A couple days ago I took a whitetail doe with my .300WM firing Federal Premium ammo loaded with 165 gr Nosler Partitions. The box indicates MV of 3,050 fps. The doe was standing quartering toward me at about 40 yards. Its body was turned so that the front shoulders were quartering pretty severely toward me but the rear legs were much less so.
I aimed tight at the rear edge of the shoulder. In hindsight I should have fired through the shoulder. In any case, the deer ran only about 40 yards before expiring. The entrance wound was like a slash about 3 - 4 inches long. There were 2 broken ribs, one lung was destroyed and the stomach was punctured. Stomach contents were in the damaged lung and in the entrance wound. There was no exit wound and I could not find the bullet. There was no sign of bullet impact on the interior of the chest or abdomen of the deer and no damage beyond the stomach. I expected the back half of the bullet to keep penetrating but apparently it didn't.
I think the deer was quartering more severely than I perceived and that only a portion of the bullet entered the chest cavity while the majority including the back half continued into forest.
I aimed tight at the rear edge of the shoulder. In hindsight I should have fired through the shoulder. In any case, the deer ran only about 40 yards before expiring. The entrance wound was like a slash about 3 - 4 inches long. There were 2 broken ribs, one lung was destroyed and the stomach was punctured. Stomach contents were in the damaged lung and in the entrance wound. There was no exit wound and I could not find the bullet. There was no sign of bullet impact on the interior of the chest or abdomen of the deer and no damage beyond the stomach. I expected the back half of the bullet to keep penetrating but apparently it didn't.
I think the deer was quartering more severely than I perceived and that only a portion of the bullet entered the chest cavity while the majority including the back half continued into forest.