Oh for the days when I used to be able to delete my stupid posts.....

Anyway this piece of idiocy was fostered by my desire to counter the penetration mania I saw re the 'boat tail bullets are bad' thread.

Put simply if you live in the UK and don't have access to reds then a hunting BALLISTIC TIP of any weight applied at sane range in a recognised humane shot (ie broadside)will kill a deer dead or you missed. This would include an encounter with a heavy shoulder bone with a 95gr 243 of which I have practical experience.

Happy New Year to you all.

[This message has been edited by 1894 (edited 12-31-2001).]

They feed extremely well through an L1A1 too
We're talking 7.62 Nato here of course.

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NRA Life member

1894,

Out of about a dozen British stalkers I know who have tried the balistic tip in various calibers from 6.5x55 to 30-06, you are the only one I know who likes it. All say the same thing...very accurate, but damages too much meat. My stalking partner tried them recently in his 6.5x55 on Roe and Fallow...
I have seen the first hand results of about a dozen carcesses.....
Most had shots well placed in the ribs behind the shoulder. Although the entrance and exit wounds were fairly normal, there was extensive "bruising" on most of the beasts..so much so he even got comments from his dealer......I think he was using 120grns
if that makes a difference.

Peter

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pete E:
Hi Peter E,
My friend Ivan that used to do stalking would only use ballistic tips. He worked in the Swindon area and when we went out with him he used a 30-06 improved with 125 grain ballistic tips topped with a 4 to 12 Smidtt and Bender scope. He spent a lot of time with load development and his rifle was very accurate. All shots taken were head or neck only. He packed a shooting stick and also used a Harris bi pod. He wanted the bullets to blow up inside without the meat damage and if a bullet did miss it would blow up on impact with the ground. Hated to see those car lights in the scope before shooting. 470 Mbogo

Mbogo,

I knew Ivan a little having been on a course with him. While he was a likeable and very knowlegable stalker, I must confess I did not feel comfortable with his methods of stalking. He took ideas which were developed for the controled envionment of culling in a deer park and used them on wild deer. Anyway, that aside, his almost exclusive use of head/neck shots makes the issue of meat damage irrelivant, the Balistic Tips accuracy and frangiblity being a big plus as you say.

Happy New Year,

Peter

Mbogo:

I knew Ivan too. In fact I helped him cull quite a lot of fallow deer as part of his "team" while I was at Agricultural College.

As a recreational hunter I too had difficulty with his ethos which was centered on making money out of venison hence the head shots at extreme ranges. Not for me thanks - but a decent enough and knowledgeable guy all the same.

Send him my best.

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Regards

Richard

1894 and Pete E,

I may be needing a hand on these red hinds.

I shot a few fallow does and roe does over Christmas but the red deer are proving elusive. A "fix & destroy" operation may be required if I am going to kill ten before the end of Feb.

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Regards

Richard

Richard,

Be glad to help on those Reds and way I can,
even if its only on the recovery and larder side to free you up for the culling.

Give me a shout and we can sort something..
regards,

Peter

I think that our somewhat transient red deer population are sheltering in the woods from the worst of the cold weather. I used to see them in more or less the same spot quite regularly.

The roe seem less affected though; whilst out lamping one night last week, I counted 8 laying down under one 30 metre length of hedge alone.

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tikka 3 barrels

Mine are only doing 2800-2,900fps and really work well. I have not had any problems with bloodshot meat at all and no comments from my game dealer. I just love them...

Like Pete E and DeerdogsI really don't like all this talk of head and neck shots only...it's an invitation to disaster and is only 10 pence in the pound difference. If you double you miss (or wound and not recover) rate then you're probably about evens. Add in the suffering and it's no contest. From a safety point of view the head and neck are significantly higher than heart/lung...

Deerdogs, did you get my e mail before Xmas. I took you up on the offer of a weekend in Jan/Feb. I'd be glad to help out but may be Roe stalking with a friend in the Lakes at the beginning of February.