Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What bullets from which cartridges have you stopped in a deer?

In my case it was my first buck with a .30-30 170 grain Super-X soft point when I broke a far shoulder.
Stopping a 160 grain Nosler Partition from a 7mm RM was a surprise, but it was a lengthwise finisher on a wounded one.
A top down 139 grain older, softer SST from a 7mm-08 that broke the spine was the last one.
All were inside 50 yards where the velocity was higher.

I’ve had a deer stop bullets from: .223, .243, 25-06, 270, 280, 30-06, 30-30, 300 win mag, and 50 cal muzzleloader. Shoot enough deer with enough different calibers and sooner or later you will catch one. Doesn’t bother me one bit.

Craig

A 12 gauge Remington Foster slug stopped by the hide on the far shoulder, and a 30-06 Remington 150 grain Core Lokt stopped by the hide on the far side neck after a shoulder shot, both on larger 8 pointers, and both under 50 yards. .

308 Winchester (150 gr. Core-lokts)
30-06 (165 gr. Core-lokt)
50 cal. ML (250 gr. Shockwave)
250 Savage (100 gr. Speer Hot Cor)
20 ga (Can't remember)
.

.257 Roberts - 100gn Scirocco in a fallow buck at 20m (side on).

.35 Whelen - 225gn Accubond in a sambar hind at 45m (side on).

.280 Rem - 140gn Accubond in a chital (axis) stag at 167m (shot at sharp forward angle).

6.5x55 - 123gn SST in a fallow buck at 35m (side on).

It has been a long time, but a 150 grain Interlock out of a 308 didn't get all the way through a quartering away buck. He went down pretty quick anyway.

125 partition from a 264 about 200 yards. Mature buck facing almost straight at me. He went straight down. There was a small bulge in his hide on his ham, adjacent to his anus. The bullet looks like a Nosler ad.

Only one. And I'm not feeling the same about them anymore. Had a 150 ballistic tip from a 3006 stay in the ribcage of a buck. A big heavy buck,but I was surprised how poorly it performed. New stock too. Not old school fragile ballistic tip. The off side of the ribcage inside looked like to was peppered with led fragments. The jacket was, or at least what was left of it, was stuck on the tip of a rib. Found it while processing the deer. The shot angled down through the ribcage. Range was bout 18 yards. No interference from brush or other variables. Just an open gas well site. Im sure it was carrying the mail at that range. Still, this was ribs,not shoulders or spine. No more for me.

Yes The story I posted was the same. The buck dropped so fast it bounced. My daughter referrers to him as old bounce. Can't complain about the deers reaction to the shot,just disappointed in the lack of an exit.

Delete 280 and 300 WM ( i don't shoot ) but add 7-08.

Doesn't bother me either and used to prefer no exit and mostly still do.

I can't think of any bullets from any rifle that didn't to a pass through!

I was really surprised to recover a 180 grain Accubond from a 338 Federal from a whitetail. The distance was about 70 yards. The deer was angling away and somehow the bullet wound up under the hide on the same side as the entry. It was a picture perfect mushroom.

Windfall

I'm NOT being smart or sarcastic.

I've recovered SO FEW bullets as to be insignificant.

Many years ago I did recover a VERY few from 243 and 308 but it's been so long I don't remember WHICH bullets they were.


Jerry

140 Rem Accutip 7mm Rem Mag in a 60# doe @ 80 yards

I've had .308 150 gr corelokts stopped in large whitetails (180 to 215 lbs field dressed). I use 165 gr fusion loads in my .308 now. They haven't stopped yet.

A 410 slug....my first deer. 55 years later....none have been stopped! Of course, I quite using the 410 soon thereafter! memtb

I can’t believe I forgot this one.... broadside shot, just behind the ribs (running deer), 300 grain Sierra BTSP from a .375 H&H, failed to exit! After several tests I came to the conclusion that it was the most miserable excuse, of a modern (though this was 30 years ago), factory produced bullet that I have ever had the displeasure of using! They were regulated to shooting prairie dogs, until they were used up!


“IF” I recover a bullet from a deer.....I’m using the wrong bullet/cartridge or the deer was well beyond a mile away when the shot was taken! memtb

62 TSX from a .223 Rem
150 Speer Grand Slam from a .300 Sav
150 Powerpoint from a .303 Savage
110 accubond from a .25-06
160 Flex Tip from a .307 Win
140 AMAX from a 6.5x284 NORMA

Probably some others I am forgetting. There's also been some "explosions" to say the least in which I didn't find much more than shards, but nothing exited so I guess one could say they were stopped. Sierra Game Kings and SSTs at higher impact velocity come to mind.

If you want to include deer sized critters.....I have seen quite a few more. 260 grain .375" partitions, 55 grain .224" horn soft points and many in between.

My Browning .284 Win loves the long discontinued Winchester 125gr Power Point. They drop deer in their tracks and I have yet to have one exit.

120 ttsx from a 6.5x55 into a large russian hog
80 ttsx from a 243 into a large mature Missouri whitetail buck
130 winchester ballistic slivertips from a whitetail doe
100 winchester 243 power point medium Missouri whitetail buck

In all my years of deer hunting, I've had exactly one bullet recovered from a deer.

Back in 2004, I shot a doe with my 54 Hawken using a lead Powerbelt.



The whole story here:

First Blood with the Muzzleloader


Nearly 40 years of boiler room shots, mostly with 30-06, and mostly with 165-180 grainers have produced a lot of venison, but zero bullets. Back in 2001, I did manage a rather odd brisket shot on a buck. It entered on the right side in front of the shoulder, caromed off the opposing shoulder and lost itself somewhere south of the diaphragm. We couldn't find it, but there was no exit hole.

A couple of years ago, I had a fat SC doe quartering towards me at about 85 yards stop a 6.5 mm 130 gr. Accubond out of my Tikka 6.5x55 and this year a small buck a touch over 200 yards stopped a 7 mm Sierra 140 gr. Pro-Hunter (flat base) out of my Sako Bavarian 7mm - 08.

Thinking back, the first bullet that I had stop in a deer was a 150 gr. Silvertip out of my dad's 30-30 WCF back in 1975, it stopped after busting up the near side shoulder and traveling back into the guts past the diaphragm, we found it in the gut pile.

Over the years that followed, I learned that 130 gr. Sierras out of a 270 WCF at less than 100 yards into a shoulder made a mess and lots of bullet fragments, same results with early NBT's out of a 270 WCF, 7mm Rem. Mag, 308 and 30-06. A Blacktail buck stopped a 200 gr. Speer Spitzer pushed hard out of my 338 Win. Mag. and the result was a lot of venison that was wasted.

For 40 plus hunting seasons I try to get the bullet behind the shoulder and usually get exits on deer, not every bullet goes exactly where you want it to go and they don't always perform as advertised .


YMMV


StarchedCover

One Remington Corelokt, one Federal Fusion.

Core-lokt was a 150gr shot into a big 227# dressed weight MN buck at 20 feet. He ran 80-100 yds. Shot 1/4'ing towards me in front of the passenger side shoulder. Never found the bullet.

Federal Fusions was a 140gr from a .280 Rem shot into 160# buck at 30 yds. He dropped on the spot. Shot 1/4'ing away behind the drivers side shoulder. Bullet traveled the spine and I found it up the neck when skinning.

It's happened a few times over the years. The most recent was a 55gr Hornady from a 223. It smacked into the offside shoulder, cracked it without breaking it, and blew into bitty pieces. The range was about 50'.

I shot four whitetail does in the shoulders per request of the landowner due to tall grass in the brush with a 165gr Hornady SP from a 300WSM mv 3030fps.All where around a 100-150yds.Shoulders where severely bloodshot,no bullets exited.

This has been a real eye opener so far. I'd heard that 150 soft points out of a .308 or .30-06 stopped a lot of times in a deer and my own reason for going for the 165's and round nose 180's in those, but frankly I'm pretty surprised at the Accubond examples and the .35 Whelen, .338 and .375HH examples that I've read about so far. Not so much where I hunt now, but in lots of places in the Midwest, guys will give up on a deer trail where there isn't a good blood trail from an exit wound and with so many other guys in the woods, your deer will turn into their deer if you don't find it right away.

Only 1. It was a .530 round ball pushed by 90 grains of FFg.

Shot was at a doe, 90-100 yards, slightly angling on. Hit front right shoulder, ball found under the hide on left rear quarter.

7-08 140 gr. Win power point at 80yds went thru one doe and found under skin off side of second doe I didn't see behind it. Blood trail leading away from fist doe has us confused until we found the second one 50yds away from the first one. Second doe was very small.

Only once. Broadside shot, behind the shoulder, 7mm-08 150gr Sierra. Bullet shed core on impact and turned almost 90 degrees and hit the inside of the opposite ham but did not penetrate. Long track. Haven't shot anything with a Sierra except paper since then. Never had a Nosler or Hornady stay in a deer.

I have had a few with a Muzzleloader, shotgun and rifle.
I two that would really surprise you.
First one, I shot a decent buck with a 12 gauge Brenneke slug behind the shoulder which knocked him down. He decided that he would try to get up I hit him with another in the back of his skull. When I got down out the tree and walked around 20 yards from the tree to the deer I thought I was going to see something horrific. I was very surprised when neither had exited the deer. The one behind the shoulder wasn’t even lodged in the hide on the off side. The shot to the back of the head didn’t exit either. The deer literally bit the bullet. He caught the bullet with his molars. I wouldn’t of believed it if I would not of seen it.
The other was on a small yearling doe. It was quartering away so I was aiming for it’s leg on the opposite side which put the shot about the 4th rib back and the bullet rested right behind the shoulder where I was hoping it would go. Remember I said this was a small yearling doe. I was using a .54 caliber Hawken with 120 grains of Goex FFFg charge of powder and a 425 grain Great Plains bullet. Would of expected an exit and no exit.

I have never experienced an exit.

2 that I remember. 150 gr Nos. Part. in off shoulder with broadside base of neck shot at about 40 yds, 280 rem. and a 180 gr Hornady interlock straight on neck shot at about 50 yds with an 30-06. Both dropped at the shot.

150 gr NBT , 165 gr SGK from 30/06 are what I can remember.

Just this past November my buddies 6.5 Creedmore got its first deer about 80-100 yds. away uphill from him. bullet broke a front leg off at the shoulder joint and left it hanging by skin. Then went through the sternum bone and apparently bounced around the interior of the deer and never exited but did massive damage. He was worried he may not have room in his freezer for it so offered me half the meat if I gutted it for him. So I gutted it in a foot and a half of snow and also searched for the bullet ( 140 gr, factory load, forgot what brand), but never found it or any exit holes. Probably got left in the gut pile somewhere.

80 grain Speer in 243 @ 20 yards. Perfect mushroom
117 Pro Hunter in 25-06 @ 8 yards.
(3) 120 grain BT in 7mm-08 @ 110/ 227/329 (range confirmed)

Dead deer all within 10 yards of being hit. Thinking about switching away from the 120 but seems more folks are trapping bullets than I thought.

300 Weatherby 180 SBT Gameking quartering to shot in the shoulder bullet in the offside ham under the skin. Deer took 3 steps and laid down.
35 Whelen 225 Sierra SBT Gameking. Shot in the Chest base of the neck. Bullet in one of the hams. Buck ran 70 yards went through 2 fences and crossed a creek.
30-06 165 Gn Corelokt this year. Straight through the shoulders. Under skin in off shoulder. Deer dropped then started getting up. When I was just about to shoot again it jumped 15 feet and hit an oak tree with its head and dropped.
243 100 gn Federal power shok,Core Lokt, and Win.Power Points. Probably 1/2 the bullets that I put in the 30 to 35 deer I killed with it stayed in the deer.

3 for me.

.308, 130 gn Hdy SP on a shallow quartering away angle at ~165 yds on a 163 lb buck. Second shot. First one passed through the vitals and, as it turned out, had done the job, but the buck stumbled, turned away and started walking toward a thicket, so I kept shooting and he fell over on the second shot. Perfect magazine ad mushroom against the hide on the opposite side shoulder.

.243, 85 gn Sierra HPBT on a frontal shot at ~40 yds on a 154 lb buck. Recovered the empty back half of the jacket in the ribs. Buck somersaulted backward, rolled up and went 10 yds in a circle.

.280 AI, 120 gn Nos BT on a high shoulder broadside shot at ~130 yds on a 120 lb buck. Bullet hit the spine, took out a section a few inches long and went to bits. Found multiple tiny pieces of jacket and core in with the bone fragments. Buck dropped so fast in some high broom sage, for a moment I couldn't figure out what had happened.

Shot 4 deer with a 22-250 when I was a kid. Only varmint type bullets used. None exited and one got away so obviously can't say on that one.

180g power point from a 30-06 into the back of the head of a whitetail buck as it ran away from me at ~15 feet. The bullet was found sticking out of his eye socket.

Berger 140g VLD from a .264 WM at 250 yards. Broadside.

Whitetail buck with a 120g Nosler BT from a .284 Win at 35 yards. Found under the skin on the off side.

All I can remember.

I've been charting these and near as I can tell so far the Nosler Ballistic Tip is leading the list with 8. Of the more common ones listed the list goes like this:
NBT 8
Power Point 7
Inter-Lokt 7
Pro-Hunter 7
Accubond 6
Core-Lokt 5
Speer 5
Nosler Partition 3
SST 2
TTSX 2
TSX 1

The whole reason for the topic is to help find one that does exit, leaves a good blood trail and kills a deer quickly. The surprise thus far is that guys have stopped that many Accubond bullets and that Partitions have stopped at all and more than an SST. Bald hunter really skewed that Inter-Lokt number with 4 all by himself with a .300 WSM.

Not counting head-on or hard quartering shots, the only bullets I can remember catching on broadside shots have been the 110gr .257 Nosler Accubond at 3,100, the 95gr 6mm Ballistic Tip at 3,000, old-school 150gr .30cal Ballistic Tips at 3,350 (too fast), and the 145gr 7mm Speer BT at 2,700. Everything else has given some kind of exit on deer. The latter two bullets mentioned above killed really well even when they didn't exit. Usually DRT. Not the case with the .257 and 6mm stuff.

Only one that I can think of........... .277 Hornady 140 gr Sp. The deer was about 290-300 yards when I shot him. found the bullet in the front of the ham as he was facing me. Picturebook mushroom.

30-06 150 gr speer grand slam
.243 100 grain
.32 Win
12 guage Hornady sst

These were all quartering away shots with rifles into the far shoulder. The shotgun slug went in behind the ribs and acted like a blender on the lungs. Most shots just pass through though.

I don't consider it a bad thing as all of the bullet's energy is unloaded into the deer.

6.5x55 142ABLR in whitetail buck and in a cow elk just under offside hide, 6.5x55 140AB in muley buck jsut under offside hide. 300RUM 200 Aframe under offisde hide cow elk, 300RUM 180Swift Sco. in offside hide bull elk. 308 168 Berger VLD in pieces offisde hide antelope.

I don't keep track or recall all of them. I've had quite a few ballistic tips, game kings, corelokts, fusions, and federal blue box not exit. There's also been a few interloks not exit deer. Hitting at least one shoulder seems to greatly increase the odds. Mine would have been from 7mm-08,308, 25-06, and 30-06. I normally use bonded/monos north of 3000fps and I don't remember any not exiting. I don't really count frontal shots. It makes sense that cup and cores don't exit as often as the Barnes/Partitions. I haven't used accubonds much. Do they expand a little wider or faster than other bonded bullets?

Last fall's buck stopped a 200gr. Hornady RN out of my .35 Whelen on a quartering shot at 100yds..

This was a round ball from a 58 ca. MZ with 100 gr Pyrodex. It went through the upper scapula, hit the bottom edge of the spine and stopped under the hide on the other side.


The only other recovery was from a 300 gr. Winchester 45-70 that cut a clean half moon out of a maple sapling, it was deflected enough that it went through the deer on an angle & stopped under the hide of the opposite side rear leg.

I shot my first deer in 1964 (I think) and I have shot more then I can easily count. I have shot them with many guns, and some of these rifles were used with many loads and bullets.
So I am not able to list all of them, but I can remember many that stopped my bullets. I always prefer exits, but probably 1/4 of the deer I have killed didn't have exits.

I'll list a few here. All from deer only. No elk, bears, antelope or moose, and no horses sheep or cattle.

I remember two shot with a 300 savage with a 150 grain bullet when I was quite young that left the bullet under the skin on the other side. They were with factory loads, but I can't remember who's.

I shot a few with Sierra 130 grain boat tails from a 270 in the late 60s and early 70s and had them blow up badly and not exit. Same with a Winchester Silvertip factory load (even worse). I had 2 blow-ups with the old Norma 130 grian steel jacketed bullets.
I recovered a few (I think 4) Remington 130 grain Core-Lokts. Beautiful perfect mushrooms, but didn't exit.

From 270 Winchesters I recovered a 140 grain Hornady Boat tail from one very big mule deer in Nevada. I also recovered a 150 grain Speer Grand Slam from a Nevada buck. Both of those deer were shot at very long range.

I killed 4 deer with 150 grain 30-30s. One was with a Sierra, one was with a Hornady and 2 were with factory loads, one a Federal, and one a Remington. All 150 grain 30-30s stopped in the deer. In fact I have only shot those 4 deer with a 150 grain 30-30 loads and all the rest have been with 170 grain bullet both factory and handloads (Speer 170) and I have never stopped a 30-30 in a deer with a 170 Gr.

I shot one big buck with a 58 cal REAL cast bullet and was shocked to find it had turned 90 degrees and was found in the rump. The deer was broadside and I shot it in the front shoulder with a Hawken copy I made when I was a kid. That bullet was about 30" away from where I hit the deer, but at a 90 degree angle.

I had blow-ups with 6.5 Swede with 120 grain Remingtons and 120 grain Speers both.

Also I have had blow-ups with 100 grain Remington Core-Lokt 257 caliber, from my 25-06, and one blow up with a 120 grain Sierra on a large doe I shot at about 175 yards.

I have recovered three 170 grain 8MM Hornady SSTs from deer, 2 of which were only jackets and one was a beautiful mushroom.

I recovered a Remington 200 grain .358" bullet that I sized down to .356 and used in a 9X56 Mannlicher.

Another was a Speer 200 grain Hollow Point from a 44 mag Browning m92 carbine.

I have stopped 150 grain 30-06s with Sierra BTs and Speer Hot Cores quite a few times. I also had a Speer Hot Core come apart and not exit a doe mule deer when fired from a 300 Norma mag. I recovered a 180 grain Winchester Power Point from one big buck with the picture perfect mushroom. I was surprised that one didn't exit.

Same with a Hornady 139 grain flat base from a 7MM Rem Mag. Shot was about 250 yards away and slightly quartering toward me. Bullet came apart and I recovered about 1/4 of the jacket.

The 122 grain Factory Wolf 7.62X39 breaks up in deer. I and my Wife have killed 3 with that round and none exited.

Those are the ones I remember right now. I may come back and add more as I remember. Right now I need to get back to work.

The 180 game king I caught from my weatherby was a big buck. The core was loose but with the jacket. The 35 Game king I caught from my Whelen went lengthwise through a grown buck and was a perfect mushroom. The 30 165 gn CoreLokt I caught this year was a perfect mushroom just like the Remington commercials too. The 243 bullets I caught maybe 2 of them the jacket held the core the rest were blown up and separated. The deer died though. That was the goal.
I do like bullets to blow a hole through to bleed out of. Makes the ones that run easier to find.

Not a deer, but my dad stopped a 168gr Nosler Ballistic Tip in this guy at daylight this morning, from his front porch. Ran it through the shoulders at 2,900+/-MV from a 300SAUM M7. About 100yds to the impact and DRT. We've had really good luck with that bullet on hogs and whitetails, but I'm not totally surprised to see boar shoulders occasionally stop a cup/core at that speed, even one with a heavy jacket.

I just realized I forgot to include a .375" 270 grain Winchester Failsafe fired from my .375 H&H into a whitetail buck.

12 guage - 00, 0, #1, and #4 buckshot
30-30 - Rem 150 gr Core-lokts, Speer 130 gr FN, Sierra 150 gr FN, and Hornady 160 gr FTX
6mm - Sierra 87 gr HPBT
270 - 130 gr Rem Core-lokt and Sierra 135 gr MK

I have recovered a few from Moose and Elk.

But deer? Only one comes to mind

100 gr Hornady Interlock FB, shot into the front chest of a mulie doe at about 30 yards. Found it under the hide in the abdominal muscles, in good shape. I considered it good performance.

The only projectile I ever recovered from a deer had already passed through a broadside doe at about 15 yards back in Nov. 1997 in a foot of snow. It was an old 12 ga. Foster style deer slug. Back before I had a rifled slug barrel for hunting shotgun areas. The shot was on a slight downward angle as I was sitting on a hillside overlooking a flat "shelf" in the hill. Deer didn't go far and when I walked back to my sitting spot to retrieve my gear I paused to look at the deers tracks where I had hit it. Saw some blood spray in the snow and a few yards further saw a line in the snow that got deeper and turned into a small tunnel. That line in the snow lined up perfectly with my firing point. In disbelief I dug through the snow tunnel a few feet with my bare hands and plucked out a nicely mushroomed Foster slug. Still have it and if I were more computer literate I'd post a picture of it here. I once posted it on another outdoor / hunting forum but this site's a bit too difficult for dinosaurs like me. To date that's still my one and only recovered projectile from a game animal but I'm always looking for another one.

In 50 years of deer, elk, and most everything else hunting, I have a jar with recovered bullets. Some of the more recent or unusual ones, I remember what I shot with them. I kept a journal on the elk that I've shot, and depending on the rifle and time period, I pretty much know what bullets I've used for elk. Also for the more "exotic" animals that I've shot, like moose, sheep, mountain goat, and on international hunts, I know which rifles I used and can figure out what bullet killed what animal. But for deer, I've used a variety of rifles with a bigger variety of bullets, so for most of the deer that I've shot I can't remember what bullet I used or if the bullet went through the deer or remained inside.

Some that I do remember were:

The last deer that I shot was a whitetail buck that I shot with a Nosler 115 grain Ballistic Tip that I shot with my .257 Ackley. The back portion (jacket) of that bullet is still on my kitchen window sill where I put it when I was processing that deer.

I also remember that I shot my largest mule deer, a 30" non-typical, that I shot with a hard cast round ball shot from my .45 caliber percussion muzzle loader. I found that ball inside the buck, and I learned why it should have been cast with pure lead as it hardly deformed.

And I remember finding a .35 caliber bullet lodged against a neck vertebrae of one of my first Montana whitetail bucks. Someone had shot that deer a year or more before I did, and the wound had completely healed around that bullet. I didn't know he had been previously shot until I found the bullet in his neck.

Another deer that I know the bullet stayed inside was a small muley buck that I shot while pheasant hunting one year. It was the second weekend of the season and I was hunting pheasants with my Miroku O/U 12 gauge shotgun my Handicap Trap loads of 3 dram 1 1/8 ounces of # 7 1/2 lead shot. I jumped that buck in the brush and he ran a few yards and fell down. When I approached him I could see a fresh wound on his back leg that had broken the femur. So I switched to the full choke barrel, and from about 15', I put that load of shot between his eyes, and that ended my deer season that year.

Not many.

140gr old .270 BT failed to pass-through on close-range facing neck shot

100gr Sierra PH 6mm blew up the heart of a doe standing broadside at 100 yards

180 Core-Lokt factory .30/06 through the shoulders of a pretty big 8-point. That deer reared up like a horse and fell back, stone dead.

295gr Barnes T-EZ ML bullet over 80gr of BH lodged, perfectly expanded, in the spine of a buck between the shoulders after a frontal shot at 40 yards

130gr .270 Hornady IL bounced off the far-side chest wall of an average buck at 40yards. Knocked a tuft of hair off that far-side. Total destruction, but deer ran over 100 yards.

150gr Sierra .308 (forget which one) struck a buck going away, downhill, in the V of his chest. Found a little lead "button" behind his ear when I cut off his skullcap. That one's interesting.

Have actually only found a few inside, notably the Barnes ML, the lead button, and the Hornady .270.

Checked my hunting notes and found a bunch of bullets recovered from deer, plus a few antelope--which are about the size of small deer.

The bullets include Barnes X-Bullet, TSX and TTSX; Hornady Spire Point (both pre- and post-Interlock) and GMX; Norma Oryx; Nosler AccuBond AccuBond LR, Ballistic Tip, Partition, and Solid Base; Remington Core-Lokt and Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded; Sierra GameKing and ProHunter; Speer Hot-Cor; and Winchester Fail Safe.

The cartridges included .22-250, .243 Winchester, .257 Roberts,.257 Ackley Improved, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x55, 6.5 PRC, .270 Winchester, 7x57, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm STW, .308 Winchester, .30-06, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Winchester Magnum.

The lightest was a .224 70 Hornady GMX, and the heaviest a .338 225-grain Hornady Interlock Spire Point.

Most were recovered on angling or facing shots, but some were more-or-less broadside chest shots, primarily but not all through the shoulders.

I changed to barnes X many years ago and have never recovered one after taking 40-50 deer with them. This past year I too, 2 deer in WV with a 7x57AI with 120 gr TTSX and 1 with a 257AI with 100 gr TTSX. Took 2 in NC with 257AI with 80 gr TTSX. Working on a 9.3x62 with 250 gr TSX now for next season to try.

It has always amazed me how some people have never recovered a bullet of any kind as my experience, like yours, has been totally different.

I have recovered all sorts, the smallest being a few Sierra 55gr GKs from Roe Deers (55-60lbs) shot from a 5,6x50R and a 22-250, and the largest were a 300gr Barnes X recovered from a 190lbs Nyala (!) and a few 300gr RN Hornady Solids recoverd from Cape Buffalo, all of them shot from a 375H&H.

I suspect there are a few reasons:

Most hunters don't butcher their own game. Have recovered quite a few bullets when cutting up game, or even when eating it. Years ago I started chewing a round steak from a mule deer buck, and my teeth detected something hard--which I thought had to be a piece of bone. Instead it turned out to be an expanded Nosler Partition shot into the center of the buck's chest as it faced me in thick timber, which ended up in the buck's rump. Somehow my knife passed on either side of the bullet when slicing steaks! When bullets travel that far through an animal, they don't leave a big, bloody hole where they end up. Instead they're resting gently inside the muscle.

Most hunters don't shoot all that many animals. Eileen and I have recovered more Barnes X's of various sorts than many people, because we've shot a lot of animals with them, often at extreme angles, for over 20 years. In fact we recovered two 100-grain TTSX's from Eileen's .257 Roberts on consecutive animals, the first a cow elk, which might be expected. The second, however, was a doe pronghorn. It was almost directly facing her at around 150-175 yards, and once again we found the bullet in the rump.

Most hunters don't look very carefully. We are pretty obsessive about finding bullets that don't exit, because they provide interesting information. Still, there have been a few that we never found, even though there was no exit hole.

After learning how various bullets typically act, we're often willing--or unwilling--to take shots at angles, especially through bone, that others might not.

Also, in the U.S. about 95% of big game animals killed are white-tailed deer, and the vast majority of those are from stands where the shot placement and angle can be picked pretty carefully, often broadside through the ribs.

I also keep careful records of every animal killed.

John, What a morbid hobby! Just kidding, your efforts give insight into expected performance from many different bullets from many different cartridges, on many different game animals. Your work should be much appreciated by any big game hunter!

I do however, have a question. With your recovered Barnes X/TSX/TTSX’s.....were most considered “light for caliber” when compared to conventional cup and core? Or, where the majority consider a standard “weight for caliber” when compared to the accepted weight for a cup and core? Thanks, memtb

I was just thinking that 2 of the last 3 deer I shot were with a muzzleliader and 250 grain Shockwave. Recovered both bullets and neither expanded. One deer was 20 yards and the other 40. I use 100 grains of 777. Both were bad angles but [bleep] performance

Neither from a tree stand and I butcher my own deer

A most enlightening thread and one can sure draw the conclusion that given the right circumstances, almost any bullet can be stopped inside of a deer. That or it has been rumored that deer have become lots tougher than they use to be. While our deer camp had never stopped a 180 grain bullet from the .308/.30-06 level cartridges, some of you have, so there goes that theory. Enough heavy for caliber and monolithic TSX/TTSX/GMX failures to exit were also a surprise. John's twenty some bullet sampling failure to exit post sure has me thinking shoot the deer and take my chances. I've only lost one ever (TSX) so I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing. Thanks for the input and keep posting the examples if you like because we like reading them.

Most of my deer hunting is in an area that limits us to shotguns or muzzle loaders. I started with a 12 ga. with a rifled choke tube shooting Winchester BRIs. Those drilled a 1" hole straight through the chest creating a huge blood spurt out the far side. Actually painted a tree trunk red.

Moved to 20 ga shooting Winchester 260 gr Platinum tip Supreme. Those dropped deer very fast. I was able to recover 3 bullets out of maybe 15 deer shot. They ranged from 235 - 250 grains recovered with perfect nasty razor sharp pedals. Can't find that ammo anymore.

Switched to the Remington accutip and took one deer with it. Deer was dead just as fast as the others.

Used 270 and 30-06 with winchester power points and the deer dropped quickly and recovered one bullet that had the picture perfect mushroom.

This past season, I used a 110 gr Accubond in a 6.8 SPC. Did not recover the bullet, but the heart was in three pieces and looked like it was hit with a grenade.

Son shot a deer with a 308, 165gr. Partition and that deer was DRT.

All these deer were shot within 100 yards with the majority at about 50 yards. Out of about 25 deer total, I only had to shoot one deer (doe) a second time when it did not go down right away.

M D said....

"Most hunters don't butcher their own game."

and,

"Also, in the U.S. about 95% of big game animals killed are white-tailed deer, and the vast majority of those are from stands where the shot placement and angle can be picked pretty carefully, often broadside through the ribs."


I am NOT taking exception to his observations at all.

Early in this thread I said that I have not recovered enuff bullets to be significant. That's true.
To the BEST of my memory -- I have taken 2 deer to a processor for myself. Time was the limiting factor.

Several years ago I stopped counting WT killed after I surpassed 100. Haven't tried to update it.

For the MAJORITY of my deer hunting and shooting, I shot thru the ribs and that's why I have recovered so few bullets.

I have had a FEW cns shots that did NOT pass thru but being in the neck on angles or angled into the back of the head....
I did not try to find what remained. There were too few and it's not that important to me.

Seriously, I'm not trying to be argumentative; just my experiences. I do pay attention to the bullet's path and destruction.
I stopped using certain bullets because they either Xploded or fragmented >> even if parts of the bullet exited.


Jerry

I've stopped several in deer, most by design. Typically I hunt with a 25-06 or 270, this year added 300 win mag and 243 to the list. Only one deer taken with the 300 shooting a 168gr Nosler BTH and it went straight through the neck. Only one deer taken with the 243 shooting 95gr Nosler BTH at 50 yards broadside, no exit and it basically detonated in the chest cavity and the buck never took a step. The 25-06 and 270 I've been shooting Berger bullets and you have to expect no pass through. They penetrate into the chest cavity and do devastating damage, but don't expect an exit wound outside of 50 yards. Since nearly all of my shots were less than 100 yards I was comfortable using Berger's...you do your job and they'll do theirs. Now that I hunt a place with more range I'm switching and am happy with the Nosler results this far. Never had a Nosler Accubond from a 270 stop in a deer, not even neck shots.

Having grown up in Upstate NY I saw many 12 gauge slugs stopped in deer. Percentage-wise i think the ratio is higher for recovering shotgun slugs then rifle bullets.

Great thread and highly interesting results!

150 grain ballistic tip from a 30-06. It has happened a few times for me.

Short answer: None

I have recoved 2 Winchester 30-06 150 grain silvertips.( I don't think they make those anymore.)

I have recovered one 7mm-08 140 grain Winchester power point.

I have found 12 ga rifled slugs but not any bullets. I have a friend that uses a .22-250 and we find his 55gr corelokts occasionally. They open to about the size of a nickel with the copper side having just the hint of a base.

I mentioned having ballistic tips stopped in deer several times. The ones that I used were the Winchester Ballistic Silvertips. The bullet was made by Nosler and the black coating was mostly marketing in my opinion. I don't think there was any difference to the structure of the bullet from the regular Noslers. I had several stop in the far hide on broadside shots. They killed well on deer when placed right though.

I recovered a 159 Sierra pro hunter from a kill at 250 yards. Shot with my pistol. Broke first shoulder -destroyed the heart and lungs and busted far shoulder. Bullet was against hide. Another recovered was a 180 Sierra game king from a 300 mag. Perfect mushroom and was recovered from the second deer it killed. Both dead right there. 400 yards or so. The 150 was from the 30-06 pistol. Ed k

The coating on Ballistic Silvertips is Molybdenum Oxide. I don't think it's the same as other Moly bullet coatings as you don't have to shoot two or three bullets down the bore before it gets accurate, but it does seem to give bullets higher velocity. I've had Ballistic Silvertips not exit. No big deal, they wrecked the plumbing in the animal's boiler room and put it down immediately. I've had a number of bullets from my .270 Win. not exit an animal but the bullet did its job penetrating the animal, Wreaking havoc on the innards and putting it down D.R.T.

One point I want to bring up, I never thought of ballistic tip bullets as being for deep penetration. They penetrate through the skin and fat and outer layer of bone and go into the vitals causing lots of damage and killing the animal swiftly. They're made to give up their energy rapidly inside. If they exit giving a good blood trail the more the better. However, I would never use one on a large thick skinned and thick boned animal. That's when I'd break out the partitions and other strongly constructed bullets. However, I'm sure there's plenty of cases where they wouldn't exit either maybe in a large bear or moose or anything really big. But as long as they do their job in the boiler room that's all that matters to me.

165 Sierra bt from a 300 win mag. 100 yards broadside lung shot. Perfectly mushroomed off side under hide.

55TTSX from a 223 WSSM 360 yards hit at last rib quartering away. Offside hide, mushroomed perfectly.

A lot of shotgun slugs mostly sabots. That is what we shoot most of our deer with.

Most rifle go through.

I, too, have a small number of recovered bullets. Most would not be considered out of the ordinary considering the rifle/bullet/game/circumstances, but one is an exception. I bought a stainless 280 Remington M700 the first year a stainless was produced. I got it in December (either 1991 or 1992, I'd have to check my records to be sure) and threw together a load using 150 gr R-P CorLocts and AA3100 so I could get it in the woods ASAP. That load turned out to be so accurate that I never changed it until I ran out of 3100.

Anyway, I have killed a load of deer with it and never recovered but one bullet. A friend was using it and shot a small buck trotting along at a range of about 70-80 yds. The deer dropped at the shot and never even kicked. We were surprised to see he'd hit it squarely in the hind quarter. While butchering the deer, we found the perfectly mushroomed slug laying against the ball joint of the hip. It had penetrated a maximum depth of 1.5-2" of meat, cracked the ball of the hip joint, and stopped right there. Yet it had made an instant kill on the buck! That happened in the late 90s and I'm still scratching my head about it!

As a side note, my friend picked up the nickname 'ButtShot' that day!

Hey don't feel like the Lone Ranger. A few years back I shot a doe from a standing position and missed my point of aim by several inches. The deer as quartering away from me moving into the mott and I was aiming right behind the left front shoulder and I must have pulled it, hitting the deer square in the left ham. My then wife and my Son In Law crawled on their bellys in the brush and found it within the mott of brush and trees it was entering when I shot it about 30 yards down the mott toward the end. I was puzzled to say the least that this shot killed that deer. Then the next day I crawled into that mott where I shot the deer. There I saw my answer. It looked like every weed, bush, and tree inside there had been spray painted red. That deer bled out inside that mott dying about 30 yards from where I shot it. I hit a major artery in the ham.

Last fall I had a fat alpine Sitka blacktail quartering away sharply; my 120 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip shot from a 7mm-08 appeared to disintegrate on impact. I was lucky to recover the deer, who showed no indication that he'd been hit, and just walked down a ravine and died behind a large rock with no blood trail and no exit. I think it was loaded a bit hot. I'll be taking my 25-06 this year and shooting 115 gr Nosler Partitions.

300 win 150gr TTSX. Buck was 46yards neck shot. I was shocked to find the bullet after skinning the buck. Their damn skin must be elastic up to a certain point

12 gauge slug, 240 grain lead 45, a 45 cal round ball, a 240 grain from a 44 mag

Not every time but each one of those at least once.

In 30+ years not a single one..

Windfall

I remember a ‘deviant’ from stopping a bullet within a deer.

@1990 I was teaching my youngest son to MZL Hunt. I showed him how to enter and set up
in a wooded area that NOone hunted. I showed him how to get in and where I would sit on
the ground.

He did, sure enuff a buck came along feeding on acorns etc. totally unexpecting someone to
be in the area. Son shoots the buck w/50 cal Renegade. Buck DROPS dead.
Son drags it to access log road.

The next week I eased into the spot and was looking for anything. I noticed a skint place on
a tree @ thigh high. Son was on a bank looking down into a bowl. I sifted thru the leaves and FOUND the Buffalo bullet wadded up ! !
After passing thru the deer it was stopped by the tree.

I gave it to him.....needless to say a kid didn’t appreciate the bullet enuff to keep UP with it.
I really wish I had put it WITH my Mzld stuff. Oh Well.

GREAT memory anyway.

Jerry

Jerry, at least it made it through the deer before it stopped at a tree. Back on page one I mentioned stopping a 160 grain Nosler Partition in a buck from my 7mm RM which was a surprise given an earlier experience with a NP from a .300 WM. Granted it was lengthwise on a good size buck and close, but it stopped. Contrast that to a borrowed .300 WM with a 180 grain Nosler Partition. Running shot that caught the buck in the left ham with an exit out the right front chest no surprise until I looked around and saw a bunch of tooth pick size splinters blown out the back of a 6" diameter ash tree that the bullet had center punched before it hit the deer. Next day I cut that section of the tree out and mounted it below the antlers.

Not only would I do that, I actually did something similar.

In 1976 I shot a small buck in the neck with a 270 W using 130 HSP. The bullet EXITED the neck THEN went THRU a pine sapling @ 5" in Dia. and EXITED. I cut that section out of the tree and kept it a number of years.

The reason I remember '76 is because I moved out of Ark . in March 1977.

Jerry

Several 150 gr Core Lokts from my 30-06 over 30 years of hunts. 139 SST, 140 Core Lokt and 156 Oryx from My 7X57. 115 partition from a 257 Roberts. so far the 140 partitions from my Swede punch right through.

30/30-150g core loct

308-125g Sierra and Nosler ballistic tips, we have killed a lot of big deer with this load using Win 748

7 mag-120g Nosler ballistic tips, deer do not travel over 40 yards, if they don't fall straight down

7 Mag-140g Sierra, deer died quickly, but bullet fragged. We slowed the bullet down with book min load of IMR 4350, bullet penetrated better at 3000.

7 Mag-150g Sierra MK-bullet blew up on the surface at 320 yards, trophy buck

6 Remington and 243-100g sierra btsp, deer always die running

243-85g sierra bthp, this was 20 years ago, they may have changed the bullet

223-55g Winchester at 3100, deer died on the spot, so did the antelope at 470 yards

270 Win-110g Sierra at 3350, bullet may or may not go through a deer if hit on shoulders, but great results on killing them with little or no running. Good penetration on lung broadside shots.

308-150g SST blew up on a shoulder shot at 45 or so yards, killed him from the shock-120 lb meat buck

Wow. I would be interested in what the conditions were for the 156 Oryx. Wouldn't think a deer could catch one of those.