- Location
- Eastern Edge of the Foothills
So far this season I have killed 5 deer. 2 mulies and 3 Whitetail. I used a 7mm WSM shooting 150gr Federal Fusion factory loads, a .280Rem shooting 130gr Speer BTSP handloads, and a 6.5-06 shooting 130gr Nosler Accubond handloads.
All were one-shot kills except for one whitetail doe. It was running hard and I took it with a texas heart shot with the WSM. It needed a finishing blow when I got up to it.
The other animal I shot with the WSM was standing broadside and I took it with a double lung shot. The entrance hole was caliber sized and the exit hole was about the diameter of my thumb. This animal dropped like lightning hit it, but when I walked up to it it was still moving it's head and struggling a bit. It could only move from the neck up, and was completely unable to move its legs. I finished it with my knife. Upon autopsy there was no penetration of the neck, even though the animal was kind of behaving like it.
The other 3 deer were with the .280 and the 6.5-06, and they were both stone dead when I got up to them. So, from this season, I think I agree with Gatehouse. The 3 different cartridges didn't perform much differently from one another, and the differences that were noticed were more due to bullet placement, and bullet construction rather than the cartridge specifically. I think the 150 gr Fusion bullet going 3200 fps [chronied] out of the WSM was a bit too heavily constructed and going too fast. In the place the bullet hit, there wasn't enough resistance to expand the bullet, so the lungs weren't shredded very much. I think it was paralyzed because of hydro-static shock damaging the spine or something, but I'm not sure.
My dad took a large mulie buck with his .270win using a 140gr Sierra Gameking. It was slightly facing towards him at 385 meters [measured with GPS]. He hit it just behind the point of the shoulder. It took 2 steps, then the back end sagged. The buck regrouped and stood up again, took 1 step, then collapsed. The bullet took the back of 1 lung, then went through the liver and messed up some guts. There was no exit hole.
All the cartridges I've mentioned are very similar, with differences of the WSM being a few hundred fps faster is all. The only differences on game I think are easily explained by bullet construction, and I think the diameter of the bullets contributed very little to how the game died.
Now, if these were compared to a .375 H&H, and then to a .32-20WCF, I think there would be a difference. One difference would be that I wouldn't have taken the Texas Heart Shot with a .32-20, and I bet Dad wouldn't have taken the 300 yard shot with that cartridge either.
But a .243 with a 80gr TTSX, you bet!
All were one-shot kills except for one whitetail doe. It was running hard and I took it with a texas heart shot with the WSM. It needed a finishing blow when I got up to it.
The other animal I shot with the WSM was standing broadside and I took it with a double lung shot. The entrance hole was caliber sized and the exit hole was about the diameter of my thumb. This animal dropped like lightning hit it, but when I walked up to it it was still moving it's head and struggling a bit. It could only move from the neck up, and was completely unable to move its legs. I finished it with my knife. Upon autopsy there was no penetration of the neck, even though the animal was kind of behaving like it.
The other 3 deer were with the .280 and the 6.5-06, and they were both stone dead when I got up to them. So, from this season, I think I agree with Gatehouse. The 3 different cartridges didn't perform much differently from one another, and the differences that were noticed were more due to bullet placement, and bullet construction rather than the cartridge specifically. I think the 150 gr Fusion bullet going 3200 fps [chronied] out of the WSM was a bit too heavily constructed and going too fast. In the place the bullet hit, there wasn't enough resistance to expand the bullet, so the lungs weren't shredded very much. I think it was paralyzed because of hydro-static shock damaging the spine or something, but I'm not sure.
My dad took a large mulie buck with his .270win using a 140gr Sierra Gameking. It was slightly facing towards him at 385 meters [measured with GPS]. He hit it just behind the point of the shoulder. It took 2 steps, then the back end sagged. The buck regrouped and stood up again, took 1 step, then collapsed. The bullet took the back of 1 lung, then went through the liver and messed up some guts. There was no exit hole.
All the cartridges I've mentioned are very similar, with differences of the WSM being a few hundred fps faster is all. The only differences on game I think are easily explained by bullet construction, and I think the diameter of the bullets contributed very little to how the game died.
Now, if these were compared to a .375 H&H, and then to a .32-20WCF, I think there would be a difference. One difference would be that I wouldn't have taken the Texas Heart Shot with a .32-20, and I bet Dad wouldn't have taken the 300 yard shot with that cartridge either.
But a .243 with a 80gr TTSX, you bet!
). He was telling me that when he was growing up, his granddad only had a single shot 22LR. That rifle supplied all the meat on the table that wasn't trapped- Bird and deer alike, and was used for all the pest control. As an aside, he said that you couldn't really tell what meat you were eating at their house until they told you later, and that Lynx stew wasn't too awful.
