Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Failed bullets

I have seen:

7 Mag 140g sierra btsp blow up on a bucks shoulder, 270 yards, MV 3200
140g Nosler ballistic tip fixed that problem

308, I have seen a 150g sst blow up on a bucks shoulder, 65 yard shot. I switched to a 150g Hornady flat base.

30/06. I have seen a 150g Nosler ballistic tip blow up on a shoulder blade, quartering frontal shot, 100 yds. 150g Hornady flat base, 165g Speer btsp, 165g Hornady fixed all problems

6mm Rem, I have seen the Speer 75g HP blow up on a hip joint of a coyote. I changed to a 60g Sierra hp and a Sierra 75g HP, all problems solved, then discovered the 80g Sierra blitz bt

22/250 Ruger 77, I have seen multiple 52g Speer hp blow up on ribs and shoulders of coyotes, 50-125 yards. 52g Berger, 52g Sierra match, and 53g Sierra match fixed that blow up problem

243, I have seen multiple coyotes shot mid body with 85g Sierra spt flat base, and they walked/trotted off. 80g Sierra blitz bt fixed this problem

17 hmr, I shot several coyotes at 10-15 yards with mid body shots, never finding them. Sold the rifle and bought a Ruger 22 hornet, opened up the chamber to the 22 K hornet, 40g Speer spire points rule..3000 fps

243, on one hunt, we shot half a dozen coyotes with 75g Hornady HP, the bullets never expanded, in 1990. Later, We went to shooting the 80g Single shot pistol bullet...problem solved!

Partitions and Barnes never lost an animal, +-100.

I have seen two "bullet failures", if you can call them that

One was a Winchester Super X factory load in 6.5 x 55. loaded with their Soft Point bullet, not Power Point. I se today they are loading Power Points in that load. Shot a small mule deer buck at about 70 yards, buck ran baout 50 yards and dropped. It was a chest shot and the entire side was a bloodshot mess. Maybe hit a piece of buck brush before the deer?

2nd was a puzzler. Not so much a bullet failure as a load failure. Shot an average sized Saskachewan whitetail buck at maybe 80 yards with a 30.30 Rem CL factory load.. It exited the bluff and I hollered at my Dad who was on point he nailed it on the way out. I couldn't figure out how I missed , and was disappointed in my shooting Upon skinning, the CL bullet was found just under the hide on the onside shoulder meat, fully intact.Non expanded.

I am guessing it was a low powder charge

Bullet failure? I know that I have have had elk need additional shots while using the following. 30:06, 308 Sierra FB, 180 gr.. a big Rosey took several shots and a mile or so get him on the ground, he was filling his tracks with blood but continued downhill for quit a distance. Three bullets recovered two on the near shoulder. Cow, eastern Idaho, 160 gr, , 284 Barnes Monolith, 7mm Remington Magnum. Again 3 shots from a prone position while she was standing and wandering in a circle on the opposite hillside. Two bullets recovered with little or no expansion. Cow western Wyoming, 162 gr. Hornady BT SP, .284. 150 yards, again wandering all over the mountain top, until she slowed down enough for one through the near shoulder. Large buck deer, 55 gr. Remington PP, 22-250 cal. Two shots in near shoulder, after sight following for a couple of miles he laid down, and i got in close, and finished. I have had fantastic success with the 180 Partition, and the 160 AB, the AB seemingly a litter slower to get the job done, but its also producing less energy.

I have a couple of experiences to share. One was a cow elk at a bit over 400. She was clearly hit in the front end as we could see her limping and favoring the opposite side leg. Shot her with a .264 and 130 Accubond. Trailed her over a mile in the snow and then saw her again over 600 yards away and still going as we ran low on light. She was still going. There was blood in the snow, but not much. After the shot the elk darted back and forth so it was hard to make out which one I shot and put another round in her without shooting a second elk. That was a tough deal, with no good explanation. Seems like I hit her in the front leg, which should have done the trick. Won’t ever know what went wrong here.

I was witness to a buddy shooting a Bull with a .300 Win and 200 grain Accubonds at about 200. Shot high, dropping the bull, but it wasn’t there when we climbed down. There was patchy snow so I found him an hour later, saw the wound high on his back and he got up and ran. Never saw him again. I didn’t have a gun on me as I had killed a bull three hours prior. Shot placement issue here.

Two other bullet performance issues that I’ll mention as unsatisfactory on elk. One with a TSX, one with a TTSX. Shot a nice bull at 400 yards with a 270 WSM with 130 TSX. Hit low and forward, taking out both “elbow” joints just under the chest cavity. Shot him in the chest when I walked up, no reaction, shot him again. No reaction. Shot him in the neck after that. What I didn’t like here was how he just seemed to soak up the chest shots. Obviously I could have chose to neck shoot him from the start but he was trying to get up and moving his head around. And yeah he would have died from the chest shots, and I don’t know how long I actually gave him before the neck shot, but would have liked him to die faster than whatever my sense of time was allowing.

The other weird one was a bull at about 100 yards with a 264 and 120 TTSXs. Hit him all four times in the chest, broadside, no reaction to any shot, as I was reloading, he walked off and then tipped over. He’s dead, the bullets worked, but none of the rounds phased him for some reason.

My current guns primarily use Accubonds, partitions and ballistic tips, with some Speer Hot Core here and there. I generally stay away from all copper bullets now, as I also have some deer experiences that I felt could be improved on compared to lead core and bonded experiences.

Edit to add:
I see we are adding deer issues here so I’ll add my 243 WSSM issue. Using factory 95 grain ballistic tips, first hit in the liver on a muley at about 200. Follow ups at short range while he was walking in circles mostly blew up on the shoulder. He died eventually. I believe I shot him 6 times, made an absolute mess. Probably outside the velocity window of that bullet at short range.

Killed triple digits of deer with mostly ballistic tips and love them, at moderate muzzle velocity, but I do recognize you can get them going too fast for good penetration especially if you hit bone.

Because they only work if you sever the spine, and an elk especially has a lot more neck than spine. You drop them, and about 30 seconds later they get up and run away with minimal blood only to die from the wound days later.

That's a pretty good account. It's funny as some report the kills like lightning with fast TTSX's and some report as you have EXB. I have used a handful and they've worked fine but like you mentioned, a little slower. I shot a little ranghorn at about 100-150 yards with the Whelen and 225 TSX at 2700 start speed. Bull took the bullet and wandered off. I sorta thought I'd missed till I went to look and he was stone dead at the end of a 30-50 yard blood trail. I changed to 250 PT's cause I thought it was the bullet causing the meandering, but looking back I don't know if any bullet could've done better other than a Bitterroot. Those in cartridges I have used them in have worked wonderfully and stuff doesn't seem to go anywhere, but I haven't done enough to call that fact either. Still cool to hear others experience.

Headshots too. I have seen a couple deer over the years with jaws blown off, I suspect from head or neck shooters.

But, you either kill or miss them....

I’m as guilty as anyone. I shot my biggest bull in the timber in the Frank Church in the jaw. It was a ridiculously long day by the time we finally found him at the back of a box canyon where I was extremely lucky to finish him. After that, I swore I’d never monkey around with that sorta shot on a game animal. Made me feel horrible.

Same/same, along with A-frames and Woodleighs, very happy to report i've never had a bullet failure.

For shot placement, I wait until I have a shot that I know I can make, be it 50 yards or 400 yards. Breathing, hold, rest, brush, movement all figure in. The Barnes TTSX has never failed to anchor elk within spitting distance of where they were hit.

Nope. Not sure. Just my guessed based on good science and a good bit of experience.

180 grain 7mm express-Rem core loct-elk....deer-180 Nosler Partition--went right through--caribou 180--/06 with new hard Hornady plastic tips.Yea shots were right spot,,,,we know how to shoot and where to hit..Rem & Hornady were new releases we were trying.

I haven't recovered al of the bullets that I've shot elk with, but I've recovered all of the elk that I shot with bullets (and an arrow).

I am guilty of all of the above. I call the head shot the chump shot. But you can fail to kill them with a head shot, I have two, to my credit, both deer,, both close range and both never found, and both wasted. Its not something that I am proud of, but I learned to never try it again.