Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Originally Posted by Just a Hunter
A friend and I were hunting elk/deer when he shot a whitetail doe with 180g Fail Safes from a .308 Win at about 20 yards. Shot her while she was facing him and the bullet exited her backend. She went straight down. I bought a bunch of factory loaded 150g 30-06 when they were discontinued. They are very accurate in my 30-06.


Far more bullets than many hunters would expect will exit on frontal shots, especially on smaller big game animals. This is because the "inside" area of a big game animal is pretty soft--though some of it depends on range, and hence retained velocity.

I once shot a pronghorn buck that was facing me at around 250 yards, with a .308 Winchester and a Federal factory load featuring 150-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. The bullet exited the buck's right ham. Also rattled in a medium-sized whitetail buck near Seeley Lake for a friend of mine (who did not see the much bigger buck that came in behind some trees). The younger buck walked right into the open, maybe 75 yards from my friend, who shot it in the front of the chest with a 165 Fail Safe from a .30-06 factory load. When I took the buck apart a few days later I found the bullet under the rump-hide.

Can provide a bunch of other examples of bullets that went from one end to the other of similar-sized "big" game animals that would surprise people. Some exited, some didn't, but end-to-end isn't as big a deal as many hunters believe.


Very true. Here is an example of one of the very few TTSX’s that I’ve seen stopped..barely. This very stout MD was hit under the chin while facing me at about a 100 yds. Bullet was a 7mm 140-gr TTSX at a mv of 3050 (.284 Win) and was found just behind the scrotum, having traversed the length of the animal.

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