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