No exit wound when using a 280 on a mere deer? Sorry, not good enough. Not even sort of.
I agree with you to an extent. Yes, there was no exit wound, so you'll get no argument from me regarding that simple fact. However, the deer dropped in his tracks, so its hard to argue with performance. This is probably the 5th or so deer I have taken with the 140gr TBBC, and only one didn't drop (ran less than 30-40 yards).
Now, if I were hunting larger game, I would certainly be somewhat concerned. One must consider, though, that one example is anecdotal at best. In fact, its difficult to really take much from this except the bullet didn't separate and mushroomed almost perfectly.
As I mentioned, this is the only bullet I have recovered out of 5 or 6 animals. Does that mean the TBBC is the perfect bullet? No, but that certainly doesn't mean it is worthless, either! Besides, I'll take a dropped deer with no exit wound any day over an exit hole on a running deer.
Nevertheless, I have 6-7 more boxes of the stuff, so it doesn't look as though I'll be abandoning it anytime soon.
This is "strange" bullet performance to those who have not seen it, if they grew into hunting with guilding metal,thin jackets and antimony cores, both brittle and which shatter,giving rise to the notion that bullet disintegration and weight loss and dispersed energy from little fragments is the only thing that kills BG animals...maybe true to a point.....just that this type performance isn't seen too often unless you use bonded bullets like the old Bitterroot Bonded Core,the TBBC(which is a BBC copy),the Swift Aframe,or a Northfork.
This is pretty typical for these heavily jacketed,bonded core bullets.(The old BBC's were so good they trade in black market-type circles at the price of cocaine.Part of this is because they are no longer made;but mostly it is because they work extremely well).
And there is nothing dated about their performance,because animals have not changed a whit since these bullets were developed.I have been shooting animals with the Bitterroots for over 30 years now...performance is similar to the OP's 140 TBBC.Likely the BBC would have retained about 90%+....and not because they make for good pictures!
but because the retained weight assists in pushing the broad mushroom forward....the OP's bullet retains lots of shank,and broad mushroom, which is "good".
In fact I will make a flat statement and say this type of bullet performance has given me more one shot,lights out DRT's,and anchoring hits, than any other design on game from brown bear down through deer sized stuff;and more consistent and reliable BG performance than anything else I have tried.The reason is you get very rapid expansion (every time)to a broad frontal area,which makes nasty wound channels, and enough weight retention to retain momentum and push a broad mushroom through a lot of tissue,pulping it (what kills),making for wide wound channels.Chest cavities are frequently pulped beyond recognition, especially when impact velocities are high;and off side shoulders are
always smashed.Animals simply go nowhere with this type bullet placement and performance.
I have recovered some, but contrary to much popular and conventional wisdom,they do exit very frequently,especially at distance as velocity falls off, and I have seen them make holes in brown bear and elk you could stick a fist in,especially in the larger calibers.I have also broken the shoulders of grown up bull elk with 165 gr 30's started at 3250 from a 300 Win Mag....no recovered bullet;it exited.The last 160 gr BBC 7mm I fired at an elk traveled the full length of its' neck from behind and we recovered it under the jaw;it smashed vertebrae and pulped muscle along the way....expansion was over 60 caliber and retained weight still over 150 gr IIRC. It is here somewhere...
I doubt there is an expanding bullet made that can be reliably counted upon to exit every time.I don't use them myself,but pals have shown me enough Barnes X's recovered from game to demonstrate that where impact vels are high,or where they retain the petals,it seems they,too, will be recovered.
The only reason the OP's bullet did not exit,is because the rubbery hide on the off side stopped the broad mushroom...between where it entered,and where it stopped,there was a train wreck....no "trail",blood or otherwise,was needed.
I would not hesitate in the least to use the OP's rifle and load on anything commonly hunted in North America for which the 280 is suited. That includes elk, moose,and grizzly.YMMV.
