My son shot a 100 pound South Texas whitetail doe at 20 feet with a 7mm Remington Magnum 140 grain Balistic Silver Tip. The doe was facing him and he shot her in the neck. The deer dropped where he shot her and when he brought her to camp I noticed there were two wounds dead center in the neck about three inches apart. Each wound was about an inch and a half in diameter. I know he only shot once but for the life of me can not explain to him how this happened. I would have thought it would have gone in like a pencil and out of the back of its neck like a baseball. There was no exit out the back of the neck at all. I didnt get a chance to examine it closely and he had it quartered and in an ice chest before I knew it. Can anyone help me explain these "Weird Whitetail Wounds"?

Could the bullet have hit some indermediate object, like a branch and split into two pieces, both striking the deer?

Flame

I cant really offer an explanation but the same thing happened to a friend of mine. He was shooting a 7mm Rem mag with 150gr rem core-lokts, the deer was about 40yds away and he shot the buck in the neck. I had never seen such an odd wound, there was an entry hole, and then another hole where some of the cartiledge was pulled out. It was like the bullet exploded on contact and exited on the same side! I would have thought that a 150gr bullet would have been perfect for complete penetration, but it was a core-lokt and not a partition or such.The only thing that i can think of is the higher velocity of the 7mag will make bullets perform strange at close quarters.

Sounds as if a blood vessel blew out from the shock of the bullet but you said it was a entrance wound.

[ 11-26-2003, 16:35: Message edited by: Rob1SG ]

N E 450 No2
The doe was on a sendero with nothing but air between the barrel and its neck. That was also my first question to my son.

sweet swede
Strange indeed...

Rob1SG
I did not say it had two entrance wounds. In fact to me they both looked like exit wounds. Typically there is a small entrance and a large exit. My son seems to think the bullet entered the neck through the top wound and made a U-Turn. I don't think that is physically possible.

Did you happen to see anyone on the grassy knole?????

At that close range the bullet may have done strange things like breaking in two. The other possibility is that there was a secondary missle, that is the bullet hit bone and a piece of bone made the second hole. Secondary missles can be very significant. I butchered a deer that had been hit in the shoulder with a 270. A 1/8" piece of bone from the shoulder penetrated all the way back to and half way through the thickest part of the ham.

You're probably looking at two exit wounds, both likely made from shattered bone. The bulk of the bullet likely turned down the spine and ended up either buried in the vertabra or down in the body cavity.

Stonecreek's idea seems plausible. An entrance hole from a 7mm bullet could be easily overlooked.

Flame, it has been my experience with my 7mmRM and Nosler BT's that it has a large entrance wound similar to what you discribe and no exit.I shot a pig last Sat with a 200 gr BT in 338 at 20 yds without a exit.Possibly as Stonecreek said the other exit wound was a bone frag or a piece of the jacket/core.

These ballistic tips are quite soft and will do some strange things, most of which result in a dead deer. I'd say the jacket and core separated and both went out the other side, on a bigger deer you'd never have known it.

What happened is the bullet exploded on the spine and blew out some bone or bullet fragment. You have one bullet hole going in and a blow piece of something coming out below or above it...Not an uncommon ocurance, I have seen it many times...secondary misslles of bone and jacket.