shoot placement

jo bloggs

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Hi there, Last week I shoot a nice red stag with a hart lung shot on examination I could not find any exit wound. Today I was skinning deer and to my amazement fond the perfectly mushroomed round embedded in the inside of its back left leg. Has anyone any experience like this?.
 
More common than you would think

found one under the skin by the nape of a stags neck....shot in chest!
 
I shot a Roe Buck this year, found the bullet just under the skin next to his rib cage. I have it with underneath his good looking head on my wall. makes me smile when I look at it!
 
What calibres are you guys using? I got the same on a fallow sorrel using my .308 with Norma 150 grain BST's.

Alex
 
Hi Alex, using 308 . Winchester power-point 150 grain this is the first deer I have shot using this round I would normally use power shok 160 grain. But finding them extremely hard to get.
 
There you have it, 308 no good for red deer, but on a serious note, I have had the same thing happen
 
There's not necessarily anything wrong with your shot placement. Once a bullet strikes an animal, all bets are off as to what direction it will take; they can and do take some wierd paths through. I've had bullets track the back bone, track the breast bone, and some that seem to turn corners inside the animal. Usually happens if the bullet just touches the edge of a bone. And I've had it happen with all three calibres I use, .243, .308, & .303.
 
I agree totally with Harry Mac. Using .308 150gr I shot a munty through the neck, in and out but he was turning to his right very slightly. the exiting bullet appeared to have nicked his right haunch. Upon skinning I found the round had entered the haunch and smashed the femur in both legs! The round must have turned about 90 degrees after hitting the rear right leg. Ruined the haunches........ bummer!
 
I shot a Fallow buck a few days ago through the shoulders with my .270 and recovered the bullet just under the skin on the opposite side. I was using 150gr SST's. It seems to be a common occurrence with these bullets on large Fallow bucks, but they never go far.
 
Had a 100 gr Nos BT in .25-06 ping off at right angles once inside the beast on a number of occasions...again the likelihood is it hit something hard n the way through. Heavy and slow is the way forward! ;)
 
Occasionally you take a good broadside heart/lung shot and on recovering the carcass find the exit hole -or several exit holes- in an unexpected place. Or no exit hole.
I hear this from other stalkers also, and is used by some to argue in favour of their preferred and war-shipped caliber, the use of which would have prevented this. IMHO it has nothing to do with the caliber you use, it is just one of those things that happen.
 
It's strange how bullets do weird things once they've met the target. As others have said, I've had the bullet track the back bone, others enter the neck and come out the bottom of the chest. I've even shot a doe at 50 yards with 105 grain Gekko's in .243 right between the eyes and its exited the head and upon approaching I found another doe lying next to it with half its head missing.... and I only thought there was one deer!!!! The only calibre I have where I don't get any of this is my 7mm rem mag.
 
Had the same last year, muntjac at 80yds broad side on facing slightly away, the 308 round was a good heart shot then turned opening the gut completely braking the back leg but no exit = dog food.
 
This is a topic which I find fascinating, I have a pot of recovered bullets from .224 .243 .264 .284 .308 and various cast lead bullets in various stages of expansion/disintegration.
Its amazing what a bullet does after it has left our control, one of the strangest was a .243 80gr fired square at the heart, the bullet traveled around the ribs out of the brisket and then into and down the front leg.
As for a back stop a number of times a bullet strike has been found 20' up a tree behind a dead deer.
 
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