Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Speed or Weight

again, deer live a LOT longer than folks think they do.

Folks are amazed when they witness it. IE the 4 shots to the elk.

Generally most animals run off and by the time you get all your stuff together and go look they've died.

But the ones that don't run.... you see it.

Even if you bang flop one, you are still gathering gear, and so on, such that you don't realize its down but its still dying.

I've brain shot a LOT of animals over the years... DRT... yeah, well given some time that is true.

I've been able to shoot a few just to see, and as soon as the gun goes off I"m heading their way, and you can still see the blood pumping, a few times felt the heart, and obviously at some point minutes later the hair goes through its reactions to death by standing up on end and then relaxing.

There is no point to my post, other than DRT only really mostly means they won't move as they die.

To answer the topic... doesn't matter to me.. I've shot em with literally about everything you can shoot em with. I've seen em drop to tiny rounds and run like hell when punched with the 50 bmg. And about everything in between.

I tend to fall back to mid to heavy barnes almost exclusively for game these days. And the exception is running heavy berger target bullets in my 308. Even that gun is tuned for 168ttsx for some jobs.

I prefer shooting over the heart, while saving the heart for table fare. Any chambering/load combination causing excessive damage, is bad and a no go in my book. There are numerous great combinations that do work exceedingly well, for inside 200 yards. Using a 270 Winchester as a single example:

My best results came from a traditional 150 grain round nose. The long straight length in the bore is inherently accurate and easily results in great loads, and inside 200 yards is extremely effective, while resulting in a clean, quality meat yield. Light and fast combinations in this chambering tend to cause excessive damage that ruins too much edible meat.

Such good combinations can be found in numerous chamberings.

100gr 25 cal Hornady @ 3700+. over forty deer from 25 yards to 350 and not one has taken a step. Speed kills..

22 responses and not a single "Hammer of Thor" reference?

The Hammer Of Thor is definitely a 270 Winchester FWT with 130 grain BT...

Yikes, I must have been typing when the critic was announcing the lack of "HOT"

Thank gawd there are still signs of intelligent life in this place.

This.

Bullet construction matters more than what is on the cartridge head stamp. With deer, I've found 90-150 grain bullets such as Nosler BTs to be about as good as it gets out of 243s to 30-06s and about every cartridge in between. They get it done on deer..

my personal favorite,

I think that a 220 gr from a 06 or a 160 gr from a 264 mag is the ticket, so I'm in the heavy and slow

I tend toward the heavy for caliber mind set. The exception being the 270 Win. In the 270 Weatherby and WSM,I'll take the heavier pills. As far as dropping deer in their tracks goes,sever the spine close to the head. If you plan to shoot them in the body,don't expect a lot of them to drop on the spot. Here are a couple deer from my past that bucked the system.

One was a big old breeder doe. Range was just shy of fifty yards. Took her right through the pump with a 200g 338 Win mag bullet. She pulled her legs up and bounced when she hit the ground. Little if any edible meat was harmed. Pretty unexciting wound channel.

Number two is a similarly sized doe,close to your 200 yard criteria. Same shot. Right through the heart. 130gr 270 Weatherby mag. She made a mad dash for fourty or fifty yards soaking the brush with blood. The entrance wound was as big as my fist.

One would think the fast explosive bullets would yield quicker on the spot kills. Not necessarily.

You are on a quest that will yeild unconclusive results...and the expendature of needless dollars. Have fun!

Thanks for all the great information!

Give me speed w/a decent bullet. powdr

Crotch rockets are highly frangible...

Speed and construction.

Yep!!

Both, thats why I like the TTSX's.

Shot placement trumps all else.

That said, a fast-opening bullet that also has enough azz to punch through and leave two holes for leaking blood is very helpful, as is the spray of tissue and blood and hair that gives solid evidence of a hit at the spot where the deer was standing. Also helpful are holes low enough on the body that blood accumulating in the chest will begin to drip out and leave a trail. There are lots of bullets that can do the job now and weight need not be much of a factor, except maybe for straight cup & core designs.

The buck I killed in 2011 was hit center-chest, tight behind the shoulder with a 130gr Hornady IL, which didn't exit, but did knock a clump of hair off the far side of the chest. The deer ran about 150 yards without leaving a drop of blood even though his lungs were totally souped. A lower hit or a pass-through would have given me a blood trail to work with instead of just tracks in the leaves.

15 years ago if a man even thought about shooting a deer w/a .224 caliber rifle he'd of been thought of as a low down cacklin heathen. Today w/the advent of the tsx it's common practice. powdr