Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Least blood shot meat.

Tim,

Another Louisiana man...

I'm in the process of building a 9.3x62 Mauser. What's your best load(s)?

DF

Between my 270 and my current 300 WSM, I've shot elk with 270 150 gr Speer Hotcores, .308 180 gr Hotcores, 180 gr PTs, and 180 gr AB's. By far the most bloodshot meat has come from the AB's. The Hotcores kill just as dead with much less bloodshot meat, even at the same MV.

Of course bullet construction comes into play. Just like velocity does. You have to factor in both.

A slow moving solid bullet that doesn't expand would have the least meat damage.

But, you gotta mess up tissue to kill stuff.

There have been complaints about hard bullets passing thru without quick kills. So, I guess everything is a trade off one way or the other.

I can tolerate some messed up meat for a DRT.

DF

I agree completely. A DRT is always the goal. I'm always trying to take perfect double lung shots that will expand to take out both lungs, and maybe the heart. I don't want so much shock that it expands to edible meat.

At least that's what I try to do. I'd love to say I do it everytime, but that wouldn't be the truth. I'd also like to say a double lung shot will give me a DRT too, but that's not true either. My goal is to make a humane killing shot that won't destroy too much meat. For me, that means passing up a lot of shots. I consider it part of hunting.

You can get a DRT without blowing the hell out 10 lb of meat.

I didn't say you couldn't. I said a lung shot won't always be a DRT. It's nice when it is though.

A good alloyed cast bullet slowed down works the same as most X bullets..they hit hard and have deep penetration without much meat damage.

As I've stated before it's Speed that cause the most tissue damage--Hydrostatic shock to the tissue on impact-- animals as well as humans are mostly liquid in an envelope--the military used massive tissue damage as one of the reasons for adopting the .223-small projectile high speed.
High speed causes more tissue damage ie bloodshot meat
Bullet design and fragmentation are culprits as well but IMO it's the Speed

Well, it all depends on where you shoot them, how close and with what. In general, heavy for caliber bullets will damage less meat. I am on the opinion that giving up 10 lbs of meat for a quick kill is preferred to spending long hours tracking down wounded game. The meat quality is not going to be good after that. I like to still the bullet thru the ribs, take out the lungs, get the knife out.

Offering my $0.02 cents worth, if I may?

I disagree that NBTs damage a lot of meat. In fact, well placed they do very very little damage to anything you want to eat.

Sharing some observations of DRT (dead right there) elk. The first NBT I pulled out of a mature bull while guiding was a beautiful shot!

First season and a text-book bull answering a bugle. Predicting what could go wrong, I headed up the hill away from the bull and had not gone 50 yards and the bull was slightly over a hundred yards from my hunter.

Whamb-thump! Shot head on in the center of the chest. Bull tips over, DRT .

Found the bullet in the center of the lung-jello. The bullet did loose some weight, and there was a small tear in the diagram , no abdominal damage (gut-shot). No meat was ruined on entry. No meat was ruined as the bullet dissipated and destroyed the contents of the chest cavity.

I was sold on the concept, the destruction is hard to argue and the kills are quick and clean.

This is what to expect, textbook photo of my 2011 bull. There was a fork-full of meat damage, rib-meat damage around the bullet hole.. But no farside damage, the lung damage can be seen by the bleeding out the nose, the bull feel slightly nose downhill .

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My post was a general one, not aimed at you specifically. We need a way to post that isn't a reply to another post.

If you don't shoot meat,there is no blood shot meat..Behind the shoulder through the lungs produces quick kills without any blood shot meat...Accidents do happen and any bullet can cause blood shot meat especially if it hits bone that shatters like a shotgun blast..

Jayco

Barnes TSXs have given me the least blood-shot meat. Amazingly clean. Nosler .284 120 grn B-tips - no problem. .308 125 grn B-Tips and 139 grn .284 SSTs - Very messy in my limited experience with them. I didn't shoot the 125s. I hunted with a guy who did. 2 shots on antelope and he was cured.

+1...

Single data point of experience with 235gr TSX from .375H&H at MV approx 2,800 fps: Mule Deer doe, down hill shot, quartering toward me, 90 yards, bullet entered high on near side shoulder, clipped the top of the scapula, exited far side mid rib cage. Top portion of the near side front quarter was blood shot, presumably due to secondary projectiles from hitting the bone. Nearly perfect 1" x 2" oval exit on the far side, that you could "eat up to the hole".

After I kill another 15 to 20 animals, I might have sufficient sample size to draw a conclusion... Until then, I am just going to have to eat venison sauerbraten and speculate...

Here's a photo of a mature doe, hit by an 80 gr. TTSX at 3,600 fps out of a .240 Wby. at 130 yds. She ran over 100 yds. There was a huge blood clot between the shoulder and rib cage, in and out holes thru chest wall and a fair amount of damage to the lungs. Just not as much damage to the lungs as to the chest wall where I removed handfuls of blood clot. If all that "shock" had occurred inside the chest instead of outside, I think she'd have been DRT. I'm going to try 85 gr. NPT's at 3,550 fps and see if they perform differently.

DF

DF,

Multiple data points for 6mm Nosler Partitions. I had a string of about 16 "bang flops" on whitetails with 95 grain Nosler Partitions at 2,900 fps out of a .243Win. The 95 grain NPT's will also cause some blood shot if you hit large muscle groups. But heart/double lung shots right behind the shoulder are typically DRT.

Son, daughter, and 3 grand kids have also taken deer with same load in their rifles. Not all Bang Flops. But as best I can recall, every animal that was shot properly was recovered.

FWIW, my 17th animal I hit too far back, rear ribs, front of diaphragm. It went about 40 or 50 yards. Required a follow up shot to finish. Not a bullet problem. Loose nut behind the trigger blew the shot....

I am not sure any bullet other than a solid is going to do very well at 3500 fps at 130 yards. Especially one only 85 grains in weight. You are asking a lot from a small bullet at about Mach III. The PT or the Swift A frame might pass the test.

The Trophy Bonded Bearclaw causes less bloodshot than most...unless you hit a bone.

The Nosler Partition isn't bad either but leaves little bits of lead and jacket along the bullet path.

You're right.

3,500-3,600+ fps results in different bullet dynamics than at more conventional velocities. That rifle represents the extreme in my battery of deer rifles. I'm building a 9.3x62 which will push 250 gr. NAB's at 2,600 fps, which is moving in the other direction. It will be interesting to observe the differences in performance on whitetails and hogs.

DF