Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Over bulleting your deer rifle???

Like the coming of spring and the return of the Buzzards to Hinkley, Ohio, I look upon this thread in a similar light. Along about this time of year we all start thinking deer and we all start thinking how far it is to season. The premium bullet thread is just one of the many. However, I've never seen it drift towards ass-shooting before. This makes this thread unique. I applaud.

Reminds me: I've got to start my countdown timer to the start of rifle season!

Pretty sure this post was the beginnings of the drift. 😂

Are they better deader if they escape to die, or if you finish that going away cripple with one to the rear? Foolish to think an azz shot is never appropriate. Killing game is never a clean pastime. Although many are like to think they do so. Funny.

Look, I'm not being judgemental about the THS. Whatever works. I prefer the boiler room, but I'll take what I can get in a pinch. I'm also not convinced my lousy Hornady 165 grain Interlocks are going to cause a lost deer where a Barnes is going to do better. We've probably done that sort of thing an equal number of times. I've had about equal results. I just thought it was worth pulling your leg over your support of the Barnes included the THS as evidence. I'm envisioning that in an Outdoor Life ad, and I'm laughing.

BTW: I updated my website so the countdown clock is ticking.

Fun is fun, until someone gets a leg pulled. Hope you didn't mind. 😉

But, I'd do a THS in a heartbeat if I was in the mood. Done right they die just as quickly.

Oh, I don't mind. I don't even mind getting a stray snark from Steelhead, bless his heart.

I've been involved with deer hunting forums since before the Internet. One thing always stands out and that's how easy it is to make a deer go into a toes-up configuration.

You lob a 50 cal+ projectile at one from a charcoal burner or a shotgun, and they go toes-up.
You launch a .44-something at a deer with a pistol, and it goes toes-up.
You fire a 30-something refugee from the Spanish American War at a deer and. . . it goes toes up.

. . . and then folks turn around and go into minute detail about how you need special alloys, plastic tips and all that premium stuff to kill a deer effectively.

This is why I have concluded that the use of a solid copper bullet is something that goes beyond practical reality and interacts with something beyond the Veil. You ask me why copper, and I'm pulling out my rattle before I turn to a reloading manual. In Alchemy, Copper vibrates towards the planet Venus whereas lead vibrates towards Saturn. However, how that all relates to killing deer is beyond my shamanic pay grade. Most of my alchemist friends have serious brain damage from sniffing solvents, so I don't expect a meaningful answer from them. Whatever the underlying alchemical basis, some folks feel drawn to copper bullets, whereas some want lead sheathed in guilding metal. What can I say? Some days one feels like a nut, etc. The most important thing is that we listen to these voices coming from inside us. If one of them drives you to use copper bullets, it is an important omen. Even though I'm not very skilled in the alchemical significances, I can usually help a querent find the reasons behind it. In the old days, we shamans used to dose them on. . . oh, nevermind, that was Old School. Nowadays, we take the querent on a spirit journey, find the nearest handy spirit animal and ask directions.

What is over-bulleting, after all, but a sincere search for something beyond? Beyond what? Exactly. It's like I was saying the other day to my friend, Bob, the retired gun editor.

"Bob," I said. "Exactly what was it you were trying to say?"

"Well," he laughed. "It's all those pain killers they keep feeding me." Bob's in rehab right now for a broken femur. "I completely lost track of my point."

"That's okay," I replied. "It was incoherent but entertaining. You were just getting to a point about Elmer Keith."

"Oh!" he said. "Yes, I remember now. One day Elmer handed me a rough draft of something he'd written the night before and had me read it. It was absolute gibberish, and I handed it back to him and told him so."

"I was afraid of that," replied Elmer. "That's happening more and more lately. "

Coincidence you say? Too much lead and not enough copper? Who's to say. Most would agree that it was too much alcohol. At least that was Bob's assessment.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is simply . . .

I use monos in quite a few rifles and I'd have to say that if you only hunt medium size game in thick areas and prefer rib/lung shots, you'll not be as happy with monos as traditional cup-and-core pills or even other premium bullets. For me personally game runs much further, bleeds much less, and is on the whole much more of a PITA to find when using monos and soft tissue impacts. The up side is you don't have to worry about not having an exit and you don't have to worry about bad angles. The solution is obviously to aim for bone, but I personally don't prefer that option(I try to save all edible meat and I hate the blood shot bone frag filled mess that's left behind on shoulder impacts) I'm gearing back into partitions and bonded pills for most rigs and leaving monos for my light uber fast applications.

It's amazing what 15 minutes with Photoshop will produce:




Sorry, I just could not help myself.

I can make a smaller version available for anyone who wants it for their Avatar.

Sold!!! Can yo make me one avatar sized just the TX heart shot bullseye if that's all that fits

All I"m going to say is I have frontal chest shot deer with partitions, and never had full penetration and an exit.

I have shot frontal chests a couple of times with a small 6mm round and barnes and never have not had an exit.

We can harvest 5 deer a year here. Means I MIGHT shoot 7 rounds with checking zero. And that box of 50 is going to last me more than 10 years becuase i'll take some deer with an arrow.

The day that I can't afford barnes for what we shoot, is the day I need to give it up.

Only really because I believe in the motto be prepared.... And as such I've seen standard bullets do some really wild/weird things in our small deer even... such that I want a margin of error, not just a wing and a prayer.

Especially the day a buck stopped the 180 partition out of my 300 in his neck at around 100 or 125ish yards. His spine stopped it. I say that meaning it was all there, all up against the spine and it broke the spine but never penetrated. When a cup and core fails to penetrate a simple neck bone of a deer... and I've seen it even from a small pig and a sierra game king.... fairly heavy for caliber at 160 out of 7 mag.... pig only 50ish pounds shot in top of neck walking away. Bullet did not exit. But did break spine at least while coming apart...

Of course I forgot to ad that I've said if it was legal I'd take quite a few of our deer with a 22lr. And I stand by that. But having to be picky about shots......

So the bottom line is when its all on the line, nothing but a barnes. When it doesn't matter if I have to pass up a shot....almost anything will work most of the time.

Oh, you're right. I forgot we were talking about Whitetails. So, back to the CoreLokt, InterLock or Ballistic Tip.

Enjoy!

Looks great thank you!!

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I've only shot 3 animals with monos, and have been unimpressed, but I also haven't shot them real fast either. The general consensus is that they work well when thrown at warp speed. I've got no reason to dispute that.

I doubt you could go wrong with the 130 barnes, but you may also want to look at some bonded bullets if you're concerned about lead. I'm not a nosler fan, but the accubond is a good choice as is about any other bonded core bullet. The hot-cors are also really good bullets that I have used quite a bit.

One reason I prefer double lung shots if at all possible is because it'll keep any bullet fragments, whether lead or copper, out of the shoulder meat. This may be "bad" but I actually hope raptors eat the gut pile and lungs with lead fragments in it. Some folks don't like the runners, but my experience shows that deer generally run 30-50 yards at most with a solid double lung hit, which isn't much further than shoulder shot animals but you don't have to deal with so much FUBARed meat. I will and have taken a THS though, and will again at some point I am sure. The base of the tail bone is a deadly shot, though you can ruin some backstrap. In those situations a mono probably is the "best" choice.

My 45-70 and its 405 grain cup n core will likely end to end a deer or elk. Not something I would consciously do though.

This type of discussion is akin to my need of a Ford 350 crew cab long bed diesel pickup to get to the office.

I haven't had any trouble killing deer with cup/core bullets. Most of mine have fallen quickly to various 150 and 170 grain .30-30 bullets from Win., Rem, Horn. or Sierra. Another sizeable bunch to various 85, 95 and 100 grain C&C bullets from my .243's and no complaints, difficulties or failures there either. Shot a deer in the azz once back in 1981 with my .30-06 and 180 RNCL. Haven't found the need or desire to do it again and there's been one hell of alot of deer killed between then and now.

C&C for standard calibers with exception of 270 and 25-06 , Partitions for 7mm and 300 win mags and mono bullets for anything faster with warp speed.

I caught a 165gr X out of a 30-06 in a doe pronghorn... They all do funky stuff at times.

Interlokt and coreloks work well on deer for me, although I also use partitions in some rifles that shoot them well without overly destructive results. Shot 2 deer with 120 barnes in a 7-08 and I think they were too penetrative and did not kill any better, dead is dead though.Not a monolith but I would go with the partitions if after heavier game. No longer have that 08.