Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Found The Bullet

Well I skinned my buck today & found the bullet! I think this might be the first cast bullet I've ever found although I must admit I quit looking a long time ago because they always went out the other side. Three things really surprised me about this, one I just mentioned and that is that I found the bullet. Second one is where I found it, and the third one is how this medium load could do what it did as far as penetration being that it was a hollow point bullet with a BHN of about 8-9.
As I mentioned earlier the buck was getting really nervous the last few steps so I stopped him with a soft grunt & he looked right at me but his body was turned just a tick to my right. The bullet did hit the big shoulder bone in the right shoulder and then destroyed the right lung, after that I didn't know until today. If it's cold enough I like to leave them hanging 5-6 days to age before skinning, that way you only have to skin them once. I had just starting skinning & hit the bullet with my knife blade, yikes!
That hollow point had went through the right lung, intestines & back to the LEFT hind quarter & stopped. I was totally not ready for that. I'm guessing the bucks live weight was about 140 lbs & my load was only 10 grs of Unique with the 245 gr. cast, powder coated HP & it still covered that much ground (meat) Of course the nose had sheared off, I expected that & kind of figured I wouldn't even find the bullet, or much of it being that soft but when I weighed it, it weighed 159.6 grs & had traveled almost perfectly straight across his body, even after driving through that big shoulder bone. The bullet did better than I expected really, being the Penta point HP.
I've shot very few animals with HP's over the years, always preferring Elmer's solids or LBT solids but I have stated a number of times that a HP at the correct hardness was probably a better mouse trap, I just hadn't followed my own advice except for a nice 4X4 3-4 years ago with the same bullet & load. That was a double lunger with an exit so no surprises there. I don't remember how fast this load is running, I'll have to check, I know it was going faster on the first deer because I was using my 10 1/2" Bisley.
This load really caught me off guard, I will use it again, maybe in a couple of weeks after I chase cow elk with the 480.







[img]https://i.imgur.com/67huFYC.jpg[/img]

Dick