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

No doubt a bigger hole makes a difference in a certain percentage of cases...but measuring it while weeding out all the other variables...good luck. Someone can always quote exceptions, but when it comes to relying on following blood for longer than you expected, thoughts switch to more interior destruction and an accommodating hole.

That is a bullet function more than a caliber function...

fwiw...guys pounding the drum over this or that caliber is pretty much moot if he has improved as a killer over a few decades of field experience, and he pays particular attention to matching the bullet to the job.

Any size object hitting you in the chest at 2700 fps will kill you. The BB might give you time to call your wife and kids to say goodbye.

It will also give a game animal to reach the deepest canyon and thickest brush around. Either dead right there or at least a hell of a blood trail helps in this situation. Ed k

I've had exit holes plug up when the insides were soup. In a few cases I had almost no blood trail from Barnes X, XLC and an ACP solid copper HP, all out of a .257 Roberts and .25-06. I'm of the opinion at this point that a slightly bigger exit is more desirable, than than I get with "tougher" bullets. It's interesting to try new bullets but they're all compared to the Nosler Partion. They shed the front and have enough to exit leaving a hole. Regardless of what bullet you choose, it needs to expand enough to do real damage to the internals, and carry enough mass to exit in most cases. Bullets need to match cartridge performance.

I've taken more whitetails with RN bullets than any other, no matter whether the cartridge was a .308, .338 WM or .35 Whelen. I used 180gr. RN in .308, 275gr. RN in the .338 and .200gr. RN in the Whelen. Most deer DRT and those that didn't only made it 30-40yds. with a good blood trail. Only managed to recover the 200gr. RN bullet from the Whelen that accounted for last season's whitetail, it was perfectly mushroomed and retained 66% of its original weight.

Not as much as I used to, due to vast improvements in bullet technology! That said, I will continue to use my old, “tried and true” “battle (hunt) tested”....375 cal. (.375 AI). Needed or not....it simply works! memtb

i got tired of blood trails and looking for dead bucks have not had that problem in the last 20 years anymore i use bigger cartridges and my favorite is a 257 Weatherby Mag. the bucks i shoot now either out west or in northern Minnesota only go one direction now straight down and dead. speed and power kills bucks alot faster,no more little cartridges for me.

I too, used a 270 for most of my deer kills.....a 270 grainer memtb

Dead is dead, but imo, there is no doubt that larger calibers have provided better blood trails and the game seems to travel a bit less. The damage done is also very obvious, the larger calibers providing more of it when I perform my "autopsy". I have seen more consistent drt's with larger caliber rifles also. Ymmv.

While I’ve killed animals with smaller, faster bullets, I still prefer a bullet with a big meplat. Anyone who has shot something with one knows the difference.

For years, my main deer battery consisted of a 30-06 and a 35 Whelen. I finally retired the Whelenizer, because it wasn't any more devastating than the 30-06. It cost more to run, and it had demonstrably more recoil, but it did not kill deer any better.

If we need a quick function test at deer camp, there is a small pond out about 150 yards from the back of the house. If you aim for the far edge, you get a nice fountain of water and the bullet ends up going into the muddy bank on the other side. We've sent all sorts of stuff out there.

This is not a scientific test of deer-killing ability, but you should see the plumes we send up. 30-06 165 grain vs 35 Whelen 200 grain? The 30-06 wins. 30-06 165 grain vs. 150 grain? It's hard to tell. 300 Win Mag vs. 30-06? The 300 Win Mag sends up a serious plume-- biggest I've seen.

. . . at least until a few weeks ago. I was sighting in my Buddy's Ruger Model 44 Carbine. Yikes! You talk about a geyser! This was with a less-than-MAX load of H110.

Say what you will, but the most devasting rounds I've ever seen at close range were Remmie 12 GA Sluggers-- never saw a deer escape with a round to the chest.

The only deer I ever saw picked up and thrown by a hit? 54 Hawken on a small doe at 60 yards.

To answer the Op's question: Yes, but if the only shot you will take is a broadside shoulder shot almost any caliber with a decent bullet will suffice, however if your target is trophy Whitetails and you might if your lucky get only one glimpse of the buck you have been hunting for 2 weeks a .30 cal running a mono bullet at 3000+ fps Cant be beat, he will be poleaxed on the spot from any shot angle you are presented with at reasonable ranges 👍.......Good hunting ....Hb

In truth, a good 30-06 load is a slobberknocker of a deer round. I consider the .30cal stuff to actually be a little overkill on deer and find some additional comfort in those rounds when you need a hole that bleeds. My experience with the .338 stuff at the same speeds was another notch higher in damage/trauma. Slower-moving .35cal loads from the Whelen and 35Rem have been about like the 30-06 in my experience, which is to say, "rather reliable", depending on the range of the animal and bullet construction. The FTX stuff in 35Rem and 444Marlin is not moving that fast, but it is softly-constructed and does hurt a 100-200lb deer.

I snagged this terrible-quality cell phone pic years ago when I was hunting a 444 Handi Rifle with the FTX. A lung exit would often paint the trees on a death run.

Nice pic Jpro! It looks like total devastation 👍....Hb

I gave this a lot of thought and to be honest I guess I don't care.



I'm pretty sure frontal area doesn't matter much with this one anyway.


Flat, round, pointed, I DGAS


And there's a reason I use to carry 5 extra barrels.

Frontal area trumps all for me.

I’ve never really seen much of a difference, other than my .25-‘06, 6.5x.284, .270 Win, .270 Roy, .284 Win and 7mm Roy never provided me with a tracking job. Deer or elk.

I now have three animals taken with the 6.5 Creedmoor, all DRT from modern, rapidly-expanding bullets. This newfangled combination is very impressive.

Others like .260, 7-08, .308, .30-06, .300 Roy, .338 Federal and .340 Roy always dropped stuff either DRT or they fell within sight of where they were hit.

Only the .338 Win Mag has ever left me with “extended” tracking and both those times were devastating hits with large exit wounds. I thought I was going to lose one of those bulls but half a day of tracking finally found him a very long way from where he was hit. Both his shoulders were smashed and his lungs were both hit so he was definitely killed by the shot (250gr Nosler Partition), but he made it a long way. I suppose that larger exit from the .338 slug helped with tracking because we found him. I still can’t help but think if I’d hit that bull exactly the same way with my 6.5x284 or .270 Wby he would have dropped in his tracks, though. I’m still glad I had the larger exit wound given the circumstances.

Having hunted the west (wet) coast jungles a bunch I tend to agree with you. All my experience with one exception is 30 caliber or less though and being a behind the shoulder shooter (when given the choice!) I have experienced recoveries that were tougher than others. I have no experience with anything sub 25 caliber, and that is not likely to change soon.
Consideration is being given to a 30+ caliber, loaded moderately for deer, for most of my timber hunting, due to hopefully a better blood trail. I believe it was JJHack that said he much prefers a (or at least) 30 caliber to anything smaller for his african adventures, due to a more reliable blood trail (and even more important in a herd animal where it could get very confusing).
All this is assuming the bullet chosen is appropriate for the task.

When I read the first post here, those were my experiences as well. Which is why I favor 30 cal and above when I'm serious about what I'm after. Yes dead is dead is dead, and you can theorize and crunch all kinds of numbers, but I trust my experience which is MY real world observations of performance not numbers on paper. Now where is that 35 Whelen I cleaned the other day, I put here someplace.

P.S. In keeping with my above post, A 257 weatherby makes a good coyote rifle if you're just thinning them out and not after fur!!! BBbbaaaahahahahahaha