Nimrod777
Well-Known Member
Posted this on the CVA Optima thread, but would like to be sure I get some input on my shot placement or anything else I need to be educated on.
OK, here's my first foray and fresh experience into the world of PB tales. I'd had them for a while, just hadn't had a chance to shoot anything but paper with them. Using 295 grain hollow points in front of 90 grains of powder out of a Thompson Encore .50 caliber.
Friday I shot two small deer, yearlings. One was a nubbin buck that still showed traces of a row of spots on either side of its back, one white hair left from each spot. Shot it from 30 yards, quartering away, just behind the foreleg. It dropped like a truck had fallen on it from the sky, but the bullet disintegrated the far shoulder. Made a bloody spot on the far side but didn't pass through.
Second deer was a yearling doe, shot from 40 yards from tree stand angle, basically the same shot placement and results, no pass through. She ran maybe 30-40 yards and piled up. No blood trail, but again, you can't always get much blood in that rocketing first run, and don't need much when the deer's laying in sight.
Yesterday I shot a doe that had come in facing me. From my tree stand to 25 yards out. She wouldn't turn, so I shot her at the base of the neck as she faced me looking up at me. She bucked and took off like a rocket. After I reloaded I heard her crashing a bit in a thicket, then heard her horking up blood. Waited a while, then went down in confidence, found the impact site and hair, but no blood, of course. Worked to the thicket where I knew her to be. Except she wasn't. Found two chips of bone on the trail I knew she took, and eventually found the spot where she'd coughed up a good deal of blood. Besides that spot, and in spite of searching the thickets for over 2 hours, not another drop of blood and no sign of the doe.
My intention was to disintegrate both lungs, which is certainly what happened on my other deer from the day before, but I suspect that the sternum on this smallish doe caused the bullet to frag out and stop. I'm still sick about causing her to suffer and know she can't have survived. I just hate wondering how long she had to live in that condition, and that I wasted that deer. Perhaps aerotips stand a better chance. I'm losing confidence in a bullet that demands specific shot placement rather than just a good shot in the kill zone, if that makes sense. I feel like I am limited to only shots that will get me directly through the side of the rib cage.
OK, here's my first foray and fresh experience into the world of PB tales. I'd had them for a while, just hadn't had a chance to shoot anything but paper with them. Using 295 grain hollow points in front of 90 grains of powder out of a Thompson Encore .50 caliber.
Friday I shot two small deer, yearlings. One was a nubbin buck that still showed traces of a row of spots on either side of its back, one white hair left from each spot. Shot it from 30 yards, quartering away, just behind the foreleg. It dropped like a truck had fallen on it from the sky, but the bullet disintegrated the far shoulder. Made a bloody spot on the far side but didn't pass through.
Second deer was a yearling doe, shot from 40 yards from tree stand angle, basically the same shot placement and results, no pass through. She ran maybe 30-40 yards and piled up. No blood trail, but again, you can't always get much blood in that rocketing first run, and don't need much when the deer's laying in sight.
Yesterday I shot a doe that had come in facing me. From my tree stand to 25 yards out. She wouldn't turn, so I shot her at the base of the neck as she faced me looking up at me. She bucked and took off like a rocket. After I reloaded I heard her crashing a bit in a thicket, then heard her horking up blood. Waited a while, then went down in confidence, found the impact site and hair, but no blood, of course. Worked to the thicket where I knew her to be. Except she wasn't. Found two chips of bone on the trail I knew she took, and eventually found the spot where she'd coughed up a good deal of blood. Besides that spot, and in spite of searching the thickets for over 2 hours, not another drop of blood and no sign of the doe.
My intention was to disintegrate both lungs, which is certainly what happened on my other deer from the day before, but I suspect that the sternum on this smallish doe caused the bullet to frag out and stop. I'm still sick about causing her to suffer and know she can't have survived. I just hate wondering how long she had to live in that condition, and that I wasted that deer. Perhaps aerotips stand a better chance. I'm losing confidence in a bullet that demands specific shot placement rather than just a good shot in the kill zone, if that makes sense. I feel like I am limited to only shots that will get me directly through the side of the rib cage.
