Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Anyone else recover a bullet this season?

150 gr Winchester Deer Seaon XP from a 308 win. The shot was on a whitetail quartering to at about 300 yds. Busted the shoulder on impact and penetrated through the chest cavity. It punctured the liver and came to rest just under the skin in on the offside short ribs. Couldn't find the jacket.

elkchasr,
The Partition is a killing machine, is it not? I have one that came out of Mrs. Tide's first deer. It was a 95 grain Partition out of a 243. Really great hunting bullets.

jac3k,

Interesting bullet. I realize that is a new design and meant to come undone like that, but even I would like it to be just a tad tougher.

Regardless, you pulled it out of a pile of groceries from the meat isle, so maybe I am being over critical.

I saw some folks asking about the XP earlier this year so I thought I would give it a try and post the results. From this sample of one it does appear to be a pretty destructive bullet. It produced a remarkable amount of damage from an 18" 308 at a distance of 300 yds. I think it did well penetrating 20" or so after destroying the shoulder bone upon impact. I believe these clocked around 2700 fps out of my rifle.

That is interesting. Wonder what the impact velocity was for a 150 grain bullet out of an 18" 308 barrel at 300 yards?

Recovered a Federal Fusion 150 grain bullet from a whitetail I shot with a 30-06 from about 45 yards. Bullet was recovered from the far side hide near the hind quarter. Weighed 136 grains. 1st time using factory ammo in about a decade, hard to not continue.

Whats so impressive about that, that you would want to continue to use factory ammo?

Had that been an TSX it would have had 2 holes and IF you had caught it, it would have very likely been 100% retention and a very dead deer either way... Less damage to edible meat to boot.

Its accurate, its cheap, it killed a deer. While killing the deer, the jacket did not separate and it retained >90% of its original weight. Whats not to like?

Well, interestingly enough, there are quite a few Barnes bullets in this thread. As many as half, or maybe slightly more, I would guess. You are right about the weight retention, but what difference does it make?

Do "very dead deer" look or eat differently than "dead" deer. and what is the difference between dead deer and "very" dead deer?

rost, I'm not trying to be a smartass, just asking a question.

^^^ Quite funny. We are always told that Barnes bullets always exit and all others are junk.


We recovered a 140 gr SST fired from a 6.5x55 from a deer. It had a rough ride going length ways down the spine and shed it's core. Broke a lot of bone along the way.

Shot my mulie buck this year with my .325 wsm using a 180 grain barnes TSX, which once again confirmed to me that they mess up as much meat as other "controlled expansion" bullets. Barnes makes good bullets nothing magical about them. In my .45-70 the barnes bullets due to their low sectional density and very wide expansion had rather limited penetration and I found the old 400 grain Speer hot-cor to in my mind perform better.

I like Barnes bullets and have used them on game in .257, .264, .284, .323 calibers and I believe them to be very good bullets when used within their design parameters. I have used other very good bullets from Hornady, Nolser, Swift and good bullets from Sierra and Speer.

We are blessed with an abundance of very good bullets available to users of factory ammunition and a plethora of very good bullets available to handloaders. With more options and improvements coming every year.

These are just my opinions and my opinions and a buck will buy you a coffee.

Great thread!. thanks to the OP and all those who have posted.

Happy new year.

GRF

You are correct there are lots of great bullets these days, when it comes to them we are living in the good old days. I'm glad we have choices and can use whatever we want.

Happy new year to all as well.

I have never recovered a bullet from my 35 whelen. I did shoot a huge buck in 07 with my 300 Wby. quartering to in the shoulder and the bullet was under the hide in the offside ham. It was a 180 gn Sierra Gameking and it was a perfect mushroom.

129 gr Hornaday IL from my .260 Rem.
Cow elk @ 252 yards. Rib-heart-rib and found in the off side leg just under the hide.
That's the 2nd one shot elk kill with that rifle and bullet combo.

You know, my first thought was that the 129 grain Hornady was a bit tough for whitetails, but I am beginning to believe that it is a very consistent bullet for the velocity it sees from a 260 Remington.

I think I will keep working with this bullet from my 260 and see if I can catch any more of them.

Cheers,
CT

Taken from a VERY heavy whitetail, with a 223.

Didn't recover any this season, but did last season. Shot this buck about 35 yards away with a Hornady 200 grain spire point interlock over IMR 3031 from my BLR .358 Winchester. The buck started quartering away just as I pulled the trigger. Bullet entered towards the rear of his left ribcage, shattered his right shoulder and lodged in his ball socket. He ran about 40 yards after the shot. Retained weight was 149.4 grains.

Recovered this one just today ... Federal Premium 7mm08 with Barnes TSX.
125# hog at 130 yards. Quartering too entered left front shoulder and found in right ham. Dropped in its tracks.
Picture perfect bullet. Sorry I dont know how to make it show in the post but pic is attached.