Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Bucking the brush

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I shoot 460 grain solid conicals at low to med velocity. They dont "buck brush".

Willow branches thinner than a little kids pinky will deflect the path of the bullet.

If a nearly 500 grain solid isnt a brush buster, what is?

9.3 x 57 M46 Husky. Not because it magically bucks brush, but because if it doesn't drop them right there it makes big holes that rivers of blood come out of for tracking the short distance a few have gone. And the little Husky is short and light. I like the 9.3 x 57; Sort of like either the Germans or Swedes invented the 358 Win in 1900 or so.

If I have shooting lanes over 100 yards I prefer to use a 257 Roberts or 8x57 just 'cause the 9.3x57 has the trajectory of a whiffle ball.

Everyone has preferences, nice to read what people use without an argument over it.

Man, I hope I'm never near him in the woods-that sound shooting crap is scary.

I have been involved in tactical shooting for a while.

One course involves shooting at a card board mannequin . The mannequin has a ball cap held on to the head with 2 staples.

Shots fired are with 9 MM, .40 cal, & .45 cal . All hand guns.

.223 and 12 G. slug long guns.

EVERY SHOT that hits the tip of the brim is deflected. The cap is NEVER knocked off. Amazing !

You wouldn't believe it without seeing it. I didn't.

Also , a lot of head shots strike too low ….due to trying to shoot under the ball cap.

I also hunt and have shot more than a few deer. A bud on a Birch tree will deflect your shot.

A chain saw and an electric pole saw.

I bow hunt also, so shooting lanes are important. I go out in September before the season gets going and check my lanes and trim some trees.

When gun season comes in, I use a 12ga with Breneke Magnum Crush. Muzzle Loader I use 295 grain Power Belts with 3 50/50 Triple 7.

I don't cut shooting lanes…………

I would't sit in a frizzin' tree to shoot a frizzin' deer.

I walk and hunt.

Years ago I read a test that someone did where they set up a "brush box" with several 1" wooden dowels, to simulate shooting through brush. The 1" dowels allowed consistency and easy replacement. He then tried a bunch of different calibers - traditional "brush busters" and high velocity "open country" cartridges.

The fast moving high speed rounds actually didn't deflect much, but the bullets turned sideways. The "brush busters" had the bullet stay straight, but deflect. The end conclusion was, don't try shooting through brush

The one mule deer I managed to kill in California, was lying in some tall grass, looking at me when I fired at his neck. The 150gr, launched out of a .308, clipped some grass, turned sideways, but still hit his adams apple and anchored him.

Patrick over the years Ive seen a couple such tests written up. In both cases hotter faster bullets did better( contrary to beliefs) I remember in one test a 100 grain .243 did best. And in the other a 150 grain 30-06 won out.


I am in the don't shoot through brush crowd, shoot through the holes in it.


I can only remember intentionally shooting through brush twice. Once on a WT deer at fifty yards with my .22-250 and a 55 TBBC. Only had about six inches of flimsy juniper to go through....turned the bullet sideways and changed its course. Killed the deer right away, but not as neatly as I'd planned.
Second time was on a wounded waterbuck laying in the branches of a blow down. Very sparse cover so I thought nothing of slinging a 165 A-frame at him from 30 yards. Indeed it looked like nothing was intervening, but it was. I'll never know where that bullet went. Not having a contingency plan I just fired another through thru the apparently open space, and it apparently was open, cause it arrived without any fanfare.

A Marlin 45/70 guide gun with 300 grainers and a Marlin 35 Rem with 200 grainers are my first choices followed by my 35 Whelen with 225 grain Partitions.. Otherwise it's what ever's in my hand when I run into the thick stuff.. Pick a hole and make the shot..

I wonder if faster twist helps, should one encounter a twig by accident. Testing might be indicated.

I've done some of my own testing shooting through brush. From what I've seen the slower the twist and shorter the bullet the better. The least deflected projectiles for me were .490" round balls shot through a 1/66 twist and 12 gauge Foster slugs shot through a smooth bore slug barrel. Both were still deflected enough that shooting through brush is inadvisable unless the target is very close behind it.

I remember reading a test like that - maybe the same? I remember the 1" dowels. I also remember the same conclusion.
I never shoot at/thru brush unless absolutely necessary.

Jerry

When I was young people liked the 220 gr. Rn 30-06
for woods hunting. As the years go by the bullets are getting lighter. Of course it is getting harder and harder to get a moose tag too.

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.

Having lived it, "brush bucking" refers to platforms rather than catridges....Barrel bands and/or well balanced rifles help........!



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In the 80s I was woods hunting w/a 358 W --big slow bullet -
I had a good shot at a buck entering the last rib - I thot. At the shot the deer bolted like nothing happened. I'm confounded.

A bud & I looked hard and found hair, no blood to speak of and ground meat ?? More than enuff meat to know it didn't come from the hide over ribs or flank. Went back & searched-- close to the muzzle that 200 gr. 358 bullet cut a twig then deflected into the deer's hind 1/4.

Big slow bullets DONT always go straight. BTDT---That is the only deer out of more than 100 I ever hit in the butt.

I don't TRY to shoot thru brush with anything.

Jerry

I shot at a deer with a 45-70 Handloaded with a 300gr. HP.
I never found a drop of blood.
I went to a gravel pit and took a few shots
the rifle was sighted in fine.
Either I had flinched or the bullet disintegrated after hitting a twig.
I decided that either way that rifle needed to go to somebody else. I replaced it with a 35 Whelen,
problem solved.

My only brush busting experience ended up (luckily) with a good result. I was sitting about 100 yards off the shoreline of a lake on a corner where deer liked to move. Buck came in from my far right. I shoot right handed. I pivoted around when he was behind a tree, waited for him to come out and took the shot. I spined him. Long story short, next day I sat in the same identical spot and found a neatly cut off sapling about the diameter of my finger about 10 feet off the gun barrel. I never even saw it when I shot. The bullet traveled about 65 yards and hit the deer. Gun was a Model 99 Savage in 300 Savage with Remington factory loads-the old 180 gr. round nose.

I, too, recall that/those article(s). IIRC, the 6.5x55 with that long 160 grain bullet and fast twist did really, really well. However, the take away was that "bucking brush" was FOS and any interference at all was going to cause a serious deflection no matter the bullet, or cartridge.

'Tis the stuff many a magazine article was made of back in the 60's and 70's. There are a lot of hunters out there with mis-guided beliefs fueled by old wive's tales, rumor, and innuendo. See the deer, shoot the deer- it ain't rocket science. Sometimes I think we mind-f*ck this whole business of shooting deer. I'm as guilty as the next guy for having fretted over the ideal deer hunting rig, but the simple truth is put any old bullet of any old caliber into the right spot and the deed is done. Truth be told, I've killed as many if not more deer in my life with .45 and .50 caliber round balls at 16-1700fps as with all the centerfire rifles at my disposal. I prefer to save my fretting for stuff that really matters- which beer to drink on Friday night and which color underwear to put on in the morning!