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I typically hunt in south Texas "brush" country. An exit wound is almost an imperative. If there is no significant blood trail, the time required to recover your game, if you can find it at all, increases seemingly exponentially. And, the blood trail from an exit wound is much more impressive than from that small-diameter entry wound.

I haven't lost many animals over the years, but of those I eventually found only because of an exhaustive search, they almost always lacked an exit wound.

Someone cue the heartshot buck video..

I'm amazed they found this deer.. An exit wound would have bled much more, and made an easier tracking and recovery.

In a life time and 38 elk I remember 2 that dropped at the shot. Through the yrs. I've used everything from 243 & 250 Savage to a 375 H&H. Experience has shown the Nosler Partition in any caliber to be better than......
Yes as others have stated I have come to like total penetration.
Cheers

I likely won't be using the .375 again on elk for some time, but I had it and wanted to use it at least once. I do have a moose tag in pocket which I hope to take with the bow, but if that fails I may use it once more this season. This time I'll be close to home and a cooler, so autopsy will be performed.

Shooting shoulders seems like the way to go, and if the opportunity presents itself again I will try to do that. I'll make sure to remember my damn shooting sticks too. I'd like to have just a single load for the rifle, and I'm thinking the TSX would assure adequate penetration even if your shooting bone.

A critter not dropping at the shot doesn't always mean it's not dead. Sometimes they just don't know it yet..

xxclaro,

FWIW-
I also own and shoot a .375 Ruger, and use Barnes TSX 270 gr. and TTSX 250 gr. bullets exclusively. Both shoot with fine accuracy.
Just returned from Africa, where I used the 250 gr. on Sable and Black Wildebeest, among other critters. The shot on the Wildebeest was at 275 yards, and penetrated fully, resulting in a sudden kill. The shot on the Sable was a high shoulder shot at 200 yards. The bullet didn't exit, but dropped the bull like a stone.
I have had similar results on a Nilgai bull, just inside 200 yards, with the 270 gr. TSX. Bull dropped in its tracks, with the bullet under the hide on the far side.
Whether the TSX or the TTSX, recovered bullets are boringly similar, with the signature four petals folded back, and with full expansion.
I can't imagine what happened with your elk- I would have expected a much different reaction than what you described. In the end, you wound up with a dead bull.
I can understand your lack of confidence in the Accubond, although it is a great bullet. A switch to Barnes, however, would never be a bad decision, not just based on my limited experience with the .375 Ruger, but with many other calibers as well.

Never seen that happen....I have seen the off side lung unscathed by a bullet that could not (did not not)make it to the offside.

Mmmmm.....this isn't supposed to happen. After all, we are talking a 270 Winchester


Rick any correlation between distance animals traveled and bullets that exited vs those that did not?

You doubtin' me?

xxclaro;
Congratulations on that nice bull sir, he looks to have a nice big body on him and as others have noted the dark antlers look very cool.

As an aside, I'm more than a wee bit envious of the terrain where the bull is laying. We're mostly in pretty rough country where we chase our game and there have been a few times like this morning (daughter/black bear) when we pass on game in the warm early season because we might not get it out without the meat going off.

I suppose too the country we're in is part of the reason why we've come to prefer exits if we can get them on game. Perhaps better said, we're going to try to break one or both shoulders if at all feasible - or on a front on shot the spinal column - so penetration is certainly desirable.

We went to monometal bullets about 8 or 9 years ago and the type of tissue damage that results with them is such that we're able to break shoulders and still eat them. As well, I think we're getting better results/reactions from the game shot with monometal bullets - TSX, TTSX and GMX - when they hit large bones as opposed to only say ribs and lungs.

Anyway sir, hopefully that made some sense and was useful information. Again congratulations on the fine bull and good luck on your remaining hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Rancho,

I was in a PETA approved CRP elk unit. I was armed with a weapon that was up for the task. I stalked within distance. I caught a huge bull, photographed him, & released him.

Here's what I used to do the PETA deed:

carlo,

That is a gorgeous bull. Congratulations. Did you kill him Alberta? He looks to be a 6x6. He has beautiful antlers.

When my guide sends me photos of the bull I killed, I'll post them. He was a huge old-timer. A Division of Wildlife Resources game warden, who has a masters in biology, took a look at a couple of my bull's teeth and put his age at 10 years. In the meantime, you can take a look at a cellphone shot of him at Eastmans.

BTW, I have always had good luck with Partitions. The .375 Ruger is a big gun. It'll put anything down. I used my 7MM Rem Mag. A single 160 grain Partition destroyed its heart & he was mine. It was a through-and-through shot.

If your bullet didn't punch right on through, it ain't a big deal because your bull is aging before processing.

Again, Carlo, great job. I wish you many more successful seasons.


Take care,

SS

Carlo, do you hunt the states?

Sounds like bullet gave up all its energy in the animal.. Should have dumped him
Any time I found a bullet inside an animal he fell in his tracks..saw a guy shoot a huge moose in northern bc with a 180 gr fusion about 125 yds. Dropped like a brick and we found the bullet in the hide...

I tested the 260 ab and wasn't impressed.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...19652/all/30_cal_bullet_test_cow_femurs_

Doesn't seem like it performed poorly in your tests.

I've got some 250gr TTSX loaded for my .375 Ruger that I will be using next month for moose hunting. I'm expecting an exit on most reasonable shot angle.

Necropsy and photos would be most telling, and playing Monday morning quarterback, would have made an interesting thread on shot placement and reaction to the shot. Without, lots of speculation without all the facts.

Is it possible your shot hit high lung, while missing any major bone in the area of the shoulder/spine. Possible that would be a large volume of lung(s) to fill with blood before the brain was starved and/or the elk drowned in its own blood.

Sounds like your elk didn�t travel too far and you kept on it until it was down. That sounded awesome, especially how you caught yourself getting rattled for a shot or so, and then managed to pull yourself back together to focus on the subsequent shots until the bull was down. Great Job!!

I�ve seen much smaller deer take a fatal hit and show no overly obvious reaction. I�d not expect a much larger game animal, the likes of an elk, to drop to the shot unless the hit somehow involved major bone and/or its central nervous system. If the animal was calm and never became aware of your presence, nothing dramatic like its heart being torn out of its lower chest or any major bone or CNS hit, it certainly seems plausible. Your very testament underscores the possibility of such a reaction, or lack of reaction. If I were you, I�d be happy. I suggest not reading too much into a lack of bullet performance absent the recovered bullet and necropsy.

Thanks for sharing.

Best

Not poorly, no but considering many .30 cal bullets performed better and a 375 is supposed to be a step up I wasn't impressed. I'd be using the 250ttsx/gmx in a ruger/h&h for elk and moose if not a 300.

xxclaro,

I have some experience with the two biggest AccuBonds, the 260-grain .375 you used and the 250-grain 9.3mm, and they're built a little differently than most AccuBonds. Like heavier Partitions, they're designed to retain a higher percentage of weight.

A lot of hunters think higher weight retention automatically means deeper penetration, but the frontal spread of an expanding bullet is actually more important. When either big AccuBond expands normally they penetrate pretty deeply, though usually not quite as much as a Partition of the same weight, because the "mushroom" of a Partition normally peels back over the rear of the bullet, leaving less frontal area. The bigger AccuBonds tend to result in a wider mushroom, because of the thick jacket and bonded core. If they hit relatively heavy bone, like an elk's leg bone, they expand even wider.

This often results in the bullet ending up under the hide on the far side, where a Partition might have punched through. But on the way they make a big hole. I've only seen a few of these bigger AccuBonds recovered, all from game of 500-800 pounds, and all were either on angling shots or they hit some heavy bone on the way, whether shoulder or spine. All were under the hide on the far side, retaining 80% or more of their weight, and widely expanded.

Some other bonded bullets tend to do the same thing, or have an even greater tendency. I've seen it with Norma Oryxes, Swift A-Frames and Sciroccos and, especially, Woodleigh Weldcores. Personally, I'm not as concerned with an exit hole as some hunters with such bullets, because if the bullet didn't exit that means it made a big hole and the animal will be dead shortly. But if for some reason I do want an exit hole, such as when hunting thicker cover, I tend to use bullets that don't mushroom as widely, such as heavier Nosler Partitions, North Forks, or "petal" type bullets, whether Barnes TSX's, Hornady GMX's or Nosler E-Tips.

An autopsy would have been helpful, but sometimes animals just don't die very quickly, even when hit in the right place. I've seen a few like that over the years.

Nice bull!