I believe that the nastiest wound I EVER saw was one I inflicted on a really great 4X4 (plus eyeguards) blacktail buck I shot around 1990. I shot him under the chin and the bullet went lengthwise down the neck vertabrae.
The bullet was a 140-grain Partition out of my .280 Ackley and it bloodshot the neck so badly that I could hardly stand to butcher that area. I have a pretty strong stomach for carnage, but this one was super-nasty with cranberry jelly.
Sometimes you hit them and it is bad. Other times you hit them and is, as they say, "not so much."
No telling why that happens. It just happens.
Another time, I killed a really great 4X4 mule deer out of Jordan, Montana. It was one of those zero-degree days in the snow, with no wind and I really wanted the buck. The range was fully 500 yards and, because the range was extreme (for me), I didn't do anything fancy. Just shot the buck cleanly through both lungs with my .280 Ackley, using a 139-grain Hornady Spire Point.
The exit hole was not even near the far shoulder, yet it bloodshot the far shoulder, both sides of the backstrap over the shoulders and the far ribcage.
Why? Danged if I know.
Bullets do strange things sometimes.
If I had judged the bullets on a single kill, I would have judged wrongly in both cases.
Steve
