I had the honor and pleasure of helping my friend get his first deer. He shot a doe with his .35 Rem (passed down from his father) at about 110 yards (ranged the next morning). It was a nice broadside presentation in the last few minutes of legal shooting on the last day he could hunt. I was confident he hit the deer based on its reaction, but when we got to the spot there was no blood.
Now, it was dark, but we had 4" of fresh snow on the ground and had our headlamps on. We easily found the spot where the deer was standing at the shot and could clearly see the tracks as it dug in and took off. I was very surprised to see no blood. Then we saw hair. At this point I was thinking it was a bad hit. This was an extremely disappointing moment - it was the second year he had driven up to NY from VA to hunt with us and now it looked like we still hadn't managed to help him get a deer.
So we followed the tracks expecting a long, probably fruitless track in the dark and then he found the deer only 20 yards away! There was no exit wound and no blood except a small pool about the size of my fist under the deer where it lay. Upon field dressing the deer we found 3" piece of rib and the heart had multiple lacerations (and the lungs almost certainly did as well, but not as easy to see under head lamps.
Many people might say that the bullet performed well since it dropped the deer within 20 yards, but the bullet failed in my opinion. There is no reason a 200 gr., .358 cal bullet should blow up on the rib of a whitetail doe. Under different conditions, such as no snow and denser brush, this could have resulted in hours of work trying to find the deer or even potentially a lost deer. I know a lot of people like Cor-Lokts, in part because they are cheap, but I would not hunt with them, unless I had no choice. Unfortunately, for my friend, he has no other choice at this point since .35 Rem ammo is extremely hard to find.
Now, it was dark, but we had 4" of fresh snow on the ground and had our headlamps on. We easily found the spot where the deer was standing at the shot and could clearly see the tracks as it dug in and took off. I was very surprised to see no blood. Then we saw hair. At this point I was thinking it was a bad hit. This was an extremely disappointing moment - it was the second year he had driven up to NY from VA to hunt with us and now it looked like we still hadn't managed to help him get a deer.
So we followed the tracks expecting a long, probably fruitless track in the dark and then he found the deer only 20 yards away! There was no exit wound and no blood except a small pool about the size of my fist under the deer where it lay. Upon field dressing the deer we found 3" piece of rib and the heart had multiple lacerations (and the lungs almost certainly did as well, but not as easy to see under head lamps.
Many people might say that the bullet performed well since it dropped the deer within 20 yards, but the bullet failed in my opinion. There is no reason a 200 gr., .358 cal bullet should blow up on the rib of a whitetail doe. Under different conditions, such as no snow and denser brush, this could have resulted in hours of work trying to find the deer or even potentially a lost deer. I know a lot of people like Cor-Lokts, in part because they are cheap, but I would not hunt with them, unless I had no choice. Unfortunately, for my friend, he has no other choice at this point since .35 Rem ammo is extremely hard to find.