Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Shooting through brush with a .358 - a test

Hmmm... To what would you attribute the tight grouping I got, Klik? I know for certain that some of those shots hit several woody branches because I made sure they did <grin>.

I would attribute it to the brush being close-ish to the target, and to a heavy bullet. I know heavy bullets deflect too, but again the physics are that a given branch is capable of deflecting a light bullet more than a heavy one, all else equal.

At any rate I'm not advocating anything. Just tested an assumption and put it for critique. Appreciate the comments.

JO,

Do you have any pictures of the brush post-test? Did you examine the size of the branches that the bullet grazed or passed through? It would be interesting to see the path of the bullet through the brush in your test by looking at the marks on the brush.

No, I didn't get that fancy.

Not trying to poke holes in your test, I was just curious what type of resistance your bullet encountered.

I'd never try this on purpose but I pulled a shot one time on a deer that was about 200yds out and ended up plowing a 160gr Nosler Partition 7mm RM through a 10 inch pine and it still had enough energy and mass to pass through the deer. Some days you get lucky. Keep us posted on your other tests, it will be interesting to see how different calibers handle the brush.

MD-
I had that same bullet do the same thing on an elk, leaving a pefect side-profile shaped hole through both the hide and the heart.

The bullet lodged against the far side rib cage. How far did the bullet go in your eland?

In Minnesota the solution is to empty the clip of your Remington Woodsmaster and hope to hit fur somehow. When I first started hunting with my wife and her family I bought her a bolt action 308 and they looked at me like I had s#@$ in my pants.
The two of us were the only ones who used a bolt action in the whole hunting party.

Jeff_O,

I have shot lots of water jugs, but never officially actually intentially tested penetration and grouping on twigs, boughs or such. But I did enough testing with my .454 to beleive it would plow though a log and still kill a deer on the other side. The 260 grainer traveled though 24" of a fallen thre foot diameter tree and left copious amounts of splinters in the lungs of the buck; which dropped at the shot.

One of my three funnest deer.

That is interesting jeff. Seems like with light brush the bullet stands a chance but with anything thick it would be asking for trouble.

One problem that I can see is that it is hard to tell exactly how far a patch of brush is in front of a deer in some instances and you never really know until you walk up and stand at the spot.

I would agree with that, heavywalker. The shots I've taken through brush were at close range (40 yards or less) so it was easy to see what was up. On a longer shot, especially, I think your point is valid.

I would agree with that, though seeing the 10 shots group as tightly as they did was either indicative of an unlikely coincidence, or, less deflection than conventional wisdom would perhaps lead us to believe.

Proving something wasn't the goal; I'll leave that to the Smart People <grin>. I was approaching it more from the "git 'er done" perspective. Just wanted to see what would actually happen, seeing as it's a shot I've taken on game... frankly, the result surprised me a little. I wasn't shooting carefully, and had to infer where the bullseye was on some angles/shots cause I couldn't see it... that group would be tighter yet (presumably) if I'd really been getting nerdy about it. I was just laying it across the hood or roof or bed of my truck (to get different angles through the stuff) and letting it rip...

Thanks MD and everyone else.

Interesting test, Jeff. While I won't be shooting into/through brush any time soon, it was neat to see your results. If you feel so inclined, I wouldn't mind seeing some more targets with thicker brush further from the target, just for SAG. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing your results!

ttpoz

Interesting test.

Mule Deer's example makes a great point though. Even if you can shoot tight groups through the brush, even if the bullet hits close to where you're aiming, the bullet performance may be greatly diminished...little penetration, poor expansion, etc...

JCM

about 40 years ago someone wrote an article about shooting through brush, they used wooden dowls sticking up from a 4x8 and arranged it so the bullet hit one or more of the dowls. the big so called brush busters were the worst, the best was a 270 140 gr bullet, it gave more consitent deadly hits than the other calibers. the 45-70 was the worst. that was about all I remember of the article.

If you have ever bowled you can see the 16 LB ball deflect from the pin when it hits it.

I have, over the years, shot and shot at lots of stuff inside brush. What learned is that the results are very erratic. The only consistant thing I saw was that you can expect the bullet to hit some where other than where you aimed.
The bullet might hit going side ways. If it does, you'd better be able to put one in him again real quick.
The bullet might loose alot of it's penetrating and wounding power from it's starting to expand too soon. You'd better hit him again or pray that that one alone will kill him.
I've missed whole deer at 40 yds. when they were nice enough to stand still and let me make that perfect, center of the chest shot.
For me, I've learned two things. Use a scope that will give you a good chance to see even the smallest of twigs at the ranges you'll be shooting, that usually means a 6X for my hunting, and do whatever it takes to avoid hitting anything but the critter. And then keep shooting as long as he's on his feet because you might have done it anyway. E

Interesting litmus test, for ass shots?.....The next in line is hitting the "animal" somewhere; if its an animal to begin with.

What?

More like why.

Your post made no sense, to my feeble mind. Please explain.

I missed a nice doe with a muzzleloader a few years ago with a 240 hornady xtp ,because it hit the snow on a twig a few feet in front of the deer.Not the twig,just the snow on it.