Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bullets recovered from Game

This is an interesting thread. I don't understand the fascination with HP bullets for big game (no offense), but I'd run away as fast as I could. The Barnes/Failsafe, etc not included. I've had very similar performance with the sst's as in the pictures.

Depends on the bullet design, not the point design, IMO. For example, the 257 120gr Hornady HP is a great deer bullet, in spite of being a HP.

.243 win 100g Partition. Thru the shoulders then thru 3" of pine



.257 wby 115g TBBC. Shot was head on in the chest stopped by the tail.

7mmRM 160gr TSX
Large WT buck, 105 yards, hit a few inches to the right of the tail, broke the femur, penetrated through abdominal cavity, through thoracic cavity, through offside front shoulder, broke humorus, and was found under the hide at the front point of the shoulder.

.280 130gr GS Custom HV
Large WT buck quartering away, 110 yards, bullet entered a few inches behind the last rib, penetrated the paunch, penetrated the thoracic cavity, broke a few ribs going out, was found in a lump under the hide directly behind the offside shoulder.

Where are the recovered VLD's ????

.243 Win 85gr Barnes XBT
Average WT doe quartering towards, 230 yards, bullet entered directly behind front shoulder, penetrated thoracic and abdominal cavities, broke offside femur, and lodged into the outside round roast just under the skin.

7mmRM 160gr Barnes X
Average WT doe, 2 yards, this was a finishing shot, bullet entered neck, broke spine, exited, and was dug out of the dirt underneath the doe's neck.

these two .375 Barnes TSX 270 gr went thru about 2 feet of gemsbok 100yds, then 50 yds..

JGRAIDER

In my experience the 160g Seirra GK HP was a bullet that held together very well and penetrated deeply; I used this bullet exclusively in my 7mm mag for about 5 years. If I recall correctly it was a tougher bullet than the 160g Seirra GK spitzer. I believe this is stated in the Seirra manual; something about a thick jacket and a hard core, intended as a hunting bullet for those who like the MK shape. The .257 120g Seirra GK HP did not impress me at all and was only used for the one year. As stated previously in this thread I do not envision using any other .257 bullet other than the 110g Nosler accubond.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their pictures and comments. GRF

[quote=GRF]1998 7mm Rem mag 160g Seirra gameking HP



Again, no offense, but this is exactly why I wouldn't chance any hunt of mine to a HP bullet out of my 7mag, no matter the design (again, X/Failsafe not included). This isn't my idea of a good performing bullet. I do realize dead is dead, however. I had one instance of bullet performance like that 20 years ago with an early Nosler Ballistic Tip in 7mag. I haven't used one since.

This is a great post an reinforces why I dont use the standard cup and core bullet to hunt with. I have seen and been involved in the taking of well over 100 head of big game with the Nosler Partition. At last count I had 6 recovered bullets, all but a couple (lead and front end seperation)were intact. I see way too many bullets here that should "not" be used for hunting especially heavy game like elk. Premimum bullets such as the PT, the Swift A frame, the Accubond and numerous others will get the job done right. Most anything including a large rock launched at moderate velocities will "kill" game. But the real object is not to "kill" it. The object is to kill it cleanly and recover the animal in time to utilize the meat. I want a hole in both sides and blood pouring out of the back side, not mush and bullet fragments in the middle. My .02

from left to right:
a) Hornady.45 300gr (bison), Swift A-frame .45 300gr (bison) x2
b) Hornady SP .270 130gr (elk)TBBC .270 130gr (antelope)x2
c) Hornady SP .375 270 gr (elk), .375 TSX (moose) x2



different presentation of some of the above:



below: .375 300 TSX (elk)



same:

Interesting to see all of these pics as in the 30or 40 deer my buddy and I have claimed over the past 30 years we have recovered two bullets. Both were mine. One was a saboted 45 cal pistol bullet shot out of a muzzle loader that fragmented when it hit bone ( the deer DRT). The second was a 243 100gr.core-loc that was found perfectly mushroomed under the far side hide of a doe shot thru the shoulders at about 200yds (again drt). None of the rest of our bullets have ever been recovered and we have used about all of the medium bore caliber from 24 thru 30 and then some real odd balls like his old 577-450, stc. Actually I'll add we pretty much use regular cup & core bullets or cast in the case of the 577-450. No premium bullets at all.

And that probably says a lot about the difference between deer and deer-sized game and bigger, tougher animals. IME it's more common to recover bullets than not when killing moose.

My experience with moose is the same.

It's muhc less common to recover any kind of bullet from deer, unless the angle is extreme, quite a bit of bone is hit, or the deer are REALLY big.

JGRaider, that particular image of the Seirra was a bullet that travelled 16 inches of spine with an impact distance of 30 yards from a 7mm Rem mag, how much more do you want from a bullet? That said, after what I considered poor performance of the .257 Seirra GKHP in the .25-06 I stopped using the GKHP bullets, I now run 160g Nosler Accubonds in my .280AI, the 7mm RM was sold several years ago.

The recovered Nosler BTs in the .338 pictured above have turned me off BTs completely; conversely my brother used the 180 BT in his .30-06 for years without any concerns or problems. I do not recall if he recovered any BT bullets.

Based upon my experiences, and those of whom I have hunted with or guided I have settled my bullet choices for hunting to Nosler Partition or Accubond, Swift A-Frame or the Barnes TSX or TTSX. I have a friend who will not use Nosler Partitions after having a bulkhead split when running 180g partitions out of a .300 RUM; he now only runs Barnes. I have another friend who after claiming Barnes bullets "pencilling through" game only uses Nolser Partitions or Accubonds. I know others who only use the Core Lokt. All are entrenched in their positions, I think this is one of the things which makes this such an interesting hobby.

Elkmen, between myself and my kids we have used a lot of partitions on game and have never recovered one. I think of the Partition as the gold standard as to how I judge all other bullets.

Bangeye, the bullet pictures I posted are from; I believe, 124 head of game, a good number of the bullets recovered involved steep angles therefore a substantial amount of tissue and bone to penetrate (often due to my errors in judging depth of angles whilst still hunting), or ones which have hit a good amount of bone (see JB's comments above).

Thanks to all for sharing your photos, experiences and perspectives. GRF

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And that probably says a lot about the difference between deer and deer-sized game and bigger, tougher animals. IME it's more common to recover bullets than not when killing moose. [/quote]

Precisely my point, I'm not so much surprised by the bullets from truly large game but 2/3 of the bullets pictured are from deer taken at normal ranges with normal calibers even some of the premium bullets which given their penchant for deeper penetration I would expect full penetration per my experiences. I have always been sort of interested in bullet performance but frankly I can never recover any to look at. That's the reason these pics are interesting.