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

My point, exactly. I wonder if we have convinced the OP yet?

It’s not out west. So what if I can see behind that thicket at 50 yards? I can’t see behind that one at 75, or a 100, or 150. You generally know safe and unsafe directions. You don’t shoot towards a house or something like that. But you mostly can never see beyond 150 yards and mostly a lot less than that.

Hunting where we are is a foreign concept to you and there is nothing I can do to explain it to you further.

Gun safety is paramount to me.

I absolutely can NOT pull a trigger unless I have a clear backstop. So I guess I simply could not/ would not hunt in conditions you describe.

The best shot I never took was at a huge bull caribou ( possibly the best I've ever seen out of tens of thousands) at 162 yards, on a small bald knob surrounded by heavy cover within yards, just below the knob, as it was about half dark. Along with a less solid rest than I wanted, there was a light screen of grass tops between us, about half way, and that was probably the deciding factor, tho the others certainly contributed. It was the last day of the opening, and we had filled only one of 3 tags, earlier that day.

Any bullet, hitting any object before it's intended target, has deflection potential - more likely than not, from what I can gather.

I know from empirical testing that an egg sized rock 15 yards in front of one, just below the scope's line of sight from a prone position, will make a fine cloud of dust, preventing a 2 caribou on one shot at 30 yards..... I did get one on a running "pass-shot" moments later after I leapt to my feet as the herd bolted past me. Just swing through from behind like with a shotgun.

I don't believe that first shot deflected at all, so rocks are OK to try to shoot through - just avoid trying to shoot though brush or grass. That may result in a wounded and not recovered animal.

It’s all very subjective.

I have seen projectiles go "almost strait" through a 4-5" tree.
But you have to hit them dead center otherwise they will go wild.
And your only chance of reasonably strait is if the are no knuckles or aborted branches in the grain of the wood.

Even then I wouldn't trust the energy or direction on the far side for a clean kill...

I suppose a guy COULD take up archery?

I ain't never seen a Q ball glance off of another ball, and then continue in a straight line.

Would you shoot the deer in the first pic I posted? Lets say it was an elk and the largest bull you ever saw.

Two bull moose were locked up in tall, tight willows at less than 20 yards. I got close enough to see well but the brush was so tall i held for a very high shoulder shot.. 30-06 with 168gr TTSX. At the shot the bull stood straight up on his hind legs and flipped over onto his back. All CNS, so a second shot went through ribs.

The bullet showed three entrance wounds about four inches wide. All three pieces went all the way through and the biggest hole profile looked like a sideways bullet.

Doe, fawn, Royal bull elk, makes no difference. Either it is an ethical and safe shot, or it is not.

As to your photo. There appears to be, from the elevation of the photographer, plenty of open ground behind the deer for a back stop, before you get to the brush in the background. Depending on whether there is more intervening brush between my shooting position and the deer other than the two twigs shown. I could easily place a shot into the vitals between those branches.

If a quality 12 X scope shows I do not have a clear line to target, I would let it go.

The one with the forked branch across the vitals?

If you really know your range and ballistics you might pull off a high shoulder shot like Sitka Deer describes..
If you don't get it right, it's amazing has fast a deer becomes invisible in that level of cover...
Even if you know the trails.

😂😂😂 I guess some on here would say that entire area should be closed to hunting😂

I see a schitload of openings in there.

Sounds like a project for the off season. I am going to run some tests and see what I come up with. I just get a kick out of guys at the camp saying to hunt w a 44 mag rifle or 4570 or 35 Remington in the “woods” as the woods are so choked w briars and small limbs that the likelihood of knicking an obsticle en route to the deer seems significant. I am reluctant to give up my 308, ‘06 or even my 6.5 SAUM (in longer shot conditions) just because some yahoo says “use a bullet/cartridge that’s more of a ‘brush buster’ “. My real interest is in small obstructions that lie close in proximity to the target, so I will run my tests with stuff 5-10 yards and 20-30 yards in front of the target and see what happens with different cartridges and bullet weights. Thin dowels seem to be a good medium so I may go that route.

Video record it for the library.

Iraqi 8888888 did a good test, even though it wasn't very scientific. Only three shots each caliber, but showed a tendency towards the heavy blunts over the lighter high velocity rounds.
Something along these lines, with other calibers, would be interesting.