Shodd;
Good morning to you sir, I trust this wet last day of October finds you doing well.
I'd again like to say a sincere thank you to all of the participants in this 'Fire discussion for being cordial to one another - yourself included in that group sir.
As I read the responses, a couple of points have come up that I'm going to attempt to articulate a response for or at very least provide some background for my theories.
We were cutting up a good friends mulie buck in our garage two evenings ago - both of us having shot/skinned/cut and wrapped more than 2 dozen deer sized animals over the decades shot with various .270's shooting all sorts of bullets - that there wasn't a whole pile of damage on the ribs of his meat buck.
Oh, I must hasten to add he shot it with my .270 and the 130TTSX bullet. It took exactly one - the buck was at least 250yds away, the shot landed a wee bit back on the ribs, breaking a rib on entry, traversing the liver and exiting between ribs. The buck made it perhaps 75yds after being hit, was visibly rocked when hit and made the distance going downhill.
One of the thoughts that struck me when we were cutting up that buck was that when we'd both started down the path hunting - decades ago for both of us now - we didn't really take note of "how" things like different bullet/cartridge combinations worked. As young/beginning hunters we were happy to have made meat and as we dropped the animal off at a meat processors we typically didn't even see any of the skeletal damage beyond what was visible when gutting it.
When we'd both shot more than say a good handful of game and it became less desirable to experience the adventure of having one run down into a steep canyon or hurtle off of a cliff after being hit - well then we started to pay more attention to the details.
About that time we began to process our own game - in the garage at my house mostly - and things like tissue and skeletal damage became much more apparent for obvious reasons. That damage is always a topic of conversation if there's more than one of us cutting the animal - well honestly sometimes I do talk to myself while I cut meat..... but that's another issue entirely.
Anyway it was those meat cutting conversations and observations that had been fermenting within me for years now that spurred the thread. Nothing scientific to be sure and certain, merely the observations of a BC redneck - I guess a few of us really - who have been blessed enough to share each others' company and good hunting fortune over the span of nearly 3 decades now.
If you or someone else out there is able to benefit from what we've observed as we've cut and wrapped "winters meat" for our respective families that's wonderful.
At the same time if other hunters have had differing results and observations then that's fine too and I'm positive we'd have a lot to talk about - especially so if it was a cool BC evening where we were in my garage, a slab of meat lying on a hardwood cutting board in front of each of us and a decent knife in our hands.
Thanks again to you and all the respondents to the thread. May you all have the opportunity to at least stand over one fresh gut pile this fall and feel the satisfaction knowing "winters meat" has been made.
Good luck to you all in your remaining hunts this fall.
Dwayne
