.223, 6mm, and 6.5 failures on big game

[Thegman]

Fully expanded, less than 2 inches of penetration, little to no localized bruising or destroyed tissue…. Those elk are tough man.


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Years ago my neighbors were after a moose they'd wounded the night before. They eventually spotted it bedded in some willows and went and killed it. I happened to be passing by when they had just finished it. Later he told me that when they came up on it, he shot it in the neck and later found that his 180 Partition from a 300 WM only penetrated the neck a few inches (2 inches as I recall, but I could be off a little on that). Regardless, the story sounded unbelievable, but he has a lot of experience and doesn't make things up, nor have a reason to. Weird things happen??

 

[Formidilosus]

Years ago my neighbors were after a moose they'd wounded the night before. They eventually spotted it bedded in some willows and went and killed it. I happened to be passing by when they had just finished it. Later he told me that when they came up on it, he shot it in the neck and later found that his 180 Partition from a 300 WM only penetrated the neck a few inches (2 inches as I recall, but I could be off a little on that). Regardless, the story sounded unbelievable, but he has a lot of experience and doesn't make things up, nor have a reason to. Weird things happen??

Yes weird things do happen, however necks tend to catch a lot of bullets from all calibers. I have caught several 300 mag and .338 partitions and TSX’s in deer necks. It seems to be a combination of the muscle and cartilage density, along with the largest/strongest part of the spine- and then the fact that it moves when hit. Slow motion video with Phantom cameras have shown the neck moving in the direction of the bullets path before the bullet exits- if it exits.

There is some interesting things that happen often enough in certain animals, and with certain placement. For instance- I/we’ve caught quite a few bullets from 300 mags in coyotes, when those same bullets have exited in every single deer, or in a couple of cases 99% of deer that has been shot with them.

 

[Harvey_NW]

I’m pretty sure people understood sarcasm well enough. I’m also sure that they understand it was an example of what happens when people claim “bullet blew up on the shoulder and failed to penetrate”.

Hey, in my defense, I ended that thread title with a ? to get feedback on what the experts here thought might of happened. I landed on suicide grouse

 

[Formidilosus]

Hey, in my defense, I ended that thread title with a ? to get feedback on what the experts here thought might of happened. I landed on suicide grouse

Haha.

 

[Thegman]

Yes weird things do happen, however necks tend to catch a lot of bullets from all calibers. I have caught several 300 mag and .338 partitions and TSX’s in deer necks. It seems to be a combination of the muscle and cartilage density, along with the largest/strongest part of the spine- and then the fact that it moves when hit. Slow motion video with Phantom cameras have shown the neck moving in the direction of the bullets path before the bullet exits- if it exits.

There is some interesting things that happen often enough in certain animals, and with certain placement. For instance- I/we’ve caught quite a few bullets from 300 mags in coyotes, when those same bullets have exited in every single deer, or in a couple of cases 99% of deer that has been shot with them.

I was wondering if the muscle was so adrenaline tensed it managed to "stop" the bullet. The lack of penetration seemed unbelievable, but I guess it's not(?).

FWIW, he never blamed the bullet or cartridge, just chalked it up as weird, which is probably the correct answer. Now, if I had the same happen with my 223, I'm sure he'd be all over it like stink on shit. Last year he was disgusted with the idea that I was using a 223 to kill bears. Now, after seeing all the stuff it's been killing over the past year, and watching my moose drop at the shot through his binoculars, he just nods his head and says "huh".

 

[mtnbound]

Out of curiosity, I went through the posts and tallied the results of the failures.

 

[Taudisio]

Yes weird things do happen, however necks tend to catch a lot of bullets from all calibers. I have caught several 300 mag and .338 partitions and TSX’s in deer necks. It seems to be a combination of the muscle and cartilage density, along with the largest/strongest part of the spine- and then the fact that it moves when hit. Slow motion video with Phantom cameras have shown the neck moving in the direction of the bullets path before the bullet exits- if it exits.

There is some interesting things that happen often enough in certain animals, and with certain placement. For instance- I/we’ve caught quite a few bullets from 300 mags in coyotes, when those same bullets have exited in every single deer, or in a couple of cases 99% of deer that has been shot with them.

You thoughts/examples of neck shots is interesting. I have killed two bucks with the 143eldx and neck shots. Both failed to exit but folded the deer.

My 6x45 killed 2 deer this year with neck shots, shooting the 87gr vmax at 2750 and both bullets exited. I shot a second buck, and the first shot in the ribs did not penetrate through to the hide on the far side. Second shot was a pass through in the paunch just behind the last rib (running).

1st neck shot was about 80 yards, the second was about 20, and the ribs and paunch shot was about 60 yards. I’m still trying to make sense of the rib shot not getting to the offside hide and it has me questioning the bullet. I’m also not positive on how broadside/quartering to me the buck was at the first shot. I should have taken a photo of the inside of the ribcage, but I did not.

 

[Jake Larsen]

Out of curiosity, I went through the posts and tallied the results of the failures.

That’s fascinating. Particularly the number of animals that were found after a bullet “failure” Something else I’ve noted: there are a lot of people who consider basically anything but DRT a failure. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, just noticed it. People seem to have a wide range of what they consider acceptable in terms of lethality.

I personally don’t need to see DRT to be satisfied. My elk this year ran over 100 yards before expiring. One shot @400 yards, right behind the shoulder mid ship. Steep uphill, so the exit was very high lung. Looking back at video, it took him less than 10 seconds to make it 100 yards and expire. Dead within a few seconds is plenty lethal enough for me…but based on some of the discussion around this topic, many people would have considered this a bullet failure, “penciling through” ect.

recovered just under the offside hide. A portion of the bullet did exit.

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[Thegman]

That’s fascinating. Particularly the number of animals that were found after a bullet “failure” Something else I’ve noted: there are a lot of people who consider basically anything but DRT a failure. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, just noticed it. People seem to have a wide range of what they consider acceptable in terms of lethality.

I personally don’t need to see DRT to be satisfied. My elk this year ran over 100 yards before expiring. One shot @400 yards, right behind the shoulder mid ship. Steep uphill, so the exit was very high lung. Looking back at video, it took him less than 10 seconds to make it 100 yards and expire. Dead within a few seconds is plenty lethal enough for me…but based on some of the discussion around this topic, many people would have considered this a bullet failure, “penciling through” ect.

recovered just under the offside hide. A portion of the bullet did exit.

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Those are good points. IMO, the majority of "bullet failures" people talk about are placement failures, or an animal reaction after the shot that didn't meet their preconceived notions, or pulling a bullet out of a dead animal that didn't look like their preconceived notion of what a bullet should look like after impact. Not that there aren't actual bullet failures at times, but I can't say I've ever seen one fail.