Gmx failure(dead bear pics)

torontogungal said:
375 Ruger for black bear?
I wouldn't hunt blackies with less than a 505 Gibbs.:rolleyes:

Sarcasm aside.
Too much gun.
Try a 270 Win or a 308 Win or a 30-06 Sprng and experience bear meat that isn't bloodshot or full of shrapnel.
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Velocity creates shrapnel and bloodshot. The .375 Ruger fires a 250 gr bullet at about the same speed as the typical .308 Win or .30-06 load and slower than the usual .270 Win load.
 
From your excellent forensic illustration, it looks to me like the bullet hit, expanded, plowed through, lost 2 petals upon exit which went into the rear leg.

Petals will blow off monometals at times, when highly stressed, so I assume some bone got hit.

The question I have of you though is this- If the two petals MISSED striking the leg, and just flew off into the bush, and you were completely unaware that they had blown off, would you have been happy with the bullet performance on the bear?
 
Gatehouse said:
From your excellent forensic illustration, it looks to me like the bullet hit, expanded, plowed through, lost 2 petals upon exit which went into the rear leg.

Petals will blow off monometals at times, when highly stressed, so I assume some bone got hit.

The question I have of you though is this- If the two petals MISSED striking the leg, and just flew off into the bush, and you were completely unaware that they had blown off, would you have been happy with the bullet performance on the bear?
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It wouldn't have changed much. I should have taken pics of the hide on the exit side. Reminded me of a 25-05 vmax hit on a coyote. Even before we gutted him we noticed the damage.
 
Not the eat to the hole performance I was expecting from the new king. Back to the ole drawing board and try Barnes on a wild boar this summer. Either myself or someone else needs to do a wet paper or milk jug test with the bullets I have left.
 
bcsteve said:
I have a hard time believing that a solid slug of copper (technically gilding metal) would break apart after an impact with a bear especially without impacting bones. If this is what happened then it's really a failure.
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I was going to quote your bullet test where the GMX did very well... I have had excellent results with the GMX bullet... every once in a while we happen onto a "funky" scenario in the angle or path of the hit, or just catch a bad bullet... OR, the bullet struck something unseen prior to impact, which can cause all sorts of strange occurrences.
 
I had two cases of 168gr "Burger" bullets blowing to shreds at 500 + 600 yards on chest hit cow elk out of a .300 RUM custom rifle. Several more failures on deer much closer the same fall so I gave away the remainder of the box........garbage IMO......on the other end of the spectrum I have a 130gr Barnes .270 [early type] that Randy Barnes told me they had been having problems with varying jacket hardness fail to open up at all on a large Mulie buck shot lengthways.. found in brisket it looked like a FMJ after going through 5 ft of deer........Harold
 
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suits me said:
It wouldn't have changed much. I should have taken pics of the hide on the exit side. Reminded me of a 25-05 vmax hit on a coyote. Even before we gutted him we noticed the damage.
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Okay, I was wondering if you were focusing on the small bits recovered rather than the terminal performance. I've personally never shot a GMX bullet but used lots of TSX and TTSX. I know I've lost petals at times, although most recovered TSX/TTSX look like magazine ad pics. I've shot TTSX at the same distance at 3500fps and looks like I had less meat damage than you. Last bear I shot with a 250TTSX was about 150 yards and had minimal meat damage.
 
hoytcanon said:
I was going to quote your bullet test where the GMX did very well... I have had excellent results with the GMX bullet... every once in a while we happen onto a "funky" scenario in the angle or path of the hit, or just catch a bad bullet... OR, the bullet struck something unseen prior to impact, which can cause all sorts of strange occurrences.
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Yogi was on the right side of the barrel. My go pro died before I took the shot. He put on quite a show putting the other bears off the bait before coming in.
 
torontogungal said:
375 Ruger for black bear?
I wouldn't hunt blackies with less than a 505 Gibbs.:rolleyes:

Sarcasm aside.
Too much gun.
Try a 270 Win or a 308 Win or a 30-06 Sprng and experience bear meat that isn't bloodshot or full of shrapnel.
Click to expand...
???haha wow, perhaps some light 150 grainers so I don't ruin the meat eh? Note to self, never take hunting advice from Toronto girls.
 
suits me said:

Yogi was on the right side of the barrel. My go pro died before I took the shot. He put on quite a show putting the other bears off the bait before coming in.
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Looks pretty clear... unless the offending branch was "shot off." Boss bears often set up near the bait where they can monitor activity by other bears... competition is your best friend, it forces the larger bruins out during legal hunting hours... without subordinate bears trying to poach their food source they would be likely to wait until darkness has settled in. On many occasions we have had 7 or 8 bears charging around a bait site... the biggest would head East chasing one bear and another would sneak in from the West, grab a bite and run.
 
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