Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Strange Bullet Thangs.....

I was easing around thru the woods one morning when this buck steps out of a thicket. He's 75 yards and quartering away. I aimed for the high shoulder shot (his left side)and he dropped right now. The bullet entered high on his left shoulder, caught the spine and spun all the way up his spine then exited at the base of the right antler. He had his head in the upright position when I fired. You can see a gouge on his neck from scrapping.
.270 Win - 130gr Accubond - 58gr RL22

That is an odd bullet path.....effective though.

A buddy of mine shot a doe on our place this year with a .308 and managed to catch her at a moment when she bent her neck around to lick herself or bite at a bug on her flank. He hit the shoulder, got an offside exit, and then the bullet caught her in the head. Needless to say, she folded up....

Wish my Fwts were that nice.

Had an 87gr Speer Hot Core out of my M99 Savage hit a broadside doe at about 150 yards one time that took a somewhat curious path. Entrance was just above the lower leg joint on the shoulder, exit was out the top of the shoulder through the spine. Obviously she didn't go far. Guessing the bullet hit the top of the joint and at least part of it deflected nearly straight up.
A cousin had a 243 100gr Sierra exit the same side of the deer as the entrance on a broadside shot. Wish I could of dug through that chest cavity to see what happened. He said he started thinking about ducking whenever he shot after that one.

Gunnut308, That's an extra strange one!

I shot a mule deer doe that was bedded in brush with her rump toward me at what I estimated to be 230 yards. A root wad stump shaped to my bod gave me one of the best field rests I've ever used. I held on her neck as I could only see her head, neck and a trace of her body.

The bullet carried lower than my aiming point and hit her in the ribs at a very flat angle. The 165 grain Hornady Interbond deflected off of her ribs, making an 8 inch long shallow gouge in her hide. It angled up and out from her ribs, missed outside of her shoulder entirely and hit her neck which was turned to that side, fortunately. The bullet was sideways when it hit her neck and made a huge rectangular entry wound. She never got up.

Roger,
That is indeed an interesting bullet journey.

Explained easily by this:




Nice buck!

I shot a doe bedded at 250-60 yrds, with my single shot 45-70 H&R, had a Redfield 2 3/4 scope 4-5 in. snow on the ground. she was laying faceing me, I aimed for the top of her head, at the shot I couldnt see her anymore, I didnt see her run off. so I reloaded and went thru the pines, I was shooting across a valley of sorts. I got close and see a pool of blood at her head, and another at her ass! the 405 rem bullet hit her in the conner of the rt. eye rolled along the inside of her spine and out the ass, and didnt mess up the tenderloins or the hams, and didnt realy mess up the guts! this was before cell phones so no pics! damested thing I ever saw! why it just didnt blow out the back of her head, Ill never know!

Not a deer, but same issue, just larger game. Shot a cow elk at 400+ yard with a 338 shooting the old version of 200g ballistic tips at a little over 3000fps. She was quartering away. Hit her in the last rib. Bullet came apart with the core exiting 6” in front of the entrance. A small piece of jacket penetrated into the tip of the near lung. As she walked straight ahead and I shot her in the back of the head. That was the last time I hunted elk with the load. It was very effective on broadside deer.... Those bullets were extraordinarily accurate routinely shooting one hole groups.

From one box of .308 WCF Remington Corelokts 40 years ago. Deer 1, I made a perfect behind-the-shoulder shot broadside and the bullet exited the top of the neck. Deer 2, another perfect behind-the-shoulder broadside shot and the bullet exited the front of the chest. That put me off Corelokts for a while.

I decided today I was coming out of the closet. By the way, when are we going to do our Iowa archery hunt SWEETIE??

It’s a wonder that gay 270 had enough power to break the skin!!😏

I have an old Sako I need to get sighted in. I have some 130 Ballistic tips and some 130 Trophy Bonded Tips ( Bear Claws) to try. I hope it shoots well, I had a Sako A-III some years ago. Shouldn’t have sold it!

Shot a 150lb 6pt with a 180gr WW softpoint in 300 WSM. Perfect behind the right shoulder shot at 125 yards. Bullet bruised the left rib cage and came to rest in the right ham. Deer ran about 80 yards and cartwheeled.

LOL, the " gay " 270. HA HA HA HA

I really have no weird bullet story's to add here. Only weird kill I ever had was the deer that threw itself off of an 80 foot cliff after I shot it. Took me over 3 hours to find that deer. I should have looked up sooner, I would have seen it dangling in a tree.

Friend of mine, using an Ingwe-special (aka 270) shot a spike in the shoulder at just over 100 yards. The bullet penetrated the scapula, angled up and hit the spine and reversed course to come out the same shoulder it entered. The deer dropped, got up and staggered about 15 yards before he shot it a second time, behind the same shoulder and exited just in front of the off shoulder.

The bullet was attempting to live up to the reputation of the .270 for bouncing off deer...

Still the most unusual shot I've experienced was when a friend shot a small buck I'd pushed toward him. He was using my 280. It is a first year production M700 stainless I bought in 1991 as soon as they came out. I've killed beaucoup deer with it and never had a deer stop a bullet except this little buck.

First load I tried in it was so accurate that I never used anything else. It uses the 150 gr R-P CorLoct. My friend shot the deer at a slow trot and hit him directly on the point of the hip socket. The deer dropped and never ever twitched. When we butchered it, we found the bullet perfectly mushroomed against the ball of the hip socket. The ball was cracked....that was it! About 2" of penetration, perfect mushroom, one major bone cracked, and one very dead deer PDQ.....go figure!

They all do strange things at times. ITs one reason I sure love retained weight. It comes in handy at times.

Arrows do the same thing too.... buddy shot a buck behind the shoulder from an elevated stand. It came out the neck up by the head and snapped the spine in the process.. the buck was head up... and the arrow should have continued through and exited the heart...

I've shot a number that exit not on a straight line. On deer with arrows I believe they kick a bit and fast at that, that can alter the course of the arrow.

Having seen a javelina bite and arrow that hit it before it got all the way through and exited.... animals are fast.

Bullets do weird things. Sierra game kings have been the worst for me. I've seen times where they should have blown up,diddn't, seem times where they should not have and did. Seen times where they did not expand. And seen a lot of times where they perform about right but often shed the cores. They are no longer on my purchase list.

Once shot a buck at a really steep angle going uphill directly away from me. I held just in front of the hips in center of his back hoping to drive the bullet into his lungs. At the shot he dropped and tumbled down the hill. When I was skinning him out, I found the bullet had hit the spine just ahead of the hips and had slid all the way up to the base of his antlers where it stopped.

Another time about 40 years ago hunting with a 16 gauge slug gun with lead slugs, I shot a buck broadside at about 45 yards. When I got up to him he had the slug entry hole on his right side and about 6" away a large chunk of the slug was hanging out of his side. It must have boomeranged inside coming back the way it went in.

Those hills make bullets do weird things.I shot a buck on the side of a hill that was almost broadside.When I hit him behind the shoulder at 150yds with the 7mag,I thought I saw his back end rise up.The bullet ended up just under the hide on the back of offside hindquarter. I've also broken the legs on two deer below the scapula.One was hit with a 7mag behind the shoulder.It broke the leg below the scapula on the onside shoulder from the impact.Another was hit in the onside shoulder with a 30-06,exiting just in front of the offside shoulder.It broke the offside leg just below the scapula.

Here's what I have learned on this subject, from personal experience and speaking with other hunters: pointed bullets are more likely to deflect and change path within the deer's body than flat nose bullets. Also, smaller/faster bullets are more likely to deflect from the original path inside. Doesn't happen as often with round nose, especially heavier ones at slower speeds.

I knew a guy who shot a doe at about 100 yards with a WBY Magnum, I forget what caliber, and the bullet came apart on the shoulder. It dropped and kicked a couple of times and was done. He said the bullet didnt penetrate hardly at all and the shoulder was a little blood shot, but he didnt lose much venison.