I just shot another whitetail with the 139 GMX. A little buck, at 250 yards. It was quartering toward me, and I drilled one right into the front shoulder. It struck and shattered the socket, which mangled the shoulder pretty good but nothing at all like your first pics above. Much of the meat damaged by bone fragments is shredded, but not bloodshot.
Despite smashing through the biggest bone structure on the front of a deer, the bullet continued in a laser-straight line, taking out a rib, demolishing a lung, disconnecting all the plumbing on the top of the heart, poking a hole in the liver, then going through some of the guts, finally exiting the paunch just in front of the rear quarter. A good 2 to 3 feet of deer penetration overall, and the bullet was not recovered. Too bad, by the looks of it, it only *barely* made it out.
Needless to say, the deer didn't make it very far. It flopped around, gave the 'heart-shot kick,' and bolted into the trees, only making it a few steps into the bush before collapsing. Maybe ten or twenty yards, tops. Good solid blood trail to follow, recovery was a piece of cake.
One of my hunting partners, a little over a mile away, said that the meaty 'thwop' of bullet impact and expansion was about as loud as the muzzle blast was. I don't remember, I knew the deer was dead on its feet before that sound would have gotten back to me.
Unfortunately, this deer was a solid hour's hike in down some overgrown cutlines; it was good exercise dragging this bad boy out of there.
Anyway, I'm completely confident in taking this bullet and this load out elk and moose hunting based on what I've seen so far.
