I just shot a 600 pounder with a Tikka T-3 Lite 30-06 with a Pentax Gameskeeper 4-12X 40. It went down immediately being hit in the shoulder with the bullet lodged in the backstrap. I was not too happy with the bullet when I got it out. it was a Hornady
Light Magnum 165 grain SST, factory loaded. The retained weight was only 93.5 grains. True, it did the job and mushroomed nicely, losing almost half of it's weight surprised me. Any thought's. It was only a 50 yard shot.
Two reasons resulted in that (almost bad) situaion.
1. 165 grain is simply too light for deeper penetration (as needed with elk) unless the bullet is built for deep penetration as a partition/TSX/etc bullets are.
2. 50 yards is CLOSE and that bullet was still traveling very close to muzzle speed resulting in a high speed imapct with dense muscle and tissue with a too light of bullet.
