Originally Posted by buffybr
Originally Posted by centershot
Through the ribs - shoulder shots ruin way too much meat.

+1

The last two bulls that I shot were with my .300 Weatherby, one shot with a 168 grain Barnes TSX shot through the ribs just behind his shoulder, and the other with a 168 grain Barnes TTSX shot quartering toward me through his shoulder. Both bulls fell dead less than 20 yards from where they were when I shot them. NO tracking needed.

The bull shot through the ribs had probably the smallest amount of meat loss than any other elk that I have shot with a rifle.

On the bull shot through the shoulder, the bullet hit the humerus bone just below where it connects to the shoulder blade, and at least half of his shoulder was a bloodshot mess.

Conversely, I once hammered a 130 Etip from a 270Wby into the hip joint of a straight away escaping bull that had been shot through the chest. There was almost zero meat loss on that quarter, I cut steaks with a bullet hole going down the middle of them with no bloodshot.

Bullets do strange things sometimes and all critters are different. But I believe monometal bullets are definitely less likely to cause catastrophic meat loss on shots that hit bone.