Last night I shot a whitetail doe with my .223. The only reason I did is that I wanted to use the suppressor (hunting location very close to city limits) and my .223 is the only thing threaded for it right now.
I used a Hornady 75gr BTHP as I had experience with it on groundhogs and it showed good expansion and penetration and I had them loaded. Also some video of this bullet in ballistic gel on youtube showed good performance. Not quite as much or as rapid expansion as the 77gr TMK but pretty good:
Shot was around 30 yards. Impact velocity was probably around 2600 fps. I waited for a perfect broadside shot as this was my first time using the .223 on medium game and put it right behind the shoulder and about mid-height (my normal shot placement).
The doe bounced up into the edge of the woods then and walked up the side of the hill twitching her tail. She stood up on the side of the hill twitching her tail. At this point I am thinking I must have hit the dead tree that was framing the shot as she was still standing and had been walking up the hill not running like most deer I shoot (perhaps that was due to the suppressor). I decided I need to figure out what happened rather than wait for another deer to come out and take another shot if something is wrong with my setup and start sneaking towards where she was standing when I shot. I think I was about halfway to the spot when I heard/saw the deer fall over. She then lay on the ground and kept trying to pick her head up. It reminded me of a deer shot with a bow if you've ever watched one die - so I knew she was going to die.
I proceeded to the point of impact and there was no blood anywhere. I snuck up into the edge of the woods and she was piled against a tree dead.
Upon gutting, I found the top of one lung to be destroyed and there was food/blood etc. below the diaphragm like I had shot it in the liver. Did not inspect the liver as everything was a mess at that point. Was trying to figure out how I had done that as I had been very careful with the shot location and that she was perfectly broadside.
Upon skinning, I found that the bullet had impacted exactly where I aimed (relief) but had bounced off a rib, deflected rearward, broken the next rib, and then entered. This was very clear. You could stick you finger in the small entrance wound and feel the intact rib, a path to the rear and then the broken and a small entrance wound to the cavity. The deflection to the rear is how the bullet ended up in the liver. There was no exit wound and I did not recover the bullet. It or parts of it must be in the gut pile.
The animal is dead but I feel like I got lucky. I barely clipped the top of 1 lung with a well placed broadside shot. Very disappointed that the bullet deflected off a rib rather than breaking the rib. Very disappointed that the bullet deflected from the path through the body I chose and made a mess of the guts. Very, very, disappointed. Not that concerned about the lack of exit wound.
This is my data. I have some opinions. What do you guys think of my experience and how should I avoid repeating it? I am NOT happy with what happened. This was a well placed shot and I want 2 mushed lungs.
Pre-emptively, if you tell me a 77gr TMK would be totally different, I'm going to want an explanation how one 77gr chunk of metal will break a rib and one 75gr chunk of metal will bounce off. Perhaps use these 2 videos in your explanation:
77gr TMK:
75gr BTHP:
