I've shot two deer and missed another where I inadvertently hit intervening obstacles.
On the first one I shot at a walking deer with a 350 Rem Mag and a 200 gr Hornady Spire Point at about 50-60 yards. When I walked up to the buck, I saw a 1-1 1/4" hole on the roght side that was facing me when I shot. My first thought was "what the he__?" I then realized the bullet had hit something and "pre-expanded". I went back and found that I had center punched a 1" grape vine that I hadn't seen. That bullet at around 2600 fps broke both shoulders. I cut it out with a folding saw that I had. I still have that piece of wood.
Fast forward a few years and at about 90 yards, with a 35 Whelen and 225 gr Ballistic Tip (since discontinued), I shot my heaviest whitetail (235 lbs). It was a little while after sunset and here again due to shadows, I hit an unseen branch. The buck was head-on and when I shot he dropped on the spot. I got to the deer, I again saw a big entrance hole I looked and found that I had hit a branch about 11/2" thick. That bullet took out 3 to 4 vertebrae after hitting that branch.
Between those two successes, I had another where I hit a 1/2" Devil's Walking stick with the 200 gr Hornady on the way to a walking buck about 30 yards away and didn't touch a hair. My buddy and I spent over an hour looking for any sign that I had hit the buck. No luck.
Point being I didn't intentionally shoot through brush but hit the first two deer more due to luck BUT there was enough bullet left intact to to break down those two bucks.
