By all means, yes! Exit wounds leave better blood trails, disrupt more tissue than entrance wounds, and if the lungs are hit, deflate the lungs quicker.
George
------------------ Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!
Posts: 14623 | Location: San Antonio, TX | Registered: 22 May 2001
I prefer to have an exit wound on all big game animals.
It seems to me that they do indeed drop faster and, if necessary, the blood trail is much more evident.
I am a meat hunter as opposed to trophy hunting so perhaps this has a bearing on my style. Do not misconstrue my attitude as being anti-trophy hunting; I would certainly poke a hole in any trophy elk that is unfortunate enough to cross my path! My primary objective is, however, to put as much delicious meat in the freezer as I can. Along this line I usually shoot a nice cow with a hole on each side!
Regards,
------------------ ~Holmes
"Those who appease a tiger do so in the hope that the tiger will eat them last." -Winston Churchill
Posts: 1171 | Location: Wyoming, USA | Registered: 03 June 2000
In my mind, if you don't put a hole all the way through, you only did half the job.
The idea that I'm somehow wasting energy by shooting all the way through just doesn't make sense to me.
But then, I have never really believed that energy did the killing on big game. Loss of blood pressure or damage to the central nervous system will cause death more quickly, and the best way to get that is with penetration.
Posts: 1372 | Location: USA | Registered: 18 June 2000
I want two holes in everything I shoot, with the exit being the larger of the two...I have never bought off on a bullet using all its energy inside an animal..
I always want a hole that is open at both ends. I taylor my pistol loads to do that on the game that I hunt (deer and pigs). Haven't recovered a bullet since 1993. Haven't had to go looking for an animal that didn't know it was dead since 1993.
------------------ Handgun Hunter LOVE THOSE .41s'
I want my bullets to be tough and kicking and screaming going in at the right place, kicking and screaming all the way through, and out the other side. That puts the animal on the ground as soon as possible. I like to worry about blood shot meat, otherwise I may have lost the animal. Good shooting.
Saeed, You are going to have to use something with more power. Maybe you should follow the advice of another poster here on Big Game Hunting and match the weight of the bullet to the animal. I think his suggestion was for something similar to a supersonic powerline pole.
I want an exit wound for better tracking. But I disagree that they fall down quicker with an exit wound. My wife and I have shot numerous whitetails, mule deer and pronghorn with my 25-06 and 100 gr corelokts. The ones that fell the quickest were the ones that the bullet did not exit and was recovered under the hide on what would have been the exit wound. Sometimes this bullet would exit and sometimes it wouldn't. But when the bullet didn't exit the animal would drop in it's tracks. Something about using all the shocking power of the bullet. Just my observations.
One more thing. Especially if you make a lung shot (and after he runs his 30 yards and drops) the exit hole will help drain a very large percentage of the blood. This generally makes for better eating meat.
