Copper and blood trails

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View attachment 285490

Blood trail left from a large red hind that was heart shot my myself a few days ago, this was at an estimated impact velocity of 2385 FPS (based on Applied ballistics) with a .30 175 LRX. It made it 13m downhill (including the distance it rolled down to the base of that tree seen in that picture).

The bullet had taken out a fist sized hole from the bottom of the heart (shot was very downhill) and left a roughly 1/2-3/4” exit hole on the carcass.

I certainly didn’t have any issue finding it nor following the blood trail.

Ben
M or Mtr big difference ?! Lets assume mtr because 13 miles is way to long for a human lol
 
There is no perfect bullet, lead or copper!

But in my personal experience the barnes ttsx is consistently the top performing projectile!

This roe kid shot last night, just over 200m, distance run 5m

7mm 120gn Barnes TTSX from my 7x57, these are running at 3000 ft./s, a bit quick for my liking, but the performance is good and accurate so it’s a keeper!
 

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Couple more pictures

Even with lead , it doesn’t get better than that!

As you can see from the top pictures, I specifically selected this animal, just to prove a point proper ribbed, no deliberate, shoulder shot, or high shoulder shot required, neither is the hand grenade🙈😂😂
 

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The lead versus Copper debate really is over!

@caberslash if you had put the bullet in the right place, you would have had a blood trail 😂😂👍

I agree… a neck shot has been misplaced if the spine has not been hit and broken. If you hit the bone properly there will be no running.
Assuming the deer was broadside Caberslash has probably only hit the trachea which is a survivable wound. Lucky to get that one and 100% down to shot placement not bullet construction.
 
The lead versus Copper debate really is over!

@caberslash if you had put the bullet in the right place, you would have had a blood trail 😂😂👍

Agreed to a point Lee.

I think the thread (and many others) shows that both Barnes and Yew Tree work just as well as lead if you stick the bullet in the right place. I certainly would not say the same about all copper bullets as experience has shown that some are just too hard and don’t work well.

The argument going on here is which is best, Barnes or Yew Tree, an argument we had about different brands of lead bullet ever since the site started. Nice to see the debate moved to that level.
 
Agreed to a point Lee.

I think the thread (and many others) shows that both Barnes and Yew Tree work just as well as lead if you stick the bullet in the right place. I certainly would not say the same about all copper bullets as experience has shown that some are just too hard and don’t work well.

The argument going on here is which is best, Barnes or Yew Tree, an argument we had about different brands of lead bullet ever since the site started. Nice to see the debate moved to that level.
Bullets are like biscuits, we all have our favourites and some right to dunk and some do not ! 🙈😂

The only thing really that gets on my tits, are the stalkers that dismiss copper projectiles without giving them a good go.

I will give you your due Nigel, you have given them a good go there’s no doubt about it!

It’s just a matter of, I prefer the dark chocolate digestive, you prefer the custard cream 🙈
 
I agree… a neck shot has been misplaced if the spine has not been hit and broken. If you hit the bone properly there will be no running.
Assuming the deer was broadside Caberslash has probably only hit the trachea which is a survivable wound. Lucky to get that one and 100% down to shot placement not bullet construction.

Be dead on the spot with a VMax, I know that for a fact. Bit difficult to walk around with a burst jugular vein...

Bullets are supposed to make up for inopportune placement, immediate fragmentation/expansion and large temporary cavities (which some may wish to call 'shock') helps. All lacking with copper.

I'll be the first to admit that placement was not optimum, not wishing to use terrain and a high level of ground cover as an excuse.

Then again I have not had the fortune of honing my skills over the many miles of open, flat, tilled fields, and tall hedgerows which make up much of the Englandshire recreational stalking scene :norty: :rofl:
 
Be dead on the spot with a VMax, I know that for a fact. Bit difficult to walk around with a burst jugular vein...

Bullets are supposed to make up for inopportune placement, immediate fragmentation/expansion and large temporary cavities (which some may wish to call 'shock') helps. All lacking with copper.

I'll be the first to admit that placement was not optimum, not wishing to use terrain and a high level of ground cover as an excuse.

Then again I have not had the fortune of honing my skills over the many miles of open, flat, tilled fields, and tall hedgerows which make up much of the Englandshire recreational stalking scene :norty: :rofl:


Stop shooting deer in the heart, no need to faff about.

Bang, flop.

Sorted!

Hmmm…

I would also say that if you had been using a fragmenting copper bullet you might well have had a similar margin for error to the VMax.
 
Be dead on the spot with a VMax, I know that for a fact. Bit difficult to walk around with a burst jugular vein...

Bullets are supposed to make up for inopportune placement, immediate fragmentation/expansion and large temporary cavities (which some may wish to call 'shock') helps. All lacking with copper.

I'll be the first to admit that placement was not optimum, not wishing to use terrain and a high level of ground cover as an excuse.

Then again I have not had the fortune of honing my skills over the many miles of open, flat, tilled fields, and tall hedgerows which make up much of the Englandshire recreational stalking scene :norty: :rofl:
Don’t worry, there are very few hedgerows and no tilled fields near me either! On a technical matter you need to sever both carotid arteries to get a reliable bleed out and these are better protected than the jugular veins and much more elastic so resistant to stretching. Your argument about poor shot placement goes both ways. If a quartering away shot is made from the left side into the rumen, the Vmax stands a far lesser chance of penetrating to the vitals than a monometal like a TTSX.
 
The only time recently I’ve wondered about copper bullets was last week. Shot a mature roe doe at 200 plus metres in -4 conditions. Shot was perfect but she ran over 150meters. I saw the strike so knew she was hit hard. There was a blood trail, not a great one but enough of a one that could have followed it without the dog. Did the temp affect the bullet? I don’t know. Won’t put me off using them, still think they are good bullets
 
Be dead on the spot with a VMax, I know that for a fact. Bit difficult to walk around with a burst jugular vein...

Bullets are supposed to make up for inopportune placement, immediate fragmentation/expansion and large temporary cavities (which some may wish to call 'shock') helps. All lacking with copper.

I'll be the first to admit that placement was not optimum, not wishing to use terrain and a high level of ground cover as an excuse.

Then again I have not had the fortune of honing my skills over the many miles of open, flat, tilled fields, and tall hedgerows which make up much of the Englandshire recreational stalking scene :norty: :rofl:
Unfortunately, you are still showing your relative inexperience, you are only doing now what most of us have done many many many years ago!

There is nothing that you can do in deerstalking that I have not already done, tried, or fuked up on I will assure you.

And i hold my hand up and admit it, I’m big enough, an ugly enough to take it on the chin!

You’ll calm down in a year or two years time, it’s all a little bit new and exciting for you at the moment, You can clearly see it in the way you post.
 
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