Weird bullet path - 11/08/19
Sometimes bullets do weird things.
Last Monday, the 4th of November, I killed my last 2 deer for 2019. I used my old Remington M81 in 300 savage with iron sights just for the fun of using the old gun. My load was 39.0 grains of 4064 and a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip hunting bullet. I zeroed at 150 yards.
As it turned out both deer were shot at about 150, so the hold was dead on. One was shot through the heart and the bullet did exactly what I would expect, in and out, splitting the heart in half. perfect kill.
The other was very weird. It was broadside and the bullet hit the ribs about 1/3 from the diaphragm about center from top to bottom. The hit was maybe 4" back of where I would have tried to place it, but not too bad for old eyes over a flat blade rear sight with a coarse bead front sight. The bullet hit the ribs and turned 90 degrees going back along the side of the deer, down the flank through the side of the paunch and it can to rest in the rear of the right ham. The hit was on the right side of the deer's chest. It took out 6 (yes SIX) ribs and ripped up the back of the right lung, hit the edge of the liver, opened the paunch then cut the flank back about 6" and then went through the gut cavity but didn't touch the intestines at all. It went into the ham and came to rest about 2" from the back of the large muscle that forms the high part of the ham. Here are pics of the empty jacket.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/photos/156296479@N08/]Steve Zihn , on [bleep]
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/photos/156296479@N08/]Steve Zihn , on [bleep]
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/photos/156296479@N08/]Steve Zihn , on [bleep]
At the shot the deer ran but was obviously hit. It got about 80 yards farther. I dressed out the heart shot deer first and then went to the other one. When I was gutting it I was surprised to see the damage and I had to drag it to a creek to wash out the body because of the split paunch. I didn't think I would recover the bullet but I found this jacket when I was doing the butchering.
I have seen some strange bullet performance from other bullets in my past 50+ years of hunting, but this is the first time I have seen it with this particular design of bullet. The old original Nosler solid base B.Ts. were horrid for their propensity to break apart completely. I have a limited amount of experience with the newer Ballistic Tip Hunting line but so far they have been quite good and the ones I have seen slip the jackets have all gone quite deep before they did so, with about 80% of them holding together. What caused this (or any other) bullet to turn at 90 degrees is an "unknown" and I saw an almost identical result many years ago hunting with a hand-made copy of a 58 caliber S. Hawken muzzleloader, shooting a Lee R.E.A.L. bullet and 100 grains of 3F, at a large mule deer buck. The only difference is that the 58 cal crossed to the opposite ham and exited the deer. That was about 48 years ago.
Such performance is weird, uncommon and note worthy, but it does happen at times.
Last Monday, the 4th of November, I killed my last 2 deer for 2019. I used my old Remington M81 in 300 savage with iron sights just for the fun of using the old gun. My load was 39.0 grains of 4064 and a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip hunting bullet. I zeroed at 150 yards.
As it turned out both deer were shot at about 150, so the hold was dead on. One was shot through the heart and the bullet did exactly what I would expect, in and out, splitting the heart in half. perfect kill.
The other was very weird. It was broadside and the bullet hit the ribs about 1/3 from the diaphragm about center from top to bottom. The hit was maybe 4" back of where I would have tried to place it, but not too bad for old eyes over a flat blade rear sight with a coarse bead front sight. The bullet hit the ribs and turned 90 degrees going back along the side of the deer, down the flank through the side of the paunch and it can to rest in the rear of the right ham. The hit was on the right side of the deer's chest. It took out 6 (yes SIX) ribs and ripped up the back of the right lung, hit the edge of the liver, opened the paunch then cut the flank back about 6" and then went through the gut cavity but didn't touch the intestines at all. It went into the ham and came to rest about 2" from the back of the large muscle that forms the high part of the ham. Here are pics of the empty jacket.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by .com/
At the shot the deer ran but was obviously hit. It got about 80 yards farther. I dressed out the heart shot deer first and then went to the other one. When I was gutting it I was surprised to see the damage and I had to drag it to a creek to wash out the body because of the split paunch. I didn't think I would recover the bullet but I found this jacket when I was doing the butchering.
I have seen some strange bullet performance from other bullets in my past 50+ years of hunting, but this is the first time I have seen it with this particular design of bullet. The old original Nosler solid base B.Ts. were horrid for their propensity to break apart completely. I have a limited amount of experience with the newer Ballistic Tip Hunting line but so far they have been quite good and the ones I have seen slip the jackets have all gone quite deep before they did so, with about 80% of them holding together. What caused this (or any other) bullet to turn at 90 degrees is an "unknown" and I saw an almost identical result many years ago hunting with a hand-made copy of a 58 caliber S. Hawken muzzleloader, shooting a Lee R.E.A.L. bullet and 100 grains of 3F, at a large mule deer buck. The only difference is that the 58 cal crossed to the opposite ham and exited the deer. That was about 48 years ago.
Such performance is weird, uncommon and note worthy, but it does happen at times.