Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Impact of small branch deflections on bullet flight path

Many say use heavy for caliber, slow moving bullet when shooting through thick stuff (briars), small twigs, etc. Many say you have to use a “tough bullet” vs something like ballistic tips or BERGERS. My question is, are there any objective studies on this topic that shows a significant difference in altered flight path or bullet integrity when thin brush is shot through? Lots of theories out there, but really want some authoritative information.

I’ve never taken a shot with the expectation that the bullet had to clear a path to the target. I never will. YMMY

Unless someone is trying to kill me...

I was hunting over a scrape one day. Hot scrape. Although there was no muzzleloading season in Georgia at that time, I was using the TC .50 Hawken.
I like doing things "the old time way."
There stepped a nice big 4 pointer onto the scrape. Beautiful October day, warm sunshine, 30 yards away. I took the neck shot.
The buck dropped in his tracks.

I sat there in my tree stand, looking through the blue cloud of black powder smoke, looking at the dead deer. I thought I was the baddest bad ass since Jeremiah Johnson.
But then, the deer flicked his ears. Just a dying nervous response, I figured.
Then, the deer moved his front legs. He wasn't supposed to do that. Then, he moved his rear legs.
I got out the powder and poured it down the barrel.

The damn deer stood up! I put the patch and the ball onto the muzzle, and rammed it home. I grabbed the cap.
And the deer stood up and ran away while I was putting on the cap. I found out why they are called "white tail," last thing I saw was a waving white tail.

I got down from the tree and went to the scrape. Ten feet before the scrape was a one-inch grape vine, cut in two. The .490 round ball had hit the grape vine!
I figured, it had cast the ball high and it must have hit in the flesh on the top of the neck. Stunned the deer for 30 seconds. Had the ball hit low on the neck, it would have cut the jugular and, dead deer.

I looked for that deer until it got dark. Came back the next two days and searched for a half mile in the direction the deer had run. No buzzards, no sign of the deer.
I believe that deer survived.

Had I been using the Mauser in 30-06 with the scope, I would have adjusted to miss the vine. Had I made a bad shot with the Mauser, I would have jacked another round and killed the deer where he lay. Had I gone for the lung shot with the Hawken, 3 inch high deflection = perfect lung shot. Forty yard run with massive blood trail, dead deer.

I guess that is why muzzleloaders are called "primitive weapons."

If one only uses a bit of logic to look at the question a few points are obvious.

A long, fast spinning projectile is more stable than a short, slow spinning projectile.

A blunt soft point on a bullet (round nose lead) will significantly deform upon impact with any obstruction.

The only bullet shape which MIGHT cut through an intervening branch without deflection would be a steel jacketed (FMJ) wadcutter. That might be a bit tough on rifle barrels?

The most dependable brush rifle is the one which is accurate enough and shoots flat enough to place bullets through the open spaces between the branches.

One of the popular gun rags published an article a few decades ago wherein the author attempted to lend evidence to his theories by shooting through a bank of hardwood dowels. But the noise in his data overwhelmed any statistical evidence.

Yup and yup.

No such thing as a brush buster.

A wise man once said, "walls are more predictably shot through than brush piles."

As a buddy of mine put it:

“If I’m shooting through brush, I want it to be farther away from me than closer.”

The closer the brush, the greater the deflection.

A few years ago i took a shot at a deer that was about 300 yards away with my 35 Whelen.

I had a good rest on a fence post and let it rip.

When we got to the deer it looked like it's throat was cut,no blood in him at all.
Walked the line and found a small branch that had been cut by that 200 grain bullet.

It happens in your favor sometimes.

Before my time, but I've been told that 12ga buckshot was used in Vietnam as a "brush gun". I guess the accuracy problems related to the deflection of multiple"rounds" at close range makes less difference.

No doubt that there was a YT channel that did a test on this before. It's a common concern.

Oh for fugk sake.

I wonder if that is the one I remember, which had the author deciding that a moderate velocity range was most important. Too fast and too slow were bad, and bullet shape and construction didn't matter much.

Bruce

I’ve had 2 bullets deflected, one on a briar the other on a small branch. The briar pushed a 300gr .45 cal Barnes to a clean miss at a broadside doe. The branch pushed a 200gr RN from my 35 Rem high into the neck at 25-30yds sideways. I put a finisher into the buck and recovered the bullet during skinning.


Shooting through brush is very effective until you actually hit brush, then all bets are off.

I think that on a 30 yard shot on a whitetail in brush, double aught buck would be the cat's meow.
Two slugs get deflected, but the other 9 hit the lungs. Time to cut some straps into steaks and marinade in soy sauce.

The purpose of the question is that there are many hunting scenarios when a deer is clearly visible but small branches or briar limbs are not. Especially when hunting cut overs or thickly wooded property. Not every hunting shot has the luxury of a completely clear flight path for a bullet.

Then you don't take the shot. There's more to hunting than shooting the animal.

Here you go.

Andrew McKean
https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/hunting/2014/05/how-much-does-brush-deflect-rifle-bullet/

In your favor? Yes sometimes.

About ten years ago elk hunting, I was laying across a big boulder watching a canyon and apposing ridge in front of me. I had a Ruger #1 in 7mm STW loaded with 162 gr Hornady btsp at 3200 fps mv. I had been there about an hour and had lasered dozens of landmarks before I saw a nice bull approaching up a trail in the bottom of the canyon.

I knew the trail passed through a clearing directly in front of me at 400 yds. And I could see the bull calmly walking with a pause about every twenty yards to look over his shoulder. I watched him come for about 300 yds.

When he got to the clearing, he paused just as I expected him to and I touched the trigger with the crosshairs about six inches above the center of his heart.

The bull took two jumps toward the steep part of the mountain, then decided that was more than he could manage. He turned around and took about a dozen steps downhill, then stopped just behind a screen of willows directly alongside of the trail.

Through the screen, I could vaguely see him standing with his front legs apart and his nose in the dirt. He probably would have stood there until he tipped over, but again elk are amazing tough animals. If he had taken off down the trail he had come up, it would have added many hours to our retrieval.

So, I approximated where the aim point was and pulled the trigger again.

When I skinned the bull, I found the first entry point right over the heart on the left side. On the right side there appeared to be an exit hole just a little higher than the entry on the other side. I was shooting at a sharp downward angle, I would guess about 25 degrees. The hole on the right side was about big enough for me to stuff a fist into, and was filled with hair. I could only deduce the bullet had impacted a branch and become massively deformed. But fortunately the bullet only had to fly about ten more feet to hit the elk.

As I remember the article I read, which was likely thirty years ago. The author suggested high SD and high RPM. But his targets were far too randomized to offer proof.