Dave 44- another example...
About 4 years ago I set up a 'sniper hide' in a big blowdown 130 yards from a known deer crossing along an open field; good rest, unobscured vision, and NO WAY the deer were gonna see me first. I had handgun hunted up until the last 2 days of the season, and now it was time to shoot some meat. I was using a tried & true old Remington 78 (plain-Jane 700) in .30-06 with Sierra 150 SP's and a charge of H4895 that has proven to pass 2900 fps from this particular rifle- which had been carefully sighted in at the known distance. A reliable old 3x9 Bushnell completed the package.
I watched about a dozen deer walk by in hopes that a nice buck, who lived in that area, would appear. About 9:30 a 150 pound doe sauntered out and I decided it was time to make steaks. The area is populated enough that I was going to ty to line her up with a big cottonwood, to catch the spent slug when it exited.
She stood out there for what seemed like forever, and finally lined herself up with a big tree. As I was setting the crosshairs on her shoulder she picked up a hind hoof and scratched her left ear, which placed her leg in front of her shoulder for a few seconds. With the scope on 9 I could see a little dark spot in the center of her left shoulder, and when she set her hoof down I centerd it and pressed off the shot. As I recovered from the recoil I looked back through the scope just in time to see the doe walk off like nothing had happened, into the treeline along the creek. I racked another one up, put the safety on and headed down to see what was up.
I walked straight to my 'backstop tree' and used my pocketknife to pop the jacket of the bullet I had just fired out of the bark. It had expanded down to the base, and there was 'evidence' that it had taken a lot of deer components with it as it exited. I followed the ample blood trail about 20 yards into the woods and found my doe on the other side of a 5-foot woven-wire fence she had vaulted as her last official act. The shot had landed exactly on the spot I had picked, with an exit near the point of the offside shoulder you could have dropped a silver dollar into. I dressed the deer right there, and you couldn't have done more damage heart & lungs with an eggbeater.
The point to all this long-winded yammering is that a perfect hit, with an amply-powerful centerfire rifle on a totally oblivious and relaxed deer- produced exactly no visible effect on that deer. If I hadn't had total confidence in that rifle and load, I would had sworn I had missed her altogether. Expecting anything more from a handgun is probably expecting a little too much.
Funny thing... my wife hit one with almost the exact same load a couple of year before that- hit it just a tad high through the shoulders, to where it creased the spine from undeneath. I was sitting in the stand with her, watching the deer through 10X binos when she shot it at maybe 60 yards. It flipped over like a thrown rodeo calf and died right there- never moved an inch.
It's all about where you hit 'em, and I have had similar results from 240 grain SWCs in a .44 mag, with similar hits.
I'm glad you enjoyed the article.
