Peripheral Plueral Tracking! (AKA Bullet Did Funny Thing)

[ShootyBang]

Was out stalking tonight. Spotted a gang of fallow couched down out along a woodland. Stalked up, go on bipods, and when one stood up, took a shot: 275m (300 yards), with my Blaser R8 in 6.5 Swede, using factory Sellier & Bellot 120gr copper monolithics. Animal *dropped like a stone*.

Went to drag animal back and noted no exit wound, curious, I thought. On gralloch back at the larder, we find a perfect case of Peripheral Plueral Tracking (according to my ex-Regt now-EMT buddy, confirmed by old army buddy who's a doc back in Canadia.) Gamekeeper snapped these pics. You're looking from abdomen into thoracic cavity, as beast is suspended. Shot entered animal's left side, a little higher than I like, hit the far wall, turned 90 degrees, and then tracked along the chest wall perpendicular from line of shot. I did not find the bullet, but it had tracked back far enough to scratch the liver. Medic buddy explained its a hydraulic effect of the lungs acting like a non-Newtonian fluid, then hitting the 'architectural' feature of the

A quick look at a ballistic calculator tells me the 120gr bullet (which does 2,700fps out of my bore) was doing 2,096fps and had 1,170 ft/lb at target. This bullet has a Sectional Density of 0.246.

Just thought people might find this interesting.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Hmmm. Bullets can, and occasionally do funny things when they hit a beast. I have had a few over the years which bamboozled me - many of them before the advent of mobile phones/cameras and often (I assume) caused by clipping a bone upon entry and either tumbling or ricocheting way off their expected course through the body. I have heard of PPT but never seen pictures, interesting post, thanks for posting.
Two of my own examples - a fox shot with a .222 and 50 gns Vmax where the bullet literally exploded upon entry creating a huge shallow wound more like an exit cavity and a roe doe shot full broadside-on with a 120gns Sierra Prohunter from my 6.5x55SE which exited at the bottom ribs taking most of them with it.
Physics is a funny old thing…

 

[tusker]

This is more usual than you think. A few years ago I was in Scotland on the stags. I shot a stag with 270. 130 grn bullet. Shot struck a little high but good and the stag ran as it passed me I noticed its jaw was broken I was horrified , did the stalker think I had messed up a head shot? I shot the stag again and it dropped. The stalker confirmed he saw the first bullet strike correctly and on examination the bullet had turned 90% and exited out of the jaw. It still puzzles me today.
Tusker

 

[ShootyBang]

^sorry, my incomplete sentence above is "hitting the 'architecturally sound' feature of the rib-cage and taking the path of lowest resistance". Must've screwed up the edit.

Exit from the jaw... wild.

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

Once the bullet has left the barrel of your rifle, in those milliseconds, you are in a chain of events, that you have no control over, and it will be what it will be, that’s regardless, if the bullet is lead or copper!

 

[mike308]

I shot a red stag last year, 130 yards,150 grain fox classic hunter. Bullet entered chest on right side hit the ribs opposite traveled up and hit the spine then down and across and exited through the right haunch, coming back my way. The bullet managed to miss the rumen.

 

[243ack]

Hmmm. Bullets can, and occasionally do funny things when they hit a beast. I have had a few over the years which bamboozled me - many of them before the advent of mobile phones/cameras and often (I assume) caused by clipping a bone upon entry and either tumbling or ricocheting way off their expected course through the body. I have heard of PPT but never seen pictures, interesting post, thanks for posting.
Two of my own examples - a fox shot with a .222 and 50 gns Vmax where the bullet literally exploded upon entry creating a huge shallow wound more like an exit cavity and a roe doe shot full broadside-on with a 120gns Sierra Prohunter from my 6.5x55SE which exited at the bottom ribs taking most of them with it.
Physics is a funny old thing…


View attachment 294446View attachment 294445

Re: the fox. Had this happen a couple of times with my 5-35SMC (bullet doing North of 4600fps). Hard to imagine a projectile travelling at that speed can disintegrate on impact without penetrating.

 

[Puds]

I was helping a friend who was culling fallow. He headshot a pricket side-on at 100yds with a 6.5x55, and when we went over to gralloch, there was a doe laid out next to him. The pricket had an entry in the side of the head, an exit in between his eyes at 90 degrees to the entry, and the doe had a clean hole right in the back of her head.

 

[ShootyBang]

I was helping a friend who was culling fallow. He headshot a pricket side-on at 100yds with a 6.5x55, and when we went over to gralloch, there was a doe laid out next to him. The pricket had an entry in the side of the head, an exit in between his eyes at 90 degrees to the entry, and the doe had a clean hole right in the back of her head.

That is absolutely wild. I've heard of accidental 2nd kills from pass through, but this one is new to me!

 

[VSS]

An extraordinary one, that I've recounted on here before:
Shot a fallow doe broadside at sensible range with 270, and watched in horror as all of her guts fell out on the side nearest me. Literally everything out, a clean gralloch more or less. As with all disasters, it seemed to unfold in front of me in slow motion, and it was just as though she'd been unzipped all the way along her side. And then she ran off, tripping over her own innards that were getting wrapped around her feet. Tried to jump a fence into forest about 300 yards away, but thank God the trailing guts prevented her from getting over. Then headed off in the direction of a road. I daredn't set off in pursuit as I'd probably have pushed her onto the road and lost all chance of a second shot. Just watched her through my bins until eventually she lay down and slowly expired, probably 500 yards away by this time.
When I eventually recovered her, it became apparent that my bullet had deflected off a rib on the entry side, turned through 90 degrees, and travelled the full length of her body just within the skin layer, effectively slicing her open as it went. It had exited far back on the flank, and then grazed a line across her haunch before carrying on to goodness knows where. There was absolutely no green contamination of the carcass - it was absolutely clean inside.

 

[Dave Lakes]

I had this recently on a roe doe. Shot in the ‘armpit’, on skinning it appeared that the bullet had split, with both fragments travelling along the rib cage on either side, exiting in front of the haunch, one in the direction of fire and one back towards me! Incredible really.

 

[ShootyBang]

An extraordinary one, that I've recounted on here before:
Shot a fallow doe broadside at sensible range with 270, and watched in horror as all of her guts fell out on the side nearest me. Literally everything out, a clean gralloch more or less. As with all disasters, it seemed to unfold in front of me in slow motion, and it was just as though she'd been unzipped all the way along her side. And then she ran off, tripping over her own innards that were getting wrapped around her feet. Tried to jump a fence into forest about 300 yards away, but thank God the trailing guts prevented her from getting over. Then headed off in the direction of a road. I daredn't set off in pursuit as I'd probably have pushed her onto the road and lost all chance of a second shot. Just watched her through my bins until eventually she lay down and slowly expired, probably 500 yards away by this time.
When I eventually recovered her, it became apparent that my bullet had deflected off a rib on the entry side, turned through 90 degrees, and travelled the full length of her body just within the skin layer, effectively slicing her open as it went. It had exited far back on the flank, and then grazed a line across her haunch before carrying on to goodness knows where. There was absolutely no green contamination of the carcass - it was absolutely clean inside.

This is absolutely bonkers.

 

[VSS]

This is absolutely bonkers.

"Distressing" would be a better description of the experience.
Not too dissimilar to what happened to the bullet in your photos really, only mine travelled along the outside of the ribs, and continued along the animal's side.
I haven't been so keen on using the traditional heart/lung shot placement since then, and now tend to favour aiming for the hilar region.

 

[ShootyBang]

I also do a lot of hilar placement. This was meant to be a hilar shot but I got the dialling a bit too high. They do seem to drop pretty well... I've had less running than with engine-room.

"Distressing" would be a better description of the experience.
Not too dissimilar to what happened to the bullet in your photos really, only mine travelled along the outside of the ribs, and continued along the animal's side.
I haven't been so keen on using the traditional heart/lung shot placement since then, and now tend to favour aiming for the hilar region.

 

[geoffw]

I shot a red stag last year, 130 yards,150 grain fox classic hunter. Bullet entered chest on right side hit the ribs opposite traveled up and hit the spine then down and across and exited through the right haunch, coming back my way. The bullet managed to miss the rumen.

Had the same .308 win, broadside fallow at 100m.
…Except it didn’t miss the rumen… had me very puzzled until I pulled the bullet out from just under the skin of the haunch.

 

[Roebuck9]

I was up in Scotland on the lease and after a couple of hours in the high tower with no sightings at all decided to go for a walk. I could see the sun was coming up on my left so walked down through the rows of trees to an open ride 500 yards away. With the blinding sun shining through a gap in the ride I walked froward with the sun over my shoulder and saw a button roe buck grazing on the far tree line, I deployed the sticks and took a heart shot at 100 yards. This is when it did not make sense, I saw the buck in the air and the guts falling out. When I walked over to gralloch it, it was already done. On hanging it up to skin it I found the bullit had turned 90 degree left and unzipped it along the right side and found the bullet in the rear right side spine.

I do not know what happened but my thought was that as I pulled the trigger he sensed I was there and lept to his right and towards me the bullit hit and went down the right side to the right spine. We shall never know.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Re: the fox. Had this happen a couple of times with my 5-35SMC (bullet doing North of 4600fps). Hard to imagine a projectile travelling at that speed can disintegrate on impact without penetrating.

Hm, I had never heard of that cartridge until you mentioned it, a barrel life of how many 100s?

 

[User00036]

Hmmm. Bullets can, and occasionally do funny things when they hit a beast. I have had a few over the years which bamboozled me - many of them before the advent of mobile phones/cameras and often (I assume) caused by clipping a bone upon entry and either tumbling or ricocheting way off their expected course through the body. I have heard of PPT but never seen pictures, interesting post, thanks for posting.
Two of my own examples - a fox shot with a .222 and 50 gns Vmax where the bullet literally exploded upon entry creating a huge shallow wound more like an exit cavity and a roe doe shot full broadside-on with a 120gns Sierra Prohunter from my 6.5x55SE which exited at the bottom ribs taking most of them with it.
Physics is a funny old thing…


View attachment 294446View attachment 294445

Foxy, had a similar thing happen 3 times out of 5, the last one hit a rib & exploded, the fox was still alive when I went over to it, I could see the lungs still breathing, it left a memorable image in my mind for a long time after. Needless to say I changed bullets. No more ballistic tips for me.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Foxy, had a similar thing happen 3 times out of 5, the last one hit a rib & exploded, the fox was still alive when I went over to it, I could see the lungs still breathing, it left a memorable image in my mind for a long time after. Needless to say I changed bullets. No more ballistic tips for me.

Ouch - not nice.
Funny thing is I have used 50gns Vmax since forever with always great results - I can’t recall anything running, if shoulder or centre mass they usually dropped in their tracks - this one had the bullet where I wanted it but !
Odd.

 

[User00036]

Ouch - not nice.
Funny thing is I have used 50gns Vmax since forever with always great results - I can’t recall anything running, if shoulder or centre mass they usually dropped in their tracks - this one had the bullet where I wanted it but !
Odd.

I once used a cheap set of shelves laid on their side for zeroing, with a target on the top shelf, on inspection the bullets went clean through the top shelf, but on the second shelf, no hole whatsoever, just specks of tiny grey dust, like a spluttering aerosol of paint. I do think that some of the lighter ballistic tip bullets in .224 are designed more for prairie dog sized critters, as part of their advertising blurb they always state explosive on impact. They're not wrong. Many folks say they never had a problem, but I did, & it put me off.