Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Recovered bullets

Over the years I haven't put a lot of effort in recovering bullets from the animals that I shot, but I have kept a few dozen that were easy to find. My bullets usually went completely through the deer size animals, and most of the bullets that I recovered from elk size animals were just under the hide on the far side of the animal.

In over 50 years of hunting, I have used a variety of guns, cartridges, and bullets. When I did my part and put the bullets in the right spot, they all worked.

On one South African hunt I shot a 7 mm Rem mag with 160 grain Accubond handloads. My PH, who was also a handloader and shot a 7 mm RM, was continually impressed with the large internal wound channel that those bullets made. I don't recall recovering any of those bullets.

I no longer remember what animals were killed with most of the bullets in my recovered bullet box, but here are some that I do:
From a couple of black bears that I shot.


180 gr Nosler Partitions shot from my .30 Gibbs and found just under the hide on the opposite side of some elk and moose that I shot,


A 168 gr TTSX from my .300 Weatherby on a 5x5 bull elk,


And some other Barnes TSX and TTSX bullets from mostly African animals that I shot,