I had the good fortune to shoot a very nice 9 point (eastern count) whitetail buck last Saturday. It was the ultimate test for a cup and core bullet. The deer I shot was probably 3-1/2 years old and good sized. I could barely drag/move it to better position it to field dress it.
The shot I had was a hard quartering toward me shot at about 150 yards. The muzzle velocity of my hand load was averaging 2900 fps 12 feet from the muzzle. The deer was slightly down hill from me.
Because of the angle I figured a hold directly on the shoulder would put the bullet through the center of the chest cavity of the deer. I held right on the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The buck made a three legged dash for the woods and went down after about 50 yards.
When I walked up to the buck I could see a bulge under the skin on the far side. I felt the bulge and figured it was the bullet. When I field dressed the deer I found the lungs were just soup. Nothing else was damaged. When I skinned the deer I found:
- A jagged 1" by 1-1/2" hole into the front of the rib cage (about three ribs in) on the entrance side.
- Remnants of the bullet were under the far side skin. ( about three ribs from the back.)
- There were bone fragments sticking out of the shoulder muscles of the shoulder that the bullet hit.
Here is a photo of the bullet remnants:
I gave that entrance side of the deer to a less affluent family with the understanding that they would tell me what they saw when they butchered the deer and opened up the shoulder. They reported back that both the shoulder ball and the shoulder socket were completely disintegrated. However, there wasn't much blood shot meat.
Apparently the bullet shattered the shoulder ball and the shoulder socket and then bone and bullet shrapnel destroyed the lungs with fragments of the bullet penetrating the far rib cage but not the skin.
Over the years I have done a lot of bullet penetration and bullet expansion tests. One example of my testing is shown below: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=32493.
To be honest, I was surprised that the 150 grain BT did not exit. However, it did get through the shoulder joint and did destroy the lungs. Notice the severe bleeding from the mouth.
My conclusions from this deer are:
- The .277" 150 grain BT did just what it was supposed to do. It penetrated the shoulder joint and destroyed the vital organs in the chest cavity. It quickly killed the deer.
- A Nosler AB or a Nosler Partition would probably have exited, although it wasn't necessary to kill the deer.
- A 150 gr. BT would probably have exited had it hit anything other than the shoulder ball and shoulder socket.
- For this hit, I was happy I had a 150 grain BT rather than a 130 gr. BT or a 140 gr. BT.
All in all, I will continue to use the 150 gr. BT for whitetail hunting. For bigger game I would switch up to an AB or Partition bullet.
Dan
The shot I had was a hard quartering toward me shot at about 150 yards. The muzzle velocity of my hand load was averaging 2900 fps 12 feet from the muzzle. The deer was slightly down hill from me.
Because of the angle I figured a hold directly on the shoulder would put the bullet through the center of the chest cavity of the deer. I held right on the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The buck made a three legged dash for the woods and went down after about 50 yards.
When I walked up to the buck I could see a bulge under the skin on the far side. I felt the bulge and figured it was the bullet. When I field dressed the deer I found the lungs were just soup. Nothing else was damaged. When I skinned the deer I found:
- A jagged 1" by 1-1/2" hole into the front of the rib cage (about three ribs in) on the entrance side.
- Remnants of the bullet were under the far side skin. ( about three ribs from the back.)
- There were bone fragments sticking out of the shoulder muscles of the shoulder that the bullet hit.
Here is a photo of the bullet remnants:
I gave that entrance side of the deer to a less affluent family with the understanding that they would tell me what they saw when they butchered the deer and opened up the shoulder. They reported back that both the shoulder ball and the shoulder socket were completely disintegrated. However, there wasn't much blood shot meat.
Apparently the bullet shattered the shoulder ball and the shoulder socket and then bone and bullet shrapnel destroyed the lungs with fragments of the bullet penetrating the far rib cage but not the skin.
Over the years I have done a lot of bullet penetration and bullet expansion tests. One example of my testing is shown below: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=32493.
To be honest, I was surprised that the 150 grain BT did not exit. However, it did get through the shoulder joint and did destroy the lungs. Notice the severe bleeding from the mouth.
My conclusions from this deer are:
- The .277" 150 grain BT did just what it was supposed to do. It penetrated the shoulder joint and destroyed the vital organs in the chest cavity. It quickly killed the deer.
- A Nosler AB or a Nosler Partition would probably have exited, although it wasn't necessary to kill the deer.
- A 150 gr. BT would probably have exited had it hit anything other than the shoulder ball and shoulder socket.
- For this hit, I was happy I had a 150 grain BT rather than a 130 gr. BT or a 140 gr. BT.
All in all, I will continue to use the 150 gr. BT for whitetail hunting. For bigger game I would switch up to an AB or Partition bullet.
Dan
