DAMAGE

devilishdave

Well-Known Member
The last roe I shot was a cracking animal it was well shot and what should have been a fantastic butcher shot a bit back but not far enough back to catch the liver but on both sides the bruising was massive I got almost nothing from over the ribs and chest. Ended up chucking about 3-4 lbs of blamonge venison. He was abig lad and I still ended up with 25lbs of venison once it was boned out.

I was using 95 grain SST in .243 not driven particularly hard. not chronoed but from the charts I would expect 2950 - 3000 fps.

What cal or round cal combination do you find drops the animal well but does little damage?

Dave
 
this a fair ole chessnut . this my take on it .. i have a client out for a sika stag he would like a big 8 costing xx we stalk and shoot a big trophy happy days with my 270 its worth 50 euro to the game dealer and xx as a trophy .the meat damage is in the price .. culling hinds neck shots only bar you get in to trouble, not clients ,your 243 is a lovely round i would kill a lot of hinds n calfs with mine but with necks shots using sst s .your sst s will give you good clean kills on roe bucks you will lose a little venision ..but you can go home with a clear head knowing you have not left a animal lost on your ground regards john
 
Deer

I agree getting the animal down and dead quickly is more important to me than meet damage. I normaly use Nosler BTs and have had a fair bit of damage from time to time but nothing to this extent. SSome times the noslers are quite clean. I have only shot 4 animals with the SSTs but the damage on this big buck has been the worst by far.

dave
 
sst ,SUPER SHOCK TIPS dave ,does whats it says on the box .best have em on the ground four legs in the air
 
Only shot one spike with a 165gr SST out of the 308 at maybe 2700fps.
The damage was text book, very little blood splash, very little meat damage, shot too far back through ribs but knocked him off his feet.
Huge damage inside and a few lead bits fluting about.
I'm sure the next few might end up with more damage but at least the bullet knocks em down.

Exit 165 SST
165sst.jpg

edi
 
If you want blancmange instead of a clean carcass the SST and NBT's are the way to go. Its a fact rather than a chestnut.
The only true answer IMHO is a well placed premium bullet. they pay for themselves very quickly as the value of the venison lost usually costs 2-8x the cost of the bullet.
100_1281.jpg

100_1280.jpg

100_1279.jpg

100_1278.jpg

308 exit wound, fallow went nowhere.

Mark
 
my least damaging loads are 150 gr seer hotcore from a .30-06 @ about 2950 or my 145 gr 7mm from my 7mm08 speer hotcor @ about 2850. they are also my go to loads that give the best knock down. I have found them better than any 243 load for knockdown and less damaging as well. The bullet always exits. i don't find fragments.

the most damaging i ever used was some 80 gr federal .243. they were awful.they went out at about 3300. the best i have used in 243 was seers 105gr hotcor..... but they weren't accurate enough. my stock 243 load is now hornadies 2450 on 42gr of vectan tu7000. seated to the groove. this is accurate and stays together better than anything else in .243.

I know lots of guys use sst's and nbt's but they are not for me. I don't think you need a premium bullet just a good pointed soft point preferably locked or bonded.

swampy
 
My experience is rather limited, but I have noticed that the damage produced by the bullet seems to depend somewhat on the organs and structures that are struck.

So, a bullet striking heavy bone will create numerous subsidiary wound tracks as fragment fly off.

Similarly, a bullet hitting the liver will create an odd "fluffy" effect, a bit like scrambled eggs - livers seem to be especially fragile and liable to bullets effects.

James
 
Dragging a carcass without a drag bag or sled causes a lot of bloodied meat in a warm chest shot beast.
 
A roe buck shot this season using Remington 95 grn Accutip. virtually no carcass damage. The only thing i can comment is that the bullet went between the ribs on entry and exit on inspection.
Exit wound

Deer045.jpg


Jonathon
 
MarkH said:
The only true answer IMHO is a well placed premium bullet. they pay for themselves very quickly as the value of the venison lost usually costs 2-8x the cost of the bullet.
Mark

The same seems to be said in the article in the link.
 
Damage!

Dave

As a small game dealer that processes about 600 deer a year I do see my share of hard hit beasts, I myself shoot 243 A I & to be honest its bloody hard hitting with 105gr rn-but we do shoot some larger Fallow up to 80kg Dressed Larder Weight so I kind of need somthing to deal with all contenders so to speak!

I also have a 270 WSM & 7x64mm which are also not nice to be on the receiving end of, we prosess lots of deer that are also shot with 308 & the cleanest I seem to deal with are Sika shot by a good friend with a 6.5x55mm, as this seems to hit hard & leave little damage, alot depends on what tends to get in the way like shoulder & blade bones etc, if its clean rib to rib then a 243 can still leave alot of damage as you have found.

Thanks Lee
 
Deer

Thanks for the replys, just out of interest here is a picture of the head of the buck in questin; unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the damage.

124.jpg


Dave
 
hells bells

Dave,
stop using them bullets! if all that is left is the head then that is excessive meat damage.
 
Nice to see a good performance with the Remington 95 grn Accutip, here is one that's not so good. Shot at 90 yards the finger points to the entry wound, the far rib cage was unmarked and there was green everywhere.

30May-1June20089.jpg
 
cjm1066 said:
Nice to see a good performance with the Remington 95 grn Accutip, here is one that's not so good. Shot at 90 yards the finger points to the entry wound, the far rib cage was unmarked and there was green everywhere.

Was that with an accutip or a different type of bullet.
Did it impact and turn 90 degrees through the diaphragm?
have shot foxes with the same round and they all drilled straight through.

Jonathon
 
Back
Top