Head shot, no pass through???

[cdanforth]

I'm a little confused on this subject after I shot my deer this year. I am shooting a Remington model 721 in .270 cal. I shot my deer at 530 yds using a factory loaded remington Core-Lokt 130 gr. bullet. I hit the deer in the side of the head just under his eye, and there was no pass through. Does anyone else think this is weird, or do you have any comments?

thanks for your help.

Clint

Oh yeah, I just started reloading this year so if anyone has any great loads, "shoot them over."

 

[captdavid]

That was an amazing shot. The way I figgure it the bullet was going around 1700fps and had about 800flbs energy. You had to aim about 4-4.5 feet high. At that speed and energy I'm not sure that it had the "umpf" to do much more. capt david :grin: :grin: :grin:

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Were you aiming for just under the eye, or did you just happen to get fortunate and the deers head just happened to be in the right spot?? I dont advocate taking head shots at long range, but its not my place to tell someone how to hunt or shoot. Anyways, the 130g core lokt is not a good bullet for holding up, hence why it blew up with no exit. Switch to a different bullet, like a 140g ballistic tip or so and I"m guessing there woulda been a baseball size exit hole. As for loads, I used 140's and 150's loaded pretty hot out of my Rem 700, .270. I had excellent groups with Rl-22 and H4831sc and the 150g sierra game king. Velocity was 2950fps from my 22" tube and accuracy was .5-.75 MOA to 800 yards.

 

[Guy Miner]

Skulls are tough. Bullets don't always make it in, let alone out.

 

[Charlie-NY]

Switch to the 140gr AccuBond and you'll get entirely different results. Either that or put that 130gr IN the deer's eye. :shock: :lol: :shock:

 

[JD338]

Sounds like the bullet came ungluded in all that bone.
You should consider the 130 gr AB and aim for a bigger target like the shoulders/lungs.

JD338

 

[cdanforth]

OK I think I should tell the whole story. I was hunting in western South Dakota for whitetail. This buck came across the field where I was set up at a dead run, 430 yds from me. I watched the deer until it stopped up on a hill in an alfalfa field. The way the deer stopped, he was facing straight away from be but the hill was so steep that I could see his whole back. He had his head turned looking to his left when I shot. I placed my cross-hairs roughly 3 ft over his head and from my bipod I took the shot. The coolest part was I had time to find him in my scope after the recoil to watch him fall, this is a first for me.

Also, as I mentioned in my first post I have started to reload for this gun now and I am using 4064 powder and a 130 gr. a Speer SPBT bullet. By the book it should be moving 3200 fps and I can shoot a three round group all touching at 100 yds.

I really enjoyed all of your comments and info and I am going to try some of your suggestions for better penetration.

 

[7mmfan]

Should have exited easily at that velocity.

 

[LoneStar]

The 130-grain .277" CoreLokts are very good game bullets if not pushed too fast, I know this from considerable experience on game, not from shooting paper. CoreLokts were arguably the best of the factory bullets for many decades. You cannot adequately judge the game performance of a bullet by firing it into wet newspapers - I went through that phase years ago and discovered it to be fun - but not very close to what I observed in game. Consider what a bullet actually hits - on a lung shot it is mostly air, or you could hit the ball joint of the shoulder......

I seriously doubt that the bullet "blew up" at the impact velocity of only 1700 fps. That is not fast enough to initiate normal expansion. Bullets sometimes do strange things in game, as those with many years of hunting experience are aware. It would have been useful to know if the bullet exited the skull or was deflected into the neck - did the hunter check? I once hit a deer in the skull and killed it without penetrating the brain cavity, the concussion killed him.


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