I posted a pic of this doe in the 2018 picture thread and I bet some of you wondered why I didn't show the back half of her body. Well, its because she was half gutted when I got to her. I spent an extra hour processing her, and went so far as going back out to the field to inspect the gut pile to try and make sense of what happened. I was hunting with a ruger ranch rifle in .450 bushmaster using hornady custom ammo loaded with 250gr flex tip bullets.
Here is the basic run down...
My stand faces east and 2 does came from the northwest and started to sort of skirt around me at roughly 40 yards. They were at a steady trot and stirred up, but not really trying to bolt. So I whistled at them, and surprisingly enough they stopped, only I was too surprised that it had worked to take a shot. Might as well be honest, I whistled, they stopped and I just sat there with my rifle at low ready and thinking "I'll be D...." and then the lead doe was moving again .
She turned east and wasn't leaving me with a good shot, so I got on the scope and swung to the 2nd doe and whistled again. I didn't really get a full stop but I got enough of a pause I swung just a little ahead of her and shot her on the next stride.
Coming out of the recoil, I see she has jerked hard, and she starts trotting in a little spiral like shes going to flop over. I work the bolt and track her in the circle, and just as she gets to about 9:00 in the circle and is facing away from me, she lets out the loudest maddest bleat I have ever heard, and then kicks it into road gear and starts running flat out, straight as an arrow showing me nothing but her tail.
I debated whether I had even hit, decide I must have, and pull the gun up. I held about a foot over her head/in front of her hold my breath and squeeze the trigger and she piles up a second later.
At this point she's so far away I have trouble seeing her laying int he corn stubble without the scope, so I climb down and start walking. I find blood and follow it all the way to her. First shot had to be a hit.
So I get to her and its a real mess, belly opened up and a back leg taken off at the hock. I immediately start beating myself up thinking I gut shot her with the first shot and then anchored her with the leg on the running shot. The leg was hit back to front judging by the exit.
I hung her up and started processing and this is where it got weird and I came to the conclusion that I had a bullet failure.
After taking off the left front quarter, I find the jacket of the bullet lodged between the 4th and 5th rib, with a 2nd larger hole between the 3rd and 4th.
Removing the right front quarter I find an entrance wound the size of my finger, right at the base of the neck, that angles towards where the jacket was, and there are a couple oddly shaped holes in-between ribs farther back.
When I bone out the left front shoulder, I find HALF of the core of the bullet lodged against the bone. I couldn't get a pic that shows it well but it is like someone took the typical mushroom shape and cut in half vertically.
In the gut pile, the stomach is split lengthwise, and the lungs are intact, the heart has just a slight nick in it. Can't find anymore bullet pieces.
So to the best my knowledge, I believe the bullet broke up on impact, half of it went diagonally through the chest cavity and out the other side to lodge under the shoulder, and the other half veered left and took out the guts. For the angle she was at it was probably a little far forward, but should have at least broken a shoulder and slowed her down. Instead, it made a real mess of a nice deer without slowing it down at all.
The 2nd shot ended up being around 200 yards. I stepped it off and it was 199 paces from the gut pile to the base of my stand. I'm not saying I'd make that shot again if I tried, but I do think this is a very capable rifle and cartridge. I also think I am going to have to try the offerings from remington or winchester next year. If I make it back out again this year I will have to wait for a broadside shot and avoid the shoulders as I can't get new ammo and get sighted in before the season ends Sunday.
Here is the basic run down...
My stand faces east and 2 does came from the northwest and started to sort of skirt around me at roughly 40 yards. They were at a steady trot and stirred up, but not really trying to bolt. So I whistled at them, and surprisingly enough they stopped, only I was too surprised that it had worked to take a shot. Might as well be honest, I whistled, they stopped and I just sat there with my rifle at low ready and thinking "I'll be D...." and then the lead doe was moving again .
She turned east and wasn't leaving me with a good shot, so I got on the scope and swung to the 2nd doe and whistled again. I didn't really get a full stop but I got enough of a pause I swung just a little ahead of her and shot her on the next stride.
Coming out of the recoil, I see she has jerked hard, and she starts trotting in a little spiral like shes going to flop over. I work the bolt and track her in the circle, and just as she gets to about 9:00 in the circle and is facing away from me, she lets out the loudest maddest bleat I have ever heard, and then kicks it into road gear and starts running flat out, straight as an arrow showing me nothing but her tail.
I debated whether I had even hit, decide I must have, and pull the gun up. I held about a foot over her head/in front of her hold my breath and squeeze the trigger and she piles up a second later.
At this point she's so far away I have trouble seeing her laying int he corn stubble without the scope, so I climb down and start walking. I find blood and follow it all the way to her. First shot had to be a hit.
So I get to her and its a real mess, belly opened up and a back leg taken off at the hock. I immediately start beating myself up thinking I gut shot her with the first shot and then anchored her with the leg on the running shot. The leg was hit back to front judging by the exit.
I hung her up and started processing and this is where it got weird and I came to the conclusion that I had a bullet failure.
After taking off the left front quarter, I find the jacket of the bullet lodged between the 4th and 5th rib, with a 2nd larger hole between the 3rd and 4th.
Removing the right front quarter I find an entrance wound the size of my finger, right at the base of the neck, that angles towards where the jacket was, and there are a couple oddly shaped holes in-between ribs farther back.
When I bone out the left front shoulder, I find HALF of the core of the bullet lodged against the bone. I couldn't get a pic that shows it well but it is like someone took the typical mushroom shape and cut in half vertically.
In the gut pile, the stomach is split lengthwise, and the lungs are intact, the heart has just a slight nick in it. Can't find anymore bullet pieces.
So to the best my knowledge, I believe the bullet broke up on impact, half of it went diagonally through the chest cavity and out the other side to lodge under the shoulder, and the other half veered left and took out the guts. For the angle she was at it was probably a little far forward, but should have at least broken a shoulder and slowed her down. Instead, it made a real mess of a nice deer without slowing it down at all.
The 2nd shot ended up being around 200 yards. I stepped it off and it was 199 paces from the gut pile to the base of my stand. I'm not saying I'd make that shot again if I tried, but I do think this is a very capable rifle and cartridge. I also think I am going to have to try the offerings from remington or winchester next year. If I make it back out again this year I will have to wait for a broadside shot and avoid the shoulders as I can't get new ammo and get sighted in before the season ends Sunday.