Bullet review opinion....

[Tenntrapper]

I'm not sure what to think about this. So, I'm asking you guys opinions.

I shot a deer this evening. For reasons I won't get into, my bullet hit a little high...and back.
The deer was quartering towards me. I hit the spine on such an angle, that it plowed through about 4-6" of spine. The bullet did not exit, but was close. Small exit hole, but not big enough for bullet....it was just under the hide.
The bullet was a 143g .264 Norma Bondstrike. It was loaded to about 2900 fps.
The deer was about 125 yards away. The recovered bullet weighed 76g. Im including a couple pics.

On one hand, the bullet did it's job, the buck dropped straight down. On the other...no exit wound, and massive weight loss for a bonded bullet. I just don't know if that's good or bad considering how much spine it went through.

Any thoughts??


Edit to add... I measured from both sides..90 degrees apart. The expanded bullet is .630 x .525
Looks like it doubled+ it's original diameter.

Taking the advice given...I won't use this one to form any negative opinion. It did work after all.
Thanks guys

 

[Urban_Hunter]

Could probably shoot 1000 deer and never have another bullet travel down the spine. That weight retention isn't good, but hard to expect much better considering it rode the bone for 9"

 

[TN Song Dog]

Thats wild. Like Urban Hunter mentions, that would be an outlier and tossed out of an analysis.

 

[Wiley]

Traveling through that much spine bone will tear a copper jacketed lead expanding bullet up. I'd say the bullet performed as it should have.

 

[Remi]

Looks like great performance to me With all that it busted up in its path and it appears to have expanded wide, probably due to 6" of bone impact, so that will inhibit penetration.


A sample of one doesn't prove much.

 

[Omega]

+1 on the above, that bullet mushroomed perfectly and apparently did it's job. Bullets hitting moving targets do funny things, and even the best ones will sometimes fail to exit.

 

[EastTNHunter]

It hit hard bone at a hard angle. It performed well

 

[skipperbrown]

Your result is not statistically relevant. No company tests bullets with an expectation to retain weight through several inches of bone unless it's a FMJ.

 

[ROVERBOY]

I think considering what it went through, that it did good. If it had hit shoulder bone or similar, instead of spine, it would've probably done better.

 

[Gad Father]

I would have no problem with that performance. Spine is tough and dense, so with that being said it would blow through both shoulders never to recover the bullet. Keep shooting.

 

[Remington700]

I think it did what you expected. It mushroomed and was a kill. Hitting the bone is the reason for it coming apart some. I would stick with it unless something else arises.