The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Reloading Hunting Bullet Choice QuestionGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Hunting Bullet Choice Question | Login/Join |
| one of us |
I have some concern about my current choice of hunting bullets and would appreciate some advice. I am shooting a .270 Win. My hunting load is 55 gr. IMR 4350 in Win. brass with a WLR primer and a 130 gr. CT ballistic silvertip bullet. The only animal I have shot with this load (South Texas Whitetail, 143 lb.'s dressed and hung) dropped without taking a step from a neck shot at 120 yards. However, the bullet seems to have passed through with limited expansion. The exit hole was slightly smaller than a dime. It was a clean shot, with essentially no blood, and an almost instant kill. Still, I have some concerns about this bullet. How would it have acted on a shoulder shot? Why did the deer drop so perfectly with only limited expansion? Should I be monkeying with success? | ||
|
one of us |
First of all, there are five ways an animal can die from a neck shot. Hydrostatic shock Severed spinal cord Mushed brain Severed carotid artery or jugular vein Severed trachea The mushed brain and spinal cord injury can be lumped into a single factor, the results are the same. Instant paralysis of both autonomic and voluntary nervous systems. This was probably the reason for the instant drop. Since you stated there was little or no bleeding, that rules out the major artery/vein. A severed trachea will not drop an animal immediately. It will run on adrenalin and reserve oxygen for some distance. Hydrostatic shock will mimic CNS disruption, but because none of the vitals are severed, the animal will drop immediately, but will get up and run in a short time. As for the size of the exit hole...don't worry about it. There is very little in the neck to cause humongous expansion. Sounds to me like you found the perfect load for your rifle. The bullet goes where you want it to go and does what you want it to do. As for a shoulder shot ... not the best choice no matter what you are shooting, firearm or animal. | |||
|
one of us |
Jim, I can tell there is confusion in your heart! I can HELP!  Immediately send the offending rifle and ammunition to me, post haste.  I will immediately substitute it for my sick (crack in the stock at the recoil lug) Win. 70 in .270.  I'm not sure, but I think I can use your loaded ammo without modification. To be sure, I'll try it on some live hogs around here, if they cooperate! BTW, I presume there is a scope attached! I think after several years of testing your rifle/ammo combination I'll be able to respond to your concerns, and eventually return it to you. | |||
|
One of Us |
 In order to render a sound statistical judgement a larger sample size is necessary. Please report on your findings for the next 10 to 12 kills.  Happy New Year.Roger | |||
|
| new member |
I have a Rem 700 ADL in .270 Win, and as it happens took a doe this afternoon with a Sierra 130gr SBT. It was my first with one of my handloads that I just started making recently. 58.9gr H4831sc chronos at 2990 in my 22" barrel, which mimics the performance I always got with Federal Premiums in the same bullet. This bullet has worked well for me at both short range and long range. Today's shot was about 50 yds and entered behind the left shoulder, and exited accross the top of the heart and through the back of the right front leg, with an exit hole the size of a quarter. She was all done in about 15 to 20 yds. Good luck... | |||
|
| one of us |
I've given this a lot of thought Jim, and I've come up with a trio of answers: 1) don't know 2) still don't know 3) NO | |||
|
| one of us |
The bullet worked, your freezer is now stocked. Your family has that many more meals for the winter. Who cares why it worked as long as it did. Give me solid penetration over explosive expansion any day of the year. Happy new year and good hunting. Joe | |||
|
| one of us |
I wouldn't worry about it. I shot a doe this year in the neck with a 140 grain hornady interlock out of my 270 at about the same range. That deer dropped stone dead. There wasn't a whole lot of damage visably. I really wasn't concerned about what else the bullet should have done. All I know is I've killed 2 deer with 2 bullets in the last 2 years. So for now I'm not changing anything. | |||
|
| one of us |
Quote: Hey Jim, One of my hunting buddies uses the same bullet in a 270Win. He has killed 12-16 deer with it over the past 4(?) years or so. He "also thinks" it is OK to shoot at a Deer's neck and as well as I can remember he has managed to loose 2(maybe 3) Deer by shooting at their necks. He has killed maybe 6 with neck shots and maybe 8 with good old shoulder shots. I can't remember if he had a shoulder-to-shoulder shot or not. I do know he got Exits on a couple of the kills that hit a shoulder going in or coming out. Didn't see all his kills, so that is the best I can report about their actual On-Game performance. They are like every other bullet made though, most of the time they work flawlessly. 2. Steve answered this rather well. 3. Not because of poor performance. But yes, reloaders always tinker with Loads - even the "Perfect Loads". | |||
|
| one of us |
Jim, Whenever a hunter shows up in camp with Nosler Ballistic Tips (BTs), which is really what your CT Silver Tips are, I cringe. They either work well or fail spectacularly. I only had to trail 2 animals this year and both were shot with plastic tip bullets that failed to penetrate. I'd much rather my hunters show up with plain old Hornady I-Locks than BTs. On the plus side, they usually leave a pretty good blood trail when they fail so I can usually recover the animal. The only worse bullet in my opinion is the Barnes X. They don't leave a good blood trail and I have a hell of a time to find the animal. If you must shoot a plastic tip bullet, use the Scirrocco or the new Hornady or Nosler bonded core bullets. Of course, as long as you restrict your hunting to Texas jackrabbits at 120 yds, you'll probably get along just fine with your CT Silvertips. When you come to NM for mulies and elk, I hope you load up some better performing bullets. | |||
|
| one of us |
The fact that your exit hole was small leaves me a little puzzled and the only explanation that I can come up with is the fact that you were using 130 gr. bullets. In a 270, I'd be loading the 140's, or maybe even the 150's. I like the BT's for deer, but I don't think they should be used on anything larger. Having moved to the Scirroco's (from Partitions and X's) in my 338/378, I've really grown fond of the bonded core polymer tipped bullets. I think they're the best of both worlds. Anyway, to the point. I don't think you're using the wrong bullet necessarily for deer, but if it were me, I'd go to a heavier weight. Just my personal preference. BTW - Just because you have to track something, doesn't necessarily mean that the bullet "failed" right? I've had deer that were shot through the heart still run 75 yards into the woods. | |||
|
| one of us |
Entrance holes and exit holes only tell us so much. What was the damage in between? If the heart/lungs were mushy, I would suspect that the ballistic tip bullet bullet blew up and only a small portion of the core made it all the way through...hence the small exit hole. This would also explain why the deer dropped so fast. That being said, you have a wonderful combo for Whitetail. I'm not a big fan of ballistic tips as they can be explosive, but you are hunting light framed deer, so the combo is fine, if not ideal. -Lou | |||
|
| one of us |
Jim, since you know your rifle likes the long profile bullets, for something like Elk, I'd probably go with a 140 gr. Accubond or something along those lines. Just like the Ballistic Tip only a little heavier, and tougher. | |||
|
one of us |
Quote: Jim, Don't listen to Pancho  (No offense Pancho), Sciroccos, Bal. tips, and SSTs have almost identical wound channels, weight retention and expansion when shot into the same test medium,(Oct 2002 Shooting Times) the Nosler bullet has never failed me, and 1 deer was shot with a load that was equal to a 400yd shot at 110paces for an instant kill(2300fps @the muzzle), you don't need expensive Swift bullets for deer, If you had an exit hole the size of a dime, you've got that bullet to expand to about .700, in my book thats over twice the expansion of a .277 bullet, not bad at all, keep using 'em. Jay | |||
|
| Powered by Social Strata |
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|
The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Reloading Hunting Bullet Choice Question
Visit our on-line store for AR Memorabilia