Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What bullet is this?

Its a pretty crappy pic, but the only one I have. Its not a matter of much consequence, just curiosity for me. This pic was sent to me by a coworker today, claims to have recovered it from a cow elk shot at 35 yards with a .243. He said it hit a rib going in and stopped in the first lung. Elk made it 200 yards...
Bullet is supposed to be an 80gr TTSX. Looks to me like a cup/core bullet, pretty sure there's and R on the base?

Like I said, no big deal but this guy likes to tell all manner of stories which generally turn out to be pure fiction. Nobody minds too much, we know its mostly made up, but finding the holes and inconsistencies has become a bit of a game for us. I was pretty suspicious of the claims of about 6 inches of penetration, and even more so that it resulted in only 200 yards of death run, so I requested a bullet pic and got this a while later. What do you think?

looks like a core-lokt to me. Have recovered several that looked just like that.

I'd say that that would have penetrated considerably more than 6". Stopped in near side lung? at 35 yards?

The elk would have run a lot further on one lung.

Interesting that the bullet lost the boat tail...

I believe all TTSX 6mm bullets are BTs and nearly all TTSXs are, too.

Not necessarily... ungulates have a single sac for both lungs. Ventilating the sack allows the lungs to start collapsing rapidly. Humans have a seperate sac for each lung and it is harder to deflate the second lung...

Meant to add it was just a cow, so not a truly big animal.

Hmm. I'll have to pass that on to the elk. They don't seem to realize it.

Having seen a few much larger critters shot with small bullets at high speeds... some tougher than most elk... I have not seen the smaller bullets take much if any longer/farther to kill a lungshot critter.

By enlarging that pic, it almost looks like there is a copper mono enveloped by a bullet jacket at the base. It does look like the copper petals are open and 'radiating' outward, but the jacket is definitely peeled back. Did he happen to have pieces of more than one bullet in his pocket?

I enlarged it all I could and do not see what you are...

It looks like an ordinary cup and core to me.

+ 1

One thing is for sure: It's someone that doesn't know jack squat about their bullets. Maybe he loads more than one type, and got them confused and shot the wrong one. The TTSX is boat tail and has an "X" stamped on the base. And I guarantee if he did find one, it would have been on the off side hide, if anywhere.

The Hornady GMX is also 80 grains and is a lead free flat base. Maybe he can change his story so he can start trashing their bullets. Just search .243 80 grain on Midway, and there are only a few possibilities, although I'm sure it was not a varmint type bullet or ballistic tip.

Have our buddy clean the bullet up and take another picture, plus one of the base.

Sure looks like a cup-and-core bullet to me.

It is also a good example of why I don't recommend .243's for elk, especially with light bullets and in the hands of inexperienced hunters.

No saying your coworker is inexperienced but he sure doesn't seem to know much about the bullets he is using.

I've shot a lot of smaller whitetails through BOTH LUNGS, with blood pouring out like a faucet, with all sorts of calibers ranging from .22 to .375, and had several run 100-150 yards. An elk going 200 is not surprising. Oh, and didn't it die? Your biased opinion on the 243 is likely not warranted, but we are all entitled to one.....

http://www.thediyhunter.com/big-gam...bullets-tsx-ttsx-243-wssm-270-wsm-rifles

This is a picture of the actual bullet recovered from an elk, and as I said, it was in the off side hide after going through both shoulders.

What kind of critters? And how many elk?

Yep.

If it has an R it obviously isn't a Barnes.

If I recall correctly (BIG if) that bonded core lokt ultra had an R?

A fair number of brown bears, both mainland and Kodiak versions, a pretty fair pile of moose, a box car load of black bears, and quite a few others. But no elk that really apply.

Watched my son shoot a mainland brown bear a year ago with an 80gr TTSX from a 25-06. Both shots were more than enough to kill it singly.

Well I'm not sure what killing a brown bear with a 25-06 has to do with an elk's ability to live on one lung.

It is an issue for archery hunters, and elk can go for several hours before it kills them. Probably doesn't happen much with a rifle because it is pretty tough to only damage one lung with a bullet.

Back to my point, that elk would have run much further if the bullet had truly stopped in the near lung.