possible faulty bullet

ksb

Well-Known Member
i have read a few times of bullets not expanding and i suppose that sooner or later the odds are you might come across one. my rifle is 6.5x55 and i reload 14ogr sierra gamekings, always been pleased with the accuracy and stopping power of the rounds. At the weekend i stalked in on a group of fallow does and shot a doe side on at approx 110m, she was moving from left to right so was shot just behind the front right elbow. I was happy with the shot but didnt hear the thump of the strike. The other does ran a short distance and stopped making me think the first doe was maybe still standing. I approached quietly trying to get a better shot at another doe and a few does broke cover around 40m. An old doe walked out of the cover not looking 100% and i shot her at about 40m, i watched her fall and expire but held the GWP back as i wanted him to be calm to find the first doe. Anyway after about 20mins looking for the first shot site i couldnt find any sign and in a wooded area it is hard to find the land mark you had picked as the shot site. i was joined by a friend and we both made our way over to the old doe, i mentioned that i thought she wasnt right when i shot her and it could be the first doe shot twice. he looked the the doe and she had a small hole in her back left leg, my friend expression said it all, " how the F@~K did you hit it in the back leg. when we flipped her over there was an entry behind the right front leg and the leg wound was an exit and a very small exit. When i gralloched her, the chest cavity was full of blood and the liver well hit. the bullet seemed to put about 3 holes in the deer and not deform. 1 entry to chest, 2 exit from body and 3 exit from the left back leg.

the main thing is the deer was found and the mystery solved

keith
 
I'm confused, did she have two entry wounds? Ie, was she definitely the first deer you shot at?
I hate to say it, but first rule would be to identify the first shot animal before embarking on taking another, especially as you say you hadn't heard a convincing response to to the shot.....
sounds to me like there could be another deer walking about wounded or dead possibly, bullets fragment sometimes in odd ways giving the strange exit wounds, but you only found one entry, I would be looking for the other deer I think!
 
Yer i had this when useng the Hornady .234 95gr sst bullet . I hit what you could say the golden H&L shot after a short run i walked around 120 yards and found him a small as expected hole just behind the elbow but no exit ?? on dealing with him i found that the bullet had hit the offside rib then gone backwards and smashed everything in its path making him unfit to eat . It had turned 90 degs back wards to my left .last time i used SST bullets now use 100gr pro hunters and 150 pro hunters in my 308 .No unexplained Kennedy bullet movements now.
 
my thaughts are the gameking on the second has broken up and exited in pieces, my own experiences of gamekings confirm this but i am using a 270 and would have thought the 6.5 a lot kinder, bullets i recovered from strike sites and deer where just an empty jacket and no core left. I would be going back and looking for your first deer.
when in any doubt mark your firing position so you have something to keep going back on.
I might have read it wrong but to me i would be going back to widen my search, atb wayne
 
100% that this was the first deer. The shot that killed it was a head shot at 40m. the exit wound on the rear leg was very similar in size to an entry and well formed hence i dont think it was a fragment but could be wrong. it appeared like a fresh entry wound.
 
Ah right thats a better expanation, when you said one entry and three exits that threw me, atb wayne
 
I'd always use Sierra Prohunter bullets rather than the Gameking. They have a thicker jacket and in my view perform better than the GK. ATB
 
I have had similar situations with a couple of Gamekings but both dropped to the shot.
A bit of research reveals that unlike Prohunters, Gamekings have no requirement to retain high residual weights after impact.
 
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