Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .243 - Shoulder shots or lung shots?

I've put the 85 gr. Sierra through a deer shoulder. It killed the deer but thoroughly trashed the shoulder for eating. Recovered what was left of the bullet just under the offside hide. It was mushroomed almost completely to the base and had lost alot of lead but the jacket and what little was left of the core were still together. I've put 100 gr. core-lokts through shoulders several times and wouldn't hesitate to do it again if the need should arise. I haven't recovered one from a shoulder shot yet {yes, all exited} but none went through both shoulders either. Of course you can't really go by my results, as I've also put 55 gr. Hornady sp's launched from .222's and .223's through deer shoulders before and after reading countless accounts on here of how tough deer are and how you need TSX's or partitions to shoot through shoulders I've come to the conclusion that the deer in my area are made of much flimsier stuff than most.