did have an exit wound.

Though just learning about all this reloading stuff I am taking a big interest in bear hunting. My heart was set on developing a load good for whitetails, black bear, and if I am lucky enough--elk or caribou. I am really eyeing up the 165 AccuBond to start with. Many of you reccommended this bullet last year when I asked a similar question.

I just dont know if I will be waisting my money by going to a 165 AB handload.

 

[nvbroncrider]

No you won't. You will get to shoot more and watch shootersproshop.com they sell Nosler seconds cheap. If your gonna hunt bear you might want to go even heavier. I have never done it but others have and they will throw out some good suggestions. Don't be afraid to ask questions we will answer them if we know.

 

[DrMike]

Deer can be among the most tenacious animals imaginable when killed with a well-placed shot. In my experience, only elk demonstrate greater tenacity. Moose are phlegmatic, and often drop at the shot. Black bears are not hard to kill, but you do want to ensure that shot placement is good. A wounded bear can cover a lot of ground in a surprising among of time. The 165 grain AccuBond will work very well in your rifle for the game you indicated. Hitting bone will drop game, and it is especially important in bear. A heavier bullet may help, but the 165 was developed for the 30-06, and it will serve you well.

 

[PJGunner]

I hunted deer for years with various rifles chambered to the 30-06. I did take up reloading early on. Bullet of choice for deer was the Sierra 150 gr. spitzer flat base. They didn not call them Pro-Hunters back then and their plant was in Southern California.
When I moved to Nevada permantly in 1970, I continued using that load but was getting a bit dissatisfied with the amount of meat destruction so switched to the 180 gr. Sierra Pro-Hunter. Much better results and the deer still died. At the time I was a very heavy chain smoker and that 9 plus pound rifle got to be way too heavy up at 8 to 9,000 feet MSL. I hunted around for something with less weight and bought a Remington 660 that was on sale for $99.95, less 10 percent IIRC. 8) It was a .308, a cartridge I had little respect for. Hell! I thought it was a 30-06 wannabe. Well, I worked up a good load with the 150 gr. Sierra and went hunting. I was hunting with a couple of buddies I'd hooked up with and they were a couple hundred yards to my right while I was covering the left flank. They kicked up a nice Mule Deer buck and both shot hitting but not dropping the buck. That deer was way the hell out yonder as it crossed past me and I held where I figured I should and shot and the deer went down right now. I'd broken it's neck.
My friends came over and I paced it off, then they came to the deer pacing it off and the average from the three of us was 427 paced. :shock: I'll admit to it's being part skill and part luck. The skill came from lots of spare time out in the boonies shooting running jack Rabbits. The luck was I guessed just right on the elevation to hit that deer. I have to say I gained a lot more respect for that 30-06 wannabe on that hunt.
On a hunt the next year, I was with a couple of the neighbor's kids who were not hunting but wanted to come along. As it were, we kicked up a spike buck that tried to wait us out and one of he kids just about stepped on him He jumped up running abd as he passed me I literally shot from the hip hitting the deer just behind the shoulder at a range of 6 feet or less. That deer ran about thirty yards going over a ridge and we found him about 70 yards down the other side. That 150 gr. Sierra put about a one inch hole going in and the whole other side was literally wide open. Every bit of his insides had come out and gutting was simply cutting the windpipe and clearing the anus. Everything else was already hanging out. Fastest and neatest gut job I ever did. I decided that the 150 gr. Sierra was a bit too fragile to suit me so went to the 165 gr. Speer Hot-Core for the .308 and have never looked back.
I did try the Sierra 165 gr. Game King hollow point one year but the only thing I evel shot with it from the 30-06 was a coyote at about 200 yards. Sierra says it's a tough bullet made for big game but apparently it was fragile enough to make a two piece coyote.
The only time I had what I could call a bullet failure (Sorry Nosler) was on the last deer I killed in Nevada. I had my 30-06 out that day, a J.C. Hiddins M50 base on an FN Mauser given to me my a now late friend. He's done a very nice custom stock on the gun and it was very accurate. Due to the exogencies of work, I couldn't load up my normal deer load with the 180 gr. Sierra and went with the 180 gr. Nosler PP Partition Loaded to an estimated 2700 FPS. (No chronograhs handy back in 1978 ) I jumped the biggest damn Mule Deer I ever saw in body size and he was so old his antlers were small and spindly. All shots were at 35 to 45 yards. First cut a groove in the top of the heart withough perforating the muscle. Second was in the lungs, third a total miss other than cutting of an antler fourth was a miss and finally I broke his neck with the last shot. Poor shooting on my part? I'm not sure. The first two shots should have done the job but the whole deal was weird as hell. At the first shot he turned back the way he'd come. The second shot he turned back to the way he was headed. Every time I shot and hit him he would reverse direction. I was beginning to think I was in a shooting gallery in a bad dream, at least until I broke his neck and he went down.
I did a sort of autopsy while gutting him out and as I said there was a groove on the top of his heart about as deep as my thumb that did not puncture the heart. The lungs, both of them looked like they'd been poked with a pencil, no sign of any expansion. The final shot that broke the neck literally shattered the spinal chord finishing what was beginning to look like a nightmare.
That deer was so heavy, I had to cut him in half and still could barely get him into my truck. After skinning and quartering, I took it to my butcher to do the cutting and wrapping. The quarters weighed on his certified scale 296 pounds. :shock: That deer was huge! He'd been sneaking down to a rancher's alfalfa field and I caught him sneaking back to whereever he'd planned to bed down. He was so old his teeth were completely worn down to the gums and I'm thinking if the upcoming winter was harsh, he would not have survived. The rut was either still on or just about done the day I shot him and his neck hadn't swelled up one bit. He was so tender you could cut him with a fork and very tasty too. :wink: 8)
I consider the result a bit of a bullet failure even though I did get the deer.
As a side note, about 6 months ago, I found a few boxes of old reloads from back when I lived in Nevada. (I left in 1979) I took them to the range to shoot up so I could use the brass. One of the boxes was that 180 gr. Nosler PP load that I felt had failed. When I loaded them, I based my estimate on the velocity on the speed Nosler said they'd gotten when working up the load. I set up the chronograph and ran 5 rounds over the Chrony. Average velocity was 2680 FPS. They still shot nice groups too, even after all those years.
Paul B.

 

[bullet]

The deer is dead and down, I can live with that performance also.

 

[JD338]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Desert Fox: yes, the doe was alarmed. Another one spotted me and snorted, she then cleared a tree and I let her have it. The other one mentioned was also spooked running into me and stopped when she spotted me (she ran about 50 yards after the shot). I was just amazed how far a deer will run after getting hit with that much KE. I would think that at that distance the bullet would pass through the deer, a few trees, and a rock! The first time it happened I though it was just odd. This time I was thinking I was shooting dud rounds. Opposite though my 2010 doe was 113 yards and with a perfect heart shot I did have an exit wound.

Though just learning about all this reloading stuff I am taking a big interest in bear hunting. My heart was set on developing a load good for whitetails, black bear, and if I am lucky enough--elk or caribou. I am really eyeing up the 165 AccuBond to start with. Many of you reccommended this bullet last year when I asked a similar question.

I just dont know if I will be waisting my money by going to a 165 AB handload.

Adam,

The 165 gr AB is an excellent all around bullet. Reloading will not waste money, but you will spend more and shoot more too. :mrgreen:
The 165 gr BT would work great for target shooting and deer hunting. Switch to the 165 gr AB for Bear ad bigger game and you are set to go.
Let us know when you are ready to start loading and we will help you get started. Pick up a loading manual and read the reloading intro. This is the first step in getting started.
Save all your brass. :wink:

JD338

 

[gerry]

X2 to what Jim said (and the others) using both the Ballistic tip and AccuBond would be a smart idea. As for manuals Nosler would be good since you want to try their bullets and Speer has a lot of good information in it on reloading.

 

[SJB358]

I don't think a 165 AB is ever a bad idea in a 30-06.. I am running them this year in the wifes 308.. Pretty good bullet for just about everything.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Just a little tip on the bear. I would wait for a broadside shot. If hit in the lungs/heart, it will go down faster than that 12 pound doe. My dad shot a 275# bear with his 06 and it did the job very quickly. Good luck hunting and reloading it is a blast.

 

[bullet]

Scotty is right, hit him broadside in the heart lung area and he will die real quick if not almost immediately.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I have been using the 165 Partitions and now the AccuBond in my .30-06. They perform just a well as I could ever expect in that rifle. The deer that I have shot with this combination are DRT'ed immediately and meat damage and fragmentation are not an issue. They are also very accurate bullets.