Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Do you still consider bullet frontal area?

So far I've only killed two with my new 6.5 Creedmoor but blood trails were profuse and short for both. Load used was the Hornady American Whitetail with 129 gr. interlock.

The 129 Interlock out of my 260 Rem handloads is a surefire deer/pig killer, so it would have to be out of its ballistic twin too.

I have never thought much of that theory. I have seen poor blood trails out of 50 caliber bullets that turned everything in the chest into red soup and I have seen 22 and 24 caliber bullets really make a mess of a deer. Take the blood pressure to zero with the shot and Bambi is almost always inside of 60 yards from where it was shot. That does not mean that you get a nice blood trail to the dead deer because sometimes even horrific holes do not produce a decent blood trail and there just isn't a good way to predict whether you get a good blood trail or not. If I can't risk a deer running even 100 yards I shoot to drop them where they stand, which pretty much works the same with anything I use for deer. I would venture to say that my arrows produce dead deer close to where they stood when shot at least as predictably as any rifle I have used and they have a needle thin point on them for the most part. They also tend to produce a blood trail at least as well as bullets do. If you do a decent job of shooting them in the parts that they need to stay alive you have 95% of the problem solved, and that hold more universally true than anything else regardless of what you shoot them with.

I started hunting with a 243. Got tired of shooting deer and having them run off out of sight with a lame blood trail. It did kill them I just had to go find them.. I shoot a 30 or 35 now and see better results, less tracking better shorter blood trails. Most now drop out of the scope when I shoot. And I am shooting bigger older deer now than when I started. Others may have different results. Those are the results I have seen from my own shooting and the many many other people I have hunted with.

No, never had to, I shoot a 270.

interesting take. I cannot refute your logic on why you like the flat fast bullets, however I do disagree respectively with your regard to ranging and dialing. now I would bet my rifle against yours that at the ranges you suggested I could hit more consistently in the "ten ring" with no more than a few seconds worth of difference of reaction time. infact there are a couple respected members of this forum who have seen me guestimate the range on a loping coyote, exit the vehicle, dial the range, deploy bipod and put a round in about a second +/- a few tenths. all this is estimated of course because we weren't running a stopwatch, however I believe it was Bob cape or EH76 who said he spotted the yote, looked back at me, saw I had seen it and stop, when he swung his binos back to the coyote he saw it drop. I'm not one to boast my point is dialing isn't necessarily slow, especially when ranges are moderate like you describe. Kamo Gari was sitting next to me and can attest to the shot as well.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's rare that I 'would' have time to LRF + check chart + twist turrets BEFORE aim+shoot.

Out to 400 yds I DON'T hold OVER hair. Fast, Flat, Good Bullet.
For the record I M E --- 270 (280), 284 W handload, 7mm RM, 30-06 handload, 300 WM

Jerry

I’ve been known to be a stunt shooter too.

We’re just too slow Jerry!!! 🤣

Like .35 Remington just fine.

Never concerned about it as long as it is a .284 or larger Especially partial to short action cartridges that start with a "3".

If you were gonna get shot at equal velocity square in the chest would you choose a bb or a baseball. Say 2700 FPS. Ed k

I used to look at that chambering as an antique, but realized a few years ago that my assumptions were wrong. I've also seen the effects of .35cal spitzers at .358win speeds. Most everything that leaves the scene of a solid hit is easy to trail up. Same goes for .338 bullets loaded at .338-06 speeds.

We have a primitive weapons season down here that allows for use of single-shot rifles in chamberings above .35cal. I've carried a single shot CVA Whelen (loaded down) and a .444 Marlin Handi-rifle on nasty days, even during regular season. Both were reliable when it came to good blood trails. In my teens and twenties I'd have laughed at the notion of anything under 3,000fps being such a good killer.

You eventually get to a point where it doesn't matter, say a baseball or a softball at 2700 fps.

Maybe so ..

ATST, over the years I've had instanceS where there was NOT time to aim & shoot ! ! ! I will NOT hamstring myself by having to take UNnecessary steps.

* NOTE * I don't hunt wide open territory where game may be seen/shot 400 +++++ yds.


Jerry

no doubt! depending on your equipment so heavily I bet a lot of shots seem like stunts.

Been using 7mm 140 grain ABs exclusively for a few years now - they kill fine, but they seem to have a narrow mushroom, and don't leave nearly as reliable blood train as the 30 cal 180 Corelokts I grew up using on deer. Also used 6mm 95 grain BTs a lot, and they normally left a good blood trail.

Some of the areas I hunt are the same swampy/thicket junk that Jpro mentions. A full grown Brangus bull could lay down and go unseen at 20 feet. A broadside high shoulder or CNS shot isn’t always in the cards.
I like a “tennis ball” size exit hole.

I hunt very thick cedar swamp in Michigan. We've had a few nightmare tracking cases over a lifetime, and I've opted now more for my 303, 338 Fed., or 358 Win. A local up there saw one deer shot I took using the 303. His comment was, "that gun doesn't knock them over, it picks them up and throws them down!" I thought that was pretty funny, but since the switch nothing has managed to scramble out of sight.

And big fat round noses that open about as easy as a banana, and cheap to boot.