Good Article on Deer Hunting and calibres, shot placement, etc...
- Thread starter Northman999
- Start date
The results are what they are - exactly what they found without being sponsored by Barnes or Nosler etc. or some staff writer that's trying to keep the advertisers happy that ultimately pay his wages telling you that you need a semi-custom, exotic caliber and a scope capable of a 600 yard shot to go out and bag an Eastern Whitetail.
What I found most interesting was that it seemed to indicate every shot "greater than" 150 yards resulted either in a miss or an un-recovered deer. So either they were all poor shooters, or, the few shots over 150 had some buck fever influence, or just maybe, getting proficient out to that range on something other than paper is a little tougher than most (eastern) hunters realize.
(and yes, this is eastern whitetails, often hunted "close" - so I include myself in the above - I have never even had to shoot out to 100 yards on a bear, moose or deer even though we punch paper at 300 yards, from a rest, with controlled breathing and all the time in the world to "be certain" before pulling the trigger)
But for all the back and forth that goes on in forums such as this, this (study) basically says, if you want to take your success rate as close to 100% as possible:
1) keep your shots under 150 yards
2) don't waste your money on fancy ammo - Federal blue box soft points "showed" better results than Nosler Partitions
3) if you follow #1, caliber doesn't really matter
4) if you want Bambi to drop "dead right there", aim for the shoulder (better to lose 10 pounds of meat than all 50 or 100 pounds) - if you "miss" a little you may hit the neck or the spine and achieve the same results - DRT
5) you don't need a fancy custom rifle - anything "off the shelf" gives you exactly the same odds
It is too bad they didn't drill down a bit with their details - as some have noted, the 30 cal numbers could include 30-30, 303's.... all the way up to 300 Ultra Mag's.
And we don't know if the few 25 cal shooters were the guys who spent most time at the range and if the 30 cal guys were the ones that borrowed old Bob's 30-30 to "go hunting".
But it is probably representative of the "average hunter". We get them at work the weekend before deer opens up. They want a box of the "cheapest shells" (although this study indicates they are making the right choice by default). They will fire a couple to make sure "she's sighted in", and then load the remaining 18 cartridges along with the 2 or 3 "24's", into the truck to go "deer hunting" for the week. The rifle will go back in the closet the day they get home, until next year.
What I found most interesting was that it seemed to indicate every shot "greater than" 150 yards resulted either in a miss or an un-recovered deer. So either they were all poor shooters, or, the few shots over 150 had some buck fever influence, or just maybe, getting proficient out to that range on something other than paper is a little tougher than most (eastern) hunters realize.
(and yes, this is eastern whitetails, often hunted "close" - so I include myself in the above - I have never even had to shoot out to 100 yards on a bear, moose or deer even though we punch paper at 300 yards, from a rest, with controlled breathing and all the time in the world to "be certain" before pulling the trigger)
But for all the back and forth that goes on in forums such as this, this (study) basically says, if you want to take your success rate as close to 100% as possible:
1) keep your shots under 150 yards
2) don't waste your money on fancy ammo - Federal blue box soft points "showed" better results than Nosler Partitions
3) if you follow #1, caliber doesn't really matter
4) if you want Bambi to drop "dead right there", aim for the shoulder (better to lose 10 pounds of meat than all 50 or 100 pounds) - if you "miss" a little you may hit the neck or the spine and achieve the same results - DRT
5) you don't need a fancy custom rifle - anything "off the shelf" gives you exactly the same odds
It is too bad they didn't drill down a bit with their details - as some have noted, the 30 cal numbers could include 30-30, 303's.... all the way up to 300 Ultra Mag's.
And we don't know if the few 25 cal shooters were the guys who spent most time at the range and if the 30 cal guys were the ones that borrowed old Bob's 30-30 to "go hunting".
But it is probably representative of the "average hunter". We get them at work the weekend before deer opens up. They want a box of the "cheapest shells" (although this study indicates they are making the right choice by default). They will fire a couple to make sure "she's sighted in", and then load the remaining 18 cartridges along with the 2 or 3 "24's", into the truck to go "deer hunting" for the week. The rifle will go back in the closet the day they get home, until next year.
The Partition is actually a soft bullet, expanding violently and often shedding half its weight at close range. The difference it has a back-up plan, just in case.
The .270 can get some decent speeds out of a 110 TTSX, but no more than a .270 Weatherby, or 7mm STW will do with heavier bullets, no more than .257 Weatherby or .264 Win will do with similar weights, and not anywhere near what is possible with light bullets. 3950 fps MV with a 80 grain TTSX is as far as I've taken a mono, and even at that its still no match for some disgustingly ordinary bullets.
That's not to say monos are useless, or inadequate, or even that they aren't better for some things. Its just that dropping deer sized animals as fast as possible isn't one of them.
I had the fortune to take 2 respectable blacktail bucks on saturday morning. One at 30 yards, one at 47 yards. One was crossing in front of me, walking speed for a deer, 6 yards declining downhill shot and 30 yards true distance. Shot with a 7mm rem mag, 24" barrel, 165gr factory win/nosler accubond. Bullet entered behind elbow, exited cleanly, heart and lungs were jellified. Small entry and exit wounds, very clean kill. Deer went 40 yards down hill, and piled up into a big boulder. Dead before he hit the ground. Some of his distance travelled after the shot would simply be the steep terrain.
Deer 2 ran back up the hill, slightly 1/4 away from broadside, body steeply angled, 18 yard incline, 47 yard to target. Bullet entered 4 inches or so behind elbow, lungs were jellified, heart remained intact, exit wound was catastrophic, ripping a good 10" hole and severing 5 ribs. I was really shocked at the exit wound LOL. Also deer # 2 faceplanted, stood up and just fell over dead.
Same bullet, factory win with nosler accubond.
I dunno what all that means but close range, same bullet, very different wound results. Either way, both deer didn't go far
Edit for bullet weight... Box says 160gr. My bad hehehe
Deer 2 ran back up the hill, slightly 1/4 away from broadside, body steeply angled, 18 yard incline, 47 yard to target. Bullet entered 4 inches or so behind elbow, lungs were jellified, heart remained intact, exit wound was catastrophic, ripping a good 10" hole and severing 5 ribs. I was really shocked at the exit wound LOL. Also deer # 2 faceplanted, stood up and just fell over dead.
Same bullet, factory win with nosler accubond.
I dunno what all that means but close range, same bullet, very different wound results. Either way, both deer didn't go far
Edit for bullet weight... Box says 160gr. My bad hehehe
Last edited:
I'm curious where you place the nosler accubond? Especially after reading 45acp's post. I'm torn between using it and a traditional sierra pro hunter on said game.
Depends whether you want it to fall over and die, or die then fall over. Shoulder, high shoulder and frontals will give fast drops more often than not. It doesn't take long for an animal to hit the ground when his legs quit working, and dieing will take care of itself. On the other hand the same animal can cover a lot of ground in a very short time if it can stay on its feet.
Intresting thread, I subscribe to the threw the shoulder shot, as that what the old deer cullers, did, no running off, falling over bluffs, or loosing track of were the fell, It was quite, an eye opener, when I first started hunting in Canada, as everyone shot behind, rather than threw the frt shoulder,
small sample on the 1/4 bore, but I have had a long string, of stright down, one shot kill's with mine (2506), 264 win and 270 with 110-130 gr the same,
good luck, to everyone for this season.
- Location
- Southern Vancouver Island
I prefer the original & best mono-metal projectile....Lead. When sized & loaded to "disgustingly" low speeds to suit the game intended, the only factor for failure is the hunter placing the shot poorly.I shoot jacketed bullets out of my .243 and anything smaller than 30 cal., but only because there are plenty of proven jacketed bullets out there that do the job well as long as they aren't pushed beyond their velocity limits.
Interestingly enough, I've hunted the same spot for the last 15 years and normally use a 18" barrelled enfield .303 brit in the federal 180gr factory load. That rifle knocks those deer down hard at close range and is my prefered rifle/bullet combo for hunting those particular deer in that specific terrain. She's going in for a cerakote job so I took my 7mm in case I ran into a nice black bear.
I don't shoot the shoulders though, I want every pound of meat possible from those tasty deer
I don't shoot the shoulders though, I want every pound of meat possible from those tasty deer
