I agree with 1894, an exit is useless if it's in the top third of the animal's body. BUT any bullet will fail to exit, especially if it is asked to break both shoulders + spine which is hell on a bullet (not that this occured in this case).
Surprisingly, I noted one fallow buck bleeding quite badly from an ENTRY wound, with bits of lung left behind too. Is this common at all? Was the first time I saw it...

1894,

I always wait after a shot, even if I can see the deer down in a field. Like you say, I primarily want time to evaluate the situation and secondly let any deer that has made cover, settlew down and let the shock set in and do its job. In this situation I sat up in the seat for over 5mins and the deer didn't move, I got down and went to the kill, where the beast was visibly alive, so I quickly dispached it.

The Bullet was not recovered in the end. I could feel it on the far side, but it was about 10mm short of fully exiting. It must have cme out in the gralloch. When I took the jacket off the deer, the bullet had gone in high directly above the shoulder on it's left side and gone downward, exiting about half way down and on the 5th rib. On either side the bullet touched no bone, and went through Lungs and trachea. The trauma was quite limited, which is unusual for such a shot in the past, but there was a lot of bruising on the lungs along the wound path.

This bullet behaviour has been standard in all the fallow I have shot with this round in the last 18mths. No shots beyond 60yds will exit but the grenade analogy is very fitting for the inernal effects...

As far as the recovered bullet is concerned, I tend to find that the only thing left on the far side of the carcass is the base of the casing with the copper jacket peled back. All of the lead part of the bullet is broken throughout the wound channel.

The fact that it was very alive etc, just made me think that had it run, where would I have liked to be with regards to exits.

Either way I have 30 guests tonight eating rolled Haunch and Venison meatballs so alls well that ends well!!!



Regards,
FB

Hi all,

I had an interesting situation last Saturday with with a Fallow pricket. I was in a High seat and shot a good Body Sized pricket (Approx 100lbs field dressed) broadside with the .243 from about 80-yds. The beast took 3 steps and collapsed.

When I got to it, I had to put a round into it's neck to finish it. The bullet had gone high about 1inch below the spine but had touched no bone at all on its way.

I Gralloched and the bullet had not exited at all on the far side. It just hung in behind the far side of the pelt.

How does everyone feel about wheather a bullet should exit or fully expand?

I am currently using the 90gr Sako's but will be carrying the 308 more often now. The bottom line is that it did the job but I just don't know how I feel about no blood-trail if I need to follow one up...

For those of you that use the .22 centerfires on Roe, do these exit?

Thanks FB

I ALWAYS want an exit wound. Where i hunt it is usually very, very thick. As you know, no caliber will "knock them off their feet" every time, so follow up is th enorm. An exit wound gives much more blood to follow. Often, an animal with just an intrance wound will not bleed at all. This makes it amatter of luck to find in places where visibility is 10 feet or less.

And FWIW, I usually cut the throat instead of shooting a second time. Just a personal thing

Exit. You don't always need the exit holes, but when you have to look for an animal, the exit hole could be the saving grace.
- mike