I've read very positive results on deer using Hornady's A-Max bullets as well......even Hornady don't recommend them but is aware of stories of success using them.

Today i was hunting some strip mine land,where all there is is fields and mountains.i have a 270 win and my load is 57 gns of h 4831sc over a 135gn matchking(yes,MATCHking)
but anyways i seen a deer way over on the other side of the valley, which was 496 yds away! I dindt expect to even hit anywhere near it but figured id give it as try anyway so i aimed about 9 inches - 1 foot above him and surely enough he dropped!! he then got up and ran about 30 yards but fell for good,i got him through both lungs and both entry and exit wounds. I want to praise the matchking bullets they say not to use them for hunting but they are all i can ask for in a hunting bullet.

any pictures?

I don't care if it was only 25 yds, if your not sure your going to get a good hit on it you shouldn't be shooting. You had horeshoes up your ass. People like you give us hunters a bad name.

Why would you take a chance on wounding an animal just for curiosity's sake? What would you have done if the deer didn't drop? This is poor judgment and gives hunters a bad name. Paul....

"You had horeshoes up your ass." ..........I'm still ROFLMAO.

Next time get closer, take a more definitive shot and I'm not quite sure why you originally think that the shot was unbelievable.....do you question your loads as well.

I'm not impressed at all. Poor choice for bullet and for taking the shot. Bear in Fairbanks

It never ceases to amaze me why people use a target bullet for hunting purposes espically when there are so many good hunting bullets out there.

blakeroth,

Are you the kind of guy that throws his empty beer can out the window when your done drinking it too?

It might be time for you to think about "hunters ethics." Why would you take a shot like that?

Dont patronize me.

I do find the shot somewhat unbelievable. I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I won't say that people should never take 500 yd shot, some people can successfully make them, but usually it's people who at least have an idea of trajectory.
Plugging you load into Sierra infinity's ballistic software using 57grs of 4831 and a 135 Matchking shows that with a 200 yard zero you would be 38" low at 500yds. Even if you had a 300 yard zero you would still be 28" low at 500yds. With a 200 yard zero and holding 9-12" over his back and you made a true trigger break you would have hit a foot beneath the deer. With a 300yd zero you would have likely been at least a couple inches beneath him.
How did you know the distance was 491yds? You either flinched high and got lucky enough to jerk into him or it wasn't really that far. Either way I agree with those who recommend that you do your target practice at a range and not on live game. After enough practice with a good laser you won't making "unbelievable" shots, you can make carefully calculated and practiced long ones..........DJ

well,i measured it with my nikon laser 800,there could've possibly been a malfunction but it was a clear day so i dont think that was the case.Also, i only have a nikon 3-9 scope on it so i mightve been actually aiming higher than i thought.
thanks

The Matchking is the only bullet our resident gun guru, Steve Ricciardelli, uses for hunting. Me, I use the Nosler Partition in all calibers it's available for (because it always expands at lower velocities than any other bullet I know of, yet will never blow up!!), but will probably try the Accubonds too.



NOW: As to the shot itself. IF you have a rangefinder, or some other means of knowing the exact range to the deer, it is standing still, youi can see the whole animal, AND YOU KNOW THE TRAJECTORY OF THE RIFLE, YOU HAVE A STEADY REST, AND HAVE PRACTICED SUCH SHOTS, 500 yards is not too far for an ethical hunter. In my youth, I took several shots under such circumstances, and made good hits. But these were not wild, chancy propositions either!



Today, there is no way I'd shoot at anything much over 250 yards. I just haven't been practicing enough over the past several years, and no longer have confidence in my ability to do long-range shooting any more. And, the only really reliable way to know where a given rifle/load combination will shoot at such distances is by shooting!

Congratulations on not losing your deer, and congratulations for starting up another ethics post and reply smorgasbord.

How did you have your rifle sighted in?

I have made some very long shots like that even further in my mispent youth, but after having to follow some long and miserable tracking jobs, I gave it up and limit myself to 300 yards for the most part...

The problem with taking those long shots is a poor shot will usually miss other than dumb luck, but a really good shot will never miss but he sure as hell will wound the animal every time if he does not kill it...