Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Do Spitzer Bullets That Do Not Expand "Pencil Through"

Michel458,
I agree ANY bullet will tumble or turn over at the end of its momentum, at least most of the time. That is the reason if you find a bullet just under the off side skin and carefull cut it out you will notice that its front portion is facing the entrance hole, or shooter. If it is not then it probably did a complete turn over as a matter of fact.

Hi Ray
No, not just at the end of penetration. I tested some spitzer solids recently, old stock I had around just to see. Being totally unstable it is impossible to say at what depth they will tumble, some at the beginning of penetration, some in the middle of penetration. There is nothing to drive them up front, so they are unstable and not predictable as to what point they will tumble. Some may very well pencil through as has been stated, but that is not the case all the time. The spitzer solids will tumble, and are unstable during terminal penetration. At what Point they will tumble cannot be predicted. The same as an expanding spitzter that does not expand, nothing driving up front, so it could pencil through at times depending on the medium, or in this case animal tissue, or most likely at some point it will tumble. This is very repeatable in test work, but just not the depth of penetration, because of instability.

Michael

That conincides with my experience as well. michael458, thanks for sharing your experience with us

Part of the deal here is that many animals aren't all that thick. Most deer are less than 10" from side to side, and even a big elk is only about 15" thick right behind the shoulder. It is pretty easy for a bullet that doesn't open to "pencil through" a deer-sized animal, and I have seen this several times. Even if an unopened bullet does start to tumble on an elk (or similar-sized African animal) it may only start to tumble in the far lung, and maybe halfway through that lung.

Like Mule Deer says, I have shot a lot of animals the entrance hole and exit hole seemed the same size and the internal damage was less than needed..You don't see this much on Buffalo and really big animals as its a long ways from rib cage to rib cage and buffalo have those huge over "lapping ribs" that test a bullet. I suspect this is the reason the Swift A frames and Barnes X bullets work so good on buffalo and on ocassions not so well on lighter game..Just my opine so don't lynch me over that last statement!

When a youth the military surplus 30-06 FMJ killed Deer and hogs of course that was before I found out that they "penciled" through without doing any damage.

A friend shot a small Doe year before last with a 270 and 130 Partition through the shoulders. The exit hole in the hide was barely larger than the entrance and at frist he thought it "penciled" through. When I helped him through the deer in the back of the truch a piece of lung fell out of its mouth.

It is possable but the chances are slim

Well I'm no where near as experianced as you fellas but the only same size entry/exit wound I've had was with a 180 Nosler partition that hit a small white tail behind the shoulder.It smashed a rib, shredded the lungs to froth, left the heart intact floating free like the pea in a harness bell, and exited. So what happened? Did the bullet fail to expand and tumble? Explode on contact with the rib and vaporize the lungs with the core carring through like a wadcutter? The deer never took a step. My point being bullets do odd things in the real world. Placement of the shot is the only thing you can control.

I shot a doe prong horn antelope some time ago with a 215 grain Sierra from a .338 Winchester magnum at about 175 yards. At the shot she ran 25 or so yards, stopped and looked around a while, then ambled down the hill another 150 yards or so before standing around a bit longer. She finally laid down and kept watch while I kept waiting for her to tip over. A neck shot with a 25-06 finished her.

I didn't know it at the time, but the .338 bullet went between ribs going in and out, leaving the same diameter hole in the hide on both sides. I regret to this day that I didn't have a camera to prove the results of that particular .338 bullet.

There was hardly a drop of blood in the chest cavity, but what I found most interesting were the lungs. Both laid out side by side were a beautiful pink except for matching round welt rings about a half inch in diameter, centered in the lungs sort of like a mini volcano crater . The rings themselves were about the size of a soda can and were a darker pink, and each had a dark red spot about the size of a dime in the middle where the .338 bullet passed through. Both lungs looked identical as did the flesh between the ribs on both sides.

That bullet didn't tumble, but it probably didn't slow down either since it hardly met any resistance.

Some may believe a .338 Win Mag too much gun for antelope, but I haven't shot another one with it to say it is.

David

hard2get2,

The instance you describe sounds like typical Nosler Partition performance to me. In fact, several "premium" bullets tend to leave similar-sized entrance and exit holes, with the only evidence that they expanded on the inside of the animal. I have seen Partitions do pretty much what you describe dozens of times, and Barnes X's too.

Out of curiosity, the only bullet I have had that penciled-through without any expansion at all, was a 107gr 6,5mm Sierra MK that hit a roe buck square in the rib cage at 200+ meters.

The bullet hit in between two ribs, made a neat little hole in both lungs, and another neat 6,5mm hole on its way out, in between the opposite ribs and out.

Through the scope I saw it bust a stone right behind the buck, which made me think, at first, that I had missed.

It did not run much, though, and in spite of not leaving any blood on the groung my tracking dog easily found it a couple hundred meters from where it was satanding when I took the shot.

Cartridge was the 6,5x57R and muzzle velocity 3,150fps or so.

BBerg,
The Sierra Match King your refer to performed as it was designed to do..It is a target bullet not a game bullet therefore I am not surprised at the performance you got..

However, I have seen the Match Kings perform properly, but you simply cannot depend on them to do that. They are very inconsistent as a hunting bullet and that is the reason Sierra doesn't recommend them for hunting and the reason they make the Game King and Pro Hunter bullets.

Sure, Ray, but I would have expected them to fail -if ever- over expanding, given their hollow point, a very thin jacket, and the respectable muzzle velocity the 6,5x57R provided.
BBerg

n A dime is much larger than .338 diameter