Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What 'cartridge' have you had the MOST --DRTs?

25-06 with 120 Gr Hornady HP's.
280 Rem with Hornady 139 SST's

5.56 ball.

BC

Evidently the OP has not shot that many deer. A lung shot, will not always knock a deer down. HV rounds may err to that side often, but will not be 100%.
And regardless the deer lives longer than 1-2 seconds anyway, being picky that I am.

Shot placement and don't worry about it.

Bob, that was at the OP there, not you.

308 w/165gr and 7x57 w/154gr RN. 25-06 w/100gr has dropped a few right there. In fact everyone if I remember right. But it also made any flesh hit uneatable. I went to the 117gr Hornady and kills but animals generally walk off 30' or so and fall down.

Jeff got it.

This may happen more often than we think, this business of a high velocity bullet through the lungs blowing blood from nose and mouth but have only seen it that I was aware once. I shot a good sized 4x4 that hove into view on a small hogback suddenly quartering on, so I shot off hand.

He collapsed to the shot at 60 yards or so and as the rifle recoiled I was aware of a sort of "cloud" of mist in front of his face. Got to him and the front of his antlers were covered with blood that blew out the nose and mouth at bullet impact.

The load was 7RM and 140 BBC at about 3300 fps. I found that bullet back in the opposite ham. Still have it...there was no wind that morning and I guess the light was right to see this happen.

Ahh...the wonders of high velocity...

But as often as not a lung shot "anything" will make tracks but not many but you never know.... some will cover 50-100 yards. One of our more astute posters on here related to me this year, a 7mm-150 BT from a mag 7 at 3250 let a doe cover over 100 yards with a solid lung hit and this is supposed to be one of those fast killers with lung shots. One buck in Sask covered 80-90 yards after a 300 magnum 180 blew chunks of lung and blood debris all over the snow on the off side...the exit was pretty big. So you never know.

Personally have had more DRT's(with anything) when bone and vitals were taken at the same time. More dramatic and predictable IME; and what I will just naturally go for if I can..

It was the last morning of a Kansas DIY rifle hunt for me. I had climbed down from the stand and was circling around a field of prairie grass with the intent to walk through it and jump a buck as an attempt to salvage the hunt. Before I could make it all the way around, a couple of deer jumped, one being a ten point. Swinging my 270 WBY mag with the running buck, I touched one off. I quickly ran over to that area so that I could look into the pasture beyond and get another look at him. There was no deer running across the pasture, so I went back where he was when I shot. There he lay with an entrance just in front of the hind quarter with a slight angle forward to a mid body exit. No spinal damage that I could tell, just an immediate kill from a ultra high velocity cartridge. Since then, I've seen the same type performance out of the 257 WBY magnum on several occasions.
I certainly think bone is the best option for dropping them, but there is something to the shocking power of a high velocity round.

Sometimes it seems that way

But then, it won't work...and you scratch your head.

I can't recall a lot of DRT shots, but the two I do remember were with a 130 grain Federal .270, and the other with a 270 grain Speer Gold Dot SP .44 Mag.
I don't think it's all that important what you shoot 'em with.

Like I said, shot placement, all the rest is never 100% reliable.

I"ve seen 270s with pure gut hit, not even angling but broadside, flop and never move. I"ve seen the same shooter bust a shoulder/leg bone and blow stuff all over the the deer running off without much running gear left... go figure.

YOu can hype velocity all you want, but it simply isn't the end all. But it can up the odds, but to me, thats depending on how much energy is transferred.

Read fast 300 mag rounds, and I dropped more lung shot deer in their tracks with a slightly slower 243.... Go figure. Best I can, the 243 gave more energy to the deer, and the 300 blew more of it out past into the dirt...

The most spectacular DRT I ever did was during testing the then new, Woodleigh Weldcore 340gn Spire Point .416 bullet. Geoff McDonald told me it was designed to perform up to around 2600fps.

The trouble was, I asked him that question "after" I was using it at over 2900fps from a .416 Weatherby. I took a shot at a goat feeding on the edge of a clearing from a couple of hundred yards out and the bullet hit high lung directly in the spine.

The result was rapid expansion that blew the animal in half and sprayed the trees behind with buckets of blood soaked molecular structure, chunks of skin and flesh and fine red mist.

Resuscitation failed, the bullet didn't

I believe it's more the bullet than the cartridge. If you hand load, just about any cartridge with the right bullet will do.

In factory ammo, I've seen more bang flops from the .243 with 100 gr. Remington loads than any other cartridge.

Personally, I hand load and select bullets for bang flop kills. Sierra Game Kings or Nosler Ballistic Tips will do that.

The most from a single cartridge would have to be the 220 Swift because I've shot more deer with it than the others.

280 Remington with 150 CoreLokt's

.376 steyr. 225gr. Hornady sp at around 2600 fps using IMR 4895. It rolls the muddy foogers. Haven't had one yet take more than 2 more steps. Less meat damage than a high velocity smaller diameter round. Where we hunt, in thick mountain laurel and dense woods where a 75-150 yd. shot is the norm, it's damn near the perfect round for me. Shot a nice little 6 pointer right at dusk this year stand hunting with my daughter, and it fell in it's tracks with all 4 legs straight up in the air like a turtle on it's back.

Exactly. I have an uncle that cussed a .22-250 after he maimed up several deer. I asked him what bullet he was using..... a 52 gr. hornady flat base match bullet?! Hunted with a friend of a friend for hogs in Crockett TX last year, same story, .223 loaded with 55 gr. VMAX. The wrong bullet along with poor placement, but it's the fault of the caliber choice... My Dad taught me very early on that you pick the right tool for the job, and if you don't get the shot you need, the animal walks.

For deer-sized game, I'd have to say .257 Wby Mag with 120 gr. Nosler Partition.

Death Ray...

Well I would have to say for me it has been my .300 Win mag with 165 and 180 grain NBT's. However I have killed more deer with it than any other rifle. Having said this all 3 off my kills with my new .270 WSM and 150 grain NBT's have been DRT. I can only think of 3 kills where I hit the CNS. All others were thru the chest and all had exit wounds. I will also say most of my DRT kills were at distances over 200 yards. Most of my hunting is hillside to hillside and I have come to expect a bang flop. Even at 400 yards with a .257AI and 115 grain Partition a big doe double lunged only stumbled about 10 yards this past season.

.270 Win, of course, with 130g TTSX

Didn't read the whole thread but have to say my most DRT is using my 220 Swift and 55 gr Vmax on varmints but since everyone else is talking about big game then I'll share I get very few DRT on big game, most all go at least a couple of feet. Even the heart shot animals go a little ways.

As far as caliber goes I haven't seen a big difference in DRT kills from my .243, .257, 25WSM, .284, .280 or even the .375 H&H.

I will state the animals I've shot with the Barnes bullets go further, on the average, than those taken with cup and core but they all die fairly quick.

The title of the OP should read

"what bullet and at what impact velocity have you had the most DRT's with?"..and throw out all the CNS hits.

headstamps have zero impact on DRT's.

And to a certain extent shot placement matters.

Matters that most every shot that has been DRT that I"ve seen, has been really close to a CNS shot, and probably either shock or more likely frags of bone/lead/jacket did the shock rahter than simply a fast bullet passing by within an inch or so of CNS...At least thats my guess, x ray would be the ONLY way to know for sure.