Tell us about your bullet failures on game.

Only one 'failure" comes to mind, and it is the one that caused me to switch to heavy for caliber bullets.

A Hornady 150 gr flat base (cheap bullet in a 308Win) at 125 yards on a deer. The bullet hit a small branch just in front of the deer and exploded. The entrance hole looked more like an exit hole, and just enough penetration by a fragment to sever the heart. Deer ran 100 yards and dropped dead.

I now load the 308 with 180 gr soft points.
 
180gr Berger VLD "for hunting". Out of a 30-06. I loaded them up for moose... As it turned out, I didn't even see a moose during moose season that year. I wound up using that rifle/bullet combo for deer. I shot a nice fat doe at 150-70 yards. DRT. That 180gr boolit made an entrance wound I could put my fist into. Blew through 2 ribs. Absolutely shredded the onside lung. Off side lung was pristine. "I was lucky" that one small piece of lead made contact with the heart, about the size of a .20 projectile. About the only meat that wasn't blood shot was the rear quarters. I am REALLY happy I didn't see a moose that year, I don't think it would have been DRT......

I was drawn for mule deer in 1998, up till then I was still using the rifle my dad gave me for all my hunting needs from coyotes to whatever would hold still while I had a license for it.....a .243. At this point in my "hunting career" I had taken approx 20 animals with that rifle. I had taken half of them with 95gr nosler ballistic tips...... Long story short, this is the year I became a "rifle/ballistics loony". I shot a really nice mulie buck 5 times (yes that includes a reload) before my hunting buddy put it down with a 270. All 5 shots hit, not a single expansion on any of them...... 5 nice neat pencil holes through the animal, 3 holes in each lung, 2 holes in the neck, I had missed the heart. Near as I could figure if any one of the "lung" rounds had expanded at all, it would have been a DRT.

All my other failures (many, many, many failures) can all be squarely laid at my feet!
 
Was hunting with a rifle set up for an expected 700 yard shot on a moose that I'd patterned.
700 LSS in 300 ultramag throwing 180gr Swift Sirocco's...perfect bullet at the expected range (and velocity at said range).

The bull didn't come out at 700 yards....it came out at 30.

The bullet was travelling about 3400 FPS at that range and literally left a surface crater in the shoulder.....not good!

The moose went down, but there was a LOT of wasted meat. Lesson learned.
 
I was drawn for mule deer in 1998, up till then I was still using the rifle my dad gave me for all my hunting needs from coyotes to whatever would hold still while I had a license for it.....a .243. At this point in my "hunting career" I had taken approx 20 animals with that rifle. I had taken half of them with 95gr nosler ballistic tips...... Long story short, this is the year I became a "rifle/ballistics loony". I shot a really nice mulie buck 5 times (yes that includes a reload) before my hunting buddy put it down with a 270. All 5 shots hit, not a single expansion on any of them...... 5 nice neat pencil holes through the animal, 3 holes in each lung, 2 holes in the neck, I had missed the heart. Near as I could figure if any one of the "lung" rounds had expanded at all, it would have been a DRT.
Click to expand...


Which bullet did you use on the 5 shot mulie?
 
Wrong Way said:
Was hunting with a rifle set up for an expected 700 yard shot on a moose that I'd patterned.
700 LSS in 300 ultramag throwing 180gr Swift Sirocco's...perfect bullet at the expected range (and velocity at said range).

The bull didn't come out at 700 yards....it came out at 30.

The bullet was travelling about 3400 FPS at that range and literally left a surface crater in the shoulder.....not good!

The moose went down, but there was a LOT of wasted meat. Lesson learned.
Click to expand...

Still... many with rifles set-up the other way around might have taken the 700 yard shot with even more disastrous results...
 
Hi,

Below a picture of a blesbok shot in South Africa this March, using the PH's rifle and ammo. The range was just over 200m, using a Sierra 165gr GameKing bullet loaded in a 30-06. It took us a long time to find it again and end its suffering. I will not use this bullet again.

 
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