before my reloading days, I bought a box of Federal Factory 300 Win Mag with 200 grain Sierra SPs on them...
edge of a Northern MN swamp, that had a small dirt road next to it... a huge Northern Whitetail, with a huge rack, came thru the brush headed toward the swamp. I saw it before it stepped out onto the road to enter the swamp.. When it came out on the road, I grunted and it stopped to see where it was from, so it stood still for a second. I pulled the trigger, and it came down nose first so the hit was good... I turned and grabbed my back pack, that I had taken off, and headed to that spot. It was 100 yd shot.
of course in MN, there was a fair bit of snow on the ground... there was a 2 to 3 foot circle of sprayed blood all over the snow on the road, and you could see where it hit the ground in the snow, maybe a foot deep snow fall...and fresh snow... however, NO DEER. there was also deer hair all over within that circle of blood..
if that deer had gone right into the swamp, 5 feet past the road, I saw no sign of it in the brush of the swamp...
The sun was going down fast and it was Sunday night, the last day of the season... I spent the night in my 4 Runner, and the next morning went out and looked for it.. In November the sun drops fast in Northern MN... I looked for any sign of that deer from 7 AM first light until noon. I had no idea where it disappeared to.... unless Scotty had Beamed it up...
(Yeah, I know_) called Sierra tech line, that after noon when I got home. They told me that my particular choice of round was a poor choice for a 300 Win Mag....that even tho the blood and hair all over the snow, meant that I had a good hit.... but the bullet was meant for Elk or Big Bears.... that it would have passed right thru, before ever getting a chance to open up....yet told me if I would have done the same shot and hit the same spot at 300 yds, the lower velocity, would have given the bullet a chance to open up more...they advised me to next time use a 180 grain bullet of theirs or a 220 grain RN, for that type of application... the 200 Gr SP was too hard, and the bullet passed thru the deer too quickly to do its job at just 100 yards...
Live and learn situation.. too hard of a bullet, going too fast for that short of a distance...
if I would have been using the same bullet in an 06 at those velocities, it would have dropped the deer and he'd have gone nowhere....
and only took my eye sight off the deer a few seconds after he went down to retrieve my back pack with my gear in it...
Live and learn... quit using that 300 Win Mag with factory loads in it...made sure I handloaded it with bullets that were a better choice for my application...
I've only ever experienced a few bullet "failures".... but the failure was really the application, not the bullet...
There was some miscommunication, or somebody fed you a line of bull.
Yeah I've heard variations on this whole "it just zips through, too fast!" thing as well and I really don't see how softer impacts are going to deform/upset bullets more than harder impacts....Perhaps this is overly simplified but push your hand through water and then slap your hand into water...
If there was a 2-3 foot cone of blood, it opened. Animals can do freaky stuff. But a hard bullet going slow won't do better than a hard bullet going fast, IMO. Doesn't make sense?
Last edited by Igloo; 04/05/22.
But I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, The last of Barrett's Privateers
