Tell us about your bullet failures on game.

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I have had a few, I mean bullets that came apart.
1: I shot a moose in the neck at quite close range with a Speer 180 grain hot cor,out of a 303, while the bullet killed the moose, there was hardly enough of it left to weigh.
2: I shot through both shoulders of a deer with a 30 cal 200 grain GS, and it did not expand, I found the deer alive the next day. He was not moving so fast then.
3: I had a 30 cal 200 grain CIL KKSP completely come apart on the shoulder blade of a moose. The second one got him.
I have hunted mosty with 303, 7x57, 6.5x55 , 30/06, generally with heavy bullets. I have used various cup and core bullets and partitions. I have never hunted with seirra bullets. I have really had the best luck with the 7x57 with 175 grain cup and core bullets.
 
Hornady SST, 3 failures in deer, 2 from a 270Win, 1 from a 7mm-08.

Speer 140 .284, can't remember bullet type, cup and core inexpensive. Hit an 8 point in the front shoulder, took a second shot to drop the deer. First bullet grenaded on the bone and never mortally wounded the deer. 7x57 loaded mild.

I pretty much stick to partitions or accubonds for hunting, but venture into other bullets once in a while. Always end up back with Nosler out front of my brass though.
 
165 Speer Hot-Cor from a 30-06 - moose was hit on the point of the shoulder, and bullet disintegrated. Had to shoot it again to anchor.

150 grain Winchester Power point from a 30-06 - deer died instantly, but the lungs looked as if they had been shotgunned. No part of the bullet reached the far side of the ribcage, and no part of any size to mention was found in the cavity.

140 grain Hornady ILBT from a 270 Winchester. - bullet hit a rib and completely blew up, causing and extensive surface wound with no penetration at all. Had to shoot a second time to get this animal.

150 old style Silvertip from a 300 Win Mag. Recovered only the base and a tiny part of the jacket out of the moose. Never reached the far side lung.

Speer mag tips from the 308 Norma Mag...two incidents, one with a 165 and one with the 180. Only recovered the bases with the "GS" on it in each case. Rest of the bullets disintegrated.

First design 140 grain Ballistic Tip from a 7mm STW [I should have known better, lol] Hit the deer in the ribs perfectly, and did exactly what the 140 270 bullet above did. However, we did recover the small solid base of the bullet from the onside lung. That was the only part of the bullet that entered the lung cavity.

I have quite a collection of bullets that I have recovered from game [pics are on another thread here] Some C&C bullets have performed admirably, others, not so much.

One bullet that has always been stellar is the Partition. Those I have recovered are 65% or better, and look just like they should. BUT....about 75% of the Partitions I have used have exited, so no recovery. [except once, when the bullet was found in the crusty snow on the offside of the moose.]

I have taken a few animals with Barnes TTSX, but all have exited as well.

Regards, Dave
 
Not sure how many years ago it was that the partition came out...a lot. Still the bullet others are measured against. It just works.

I have loaded for ...a while. Mostly use partitions, can only remember recovering one. Perfect performance on a small moose. All the rest are pass through with a dead animal.

The only truly bad bullet experience for me, was me. My first shot hit the back of the lungs and liver, needed a second shot. Again that was me, a 160 Speer GS from a 7 mag on a Moose.
 
Only "Failures" I've had were Barnes bullets. One .308 went right through (recovered 3.5 miles!!! away), one .50 smoke pole dropped the animal at 45 yards, but then he got up 5 minutes later and left. Never recovered. Never ever saw the animal again, and I'd been on him for 4 years.... So he's dead somewhere. A massive monster of a whitetail he was....

Since, I've went back to 150grn SST's for everything. They've never failed me, and I'm well into the double digits on elk... Many moose, several bear.... Deer I don't even know anymore.

A lot of the stuff above doesn't sound like failures, but bad shots or poor bullet choices. Barnes bullets on deer was a poor choice of mine. As well, this subject depends on what you call a failure.... I prefer massive energy dump upon hitting an animal. I want it dumping energy and coming to rest on the far hide. If it exits, I consider that over penetration.

As well, when you recover an animal.... did the bullet fail?

Just my thoughts.
 
The late Warren Page asked: "At what point in the animal's demise did the bullet fail....??" Think about it.......the actual truth of the matter is a result of HUNTER ERROR......Wrong choice of bullet for the job at hand, or improper bullet placement.....simple as that...
I know many will disagree with that statement, citing a particular case of this or that, but ultimately, who is responsible for the humane harvesting of a big game animal...? I do agree with Page's statement......if the animal was recovered, the bullet did not fail..
 
rojogrande said:
The late Warren Page asked: "At what point in the animal's demise did the bullet fail....??" Think about it.......the actual truth of the matter is a result of HUNTER ERROR......Wrong choice of bullet for the job at hand, or improper bullet placement.....simple as that...
I know many will disagree with that statement, citing a particular case of this or that, but ultimately, who is responsible for the humane harvesting of a big game animal...? I do agree with Page's statement......if the animal was recovered, the bullet did not fail..
Click to expand...

This is so true, if you recovered the animal the bullet did not really fail it killed the game you were shooting at!!!....That being said we have all had bullets that did not look like the advertising pictures of the manufacturer after we recovered them from a harvested animal or did not recover as in the case of a large doe I put 3 160gr accuebonds into at 300 yds out of my 7mm Rem Mag that did not expand, the doe walked into the willows like it was never hit! I found her in her bed like she laid down to rest!
 
There should be two definitions of failure on this one.

Failure to kill and failure to perform as expected.Yes, if the animal died the end result is what was desired but I could also use a tire iron and achieve death as well.

My experience is with the SST bullets, yes the animals were recovered and no tracking involved , however when a properly placed shot in the boiler room results in massive damage to surrounding area and meat I consider that a failure also, hardly my mistake as a hunter or marksman.

My most notable failure to me was a moving broadside shot on a WT doe from roughly 125 yards, the shot was true on it's mark directly into the heart/lung area.The animal skidded to it's demise and dug a path of 20ft immediately upon the shot hitting.I though, strange , should have run a bit more.

Upon opening the animal, the SST had destroyed the heart and lungs but in the process exploded so violently that shrapnel had hit the spine and also destroyed my loins.

The bullet , from a 7mm-08 had excellent accuracy and consistency and muzzle velocity of 2860 ft/sec , but that was the last time I used them on game, now it is Swift Scirocco II bonded core for all my hunting of big game, very happy with them.
 
Failure to perform as expected . A 158 gr seirra JSP. Hit the neck went though the spine and stopped a couple inches on the other side of the spine . Shed it's jacket and flattened out like a dime . I was hoping for pass through . Deer was DRT . My mistake was pushing a pistol bullet to fast . I was getting 1825 fps over the chronograph from my Rossi 357 rifle .
 
Its tough to say how many failures I've had; partly because I don't rate success or failure by what a bullet looks like, or what it weighs, only by what it does. What it did can be weighed against what it was supposed to do.

I think I've heard the Warren Page quote one friggen time too many. As quaint as it is, it does presuppose that the bullet actually did kill the animal. Many animals are killed with a second shot, or by someone else.

A few notable failures that I had could be put down to misapplication. 40 V-max exploding on coyotes making a wound a foot wide and an 1/2" deep. I thought that maybe the 22/250 was driving them too fast so I tried them in a .223. That one proved to be an education in misapplication. I called a coyote to the edge of a coulie and smacked it in the ribs. With the heavy barrel Remington, bipod and 24 power scope it was easy to watch the bullets hit. Bang, whack get up, bang whack down and back up. Every time it got back up it would struggle/ roll down the slope a little farther. I shot the gun dry twice on that one. So at what point did those ones fail? I'm going with pretty much the entire time between shots 1 and 8, but will admit that it was a misapplication. Oddly enough plenty of people swear by them.

In the early 90's, about 4 component crisises ago I caught a nice whitetail buck in the open at the same time as I was caught with a mag full of Speers in a 7mm STW. Shooting from a bipod from prone it was easy to hit that buck, but I knew I was in trouble from the first shot. I could see the hair flying and shots hitting and my partner was confirming that every shot was hitting. Seems I shot the gun dry twice on that one too. The deer was full of exploded bullets, and one which I found interesting was bent like a banana and stripped of its jacket. For a short blip in history those bullets were available as factory loads so I don't entirely believe that I own that misapplication. Messy as it is, when caught in a bad situation there is little you can do but keep shooting.

A 190 Berger VLD blew up on a 440 yard whitetail buck, not making it through the ribs. My son shot that one for me with a .257 Weatherby with a 100 grain Ballistic Tip at 30 yards. His bullet exited; the irony of that still rankles. Was that a mis-application? Not according to Berger and every hunter with a TV. I disagree.

The most recent spectacular failures I had involved a moderately sized water buffalo, a borrowed VC .450 NE double and Hornady factory DGX loads. I'm not taking the blame for that one after Verny Caron regulated the $13,000 rifle for them and Hornady both called the bullets Dangerous Game Expanding and drew a picture of a buffalo on the box. I had a dead buffalo in the time it took to say boom,boom.....boom, boom.......boom damnit headshot, boom. I'd say that those bullets failed somewhere in the 5-6" that they penetrated and blew up, but to answer Warren Page it was pretty much throughout the entire death. Some day Hornady will learn to make a dangerous game bullet but I'm not holding my breath. They could have copied one by now.

I had a 400 Grain .416 TSX make a 90 degree turn in a cape buffalo. I'm counting that as a failure too, that lasted until we got a couple of solids into the other shoulder.


Hunted with a Detroit gent in Zim who was using a .378 Weatherby and factory ammo. I don't know whether he got the 300 grain Hornadys in the wrong box, or if Norma did it for him. All I know for sure is that they weren't the 300 grain Partitions that he thought they were and that he shot a huge eland bull from morning to evening when he ran out of shells and killed it with a .416. I may have swapped rifles a little sooner myself, but that doesn't change that the eland had 13 holes in it when the fat lady sang. More exploding bullets.

Theres others, but that will do for now.
 
Hornady 270gr SP-RP out of a 375 Ruger at around 125 meters on a black bear. Broadside shot, put it into the shoulder area. "Expanded" enough through the hide/fat to make a 3-4" entrance wound in the shoulder muscle. No blood on the ground, no exit. Bear dropped immediately, didn't even roll over, legs just crumpled under it. Everything inside liquified.

Didn't go digging around for the fragments (gutless method), but both front quarters were mostly ruined by bloodshot meat and bullet fragments, no "eating up to the hole" with these 375 bullets.

Pictures of elephant, cape buffalo, rhinos, etc on the ammo box but this one met its match on a 300lb black bear. Did some reading afterwards and heard similar stories from guys who used them on plains game hunts in Africa.
 
I have had no "failures"

I have noticed when I switched to SST slug ammo (or Winchesters equivalent) That deer did not drop on the spot but were able to run 30-50 yards. Massive amount of shock damage with very small entrance and exit wounds.

300 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2000 fps hitting a target between 50-80 yards away.

The only failure I have had was borrowing an old crossbow. Bolt got stuck between the ribs only to get knocked out 100 yards later
 
mnr said:
Hornady 270gr SP-RP out of a 375 Ruger at around 125 meters on a black bear. Broadside shot, put it into the shoulder area. "Expanded" enough through the hide/fat to make a 3-4" entrance wound in the shoulder muscle. No blood on the ground, no exit. Bear dropped immediately, didn't even roll over, legs just crumpled under it. Everything inside liquified.

Didn't go digging around for the fragments (gutless method), but both front quarters were mostly ruined by bloodshot meat and bullet fragments, no "eating up to the hole" with these 375 bullets.

Pictures of elephant, cape buffalo, rhinos, etc on the ammo box but this one met its match on a 300lb black bear. Did some reading afterwards and heard similar stories from guys who used them on plains game hunts in Africa.
Click to expand...

Quite possibly some of the "bullet fragments" were actually bone fragments. That happens when you shoot animals in the shoulder even with good bullets.
 
Partition in a 30'06. I know it's a great bullet and I still believe it but, the only animal I have ever knowingly "lost" after making a decent hit was with a partition. The front of the bullet separated after only a few inches and the rear portion simple did not have enough weight to penetrate enough to be effective. The bear was found the next day still very much alive and finished off. Quartering away shot that was well placed but simply did not make it to the vitals.

150g Berger VLD in 270 Weatherby and a Sask moose. I got caught up in the hype of the bullet but never again. The moose died BUT after two shots, and one was to the back of the head. The broadside chest shot barely penetrated and then exploded. I know many love them but it just didn't give me the confidence I need in a bullet. I want my bullets ( for big game) to penetrate and hold together.
 
Speer hot cor 303 length wise through a deer and did not expand at all.
Hornady gmx from a 308. Did not expand at 340 yards. Deer dropped but did not die. Needed a coup de grace. Thought I had made a bad shot but upon dressing found it had pinholed both lungs and never opened.
 
Rojogrande: Independent of the experience of Warren Page, or anyone else for that matter, I asked for some report on peoples experiences. As I said, tell us about the bullets that failed, and came apart on game. Two of the bullets that I had come completely apart were sold as being adequate for the job, as are many others. I had a bullet fail on a shoulder blade, which I do not consider to be hunter failure, I have shot lots of moose through both shoulder blades. While it is not a lottery where a bullet will hit, there are lots of people that have had a bullet hit not quite where they were expecting, Or for some reason the bullet not follow the path they were expecting. I was not asking for opinions, I was asking for experience. If you would like to contribute your experience we would be happy to read it.

rojogrande said:
The late Warren Page asked: "At what point in the animal's demise did the bullet fail....??" Think about it.......the actual truth of the matter is a result of HUNTER ERROR......Wrong choice of bullet for the job at hand, or improper bullet placement.....simple as that...
I know many will disagree with that statement, citing a particular case of this or that, but ultimately, who is responsible for the humane harvesting of a big game animal...? I do agree with Page's statement......if the animal was recovered, the bullet did not fail..
Click to expand...
 
Had jacket separation with Sierra GameKing twice and don't use that bullet any longer, but they killed the animal both times so i wouldn't call it a failure.

The most consistent bullet I've ever shot has been the lowly winchester power point. It gets decent expansion and decent penetration every time and has never separated or broke up. Has been a better game bullet than seveal other bullets that cost three times as much.
 
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