6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[Anschutz]

I no longer let my mind associate the lack of an exit wound with a lack of penetration. Lungs are not dense. Bone is, and hide is very elastic. So long as I can expect heavy damage to vitals I don’t necessarily care about an exit wound.

In open country, I don't care so much. In thick woods, like what I grew up hunting with a .243, that exit hole makes tracking a heck of a lot easier, especially if shot from a treestand where the exit hole will be lower on the animal. Granted, both animals I've shot in open terrain (Alaskan Caribou), dropped where they stood.

 

[ianpadron]

Bit perplexed after this one:

Last night I had 2 does feed out into a clearcut at 300 yards on the dot. Held high shoulder on the lead doe and sent a 90 grain ELDX her way via my trusty .243 Win.

She immediately began "snow-plowing" with no front legs, face in the dirt, roughly 10 yards. Typical dead deer that doesnt know it yet right? She slowed down enough that I sent another and watched her dump.

Saw her laying there "dead" about 10 yards away and she jumps up and runs into the woods looking completely normal. I didn't even try to shoot her off hand as I was convinced it must have been the other doe that was with her and didn't want to accidentally shoot 2 deer with 1 tag.

Should have believed my eyes because it was indeed the doe I had shot. I followed blood for about 150 yards and kept on bumping her. It was getting dark fast and I had seen a bunch of grizz tracks across the creek last week so I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands...

Made the tough decision to back out and get back in there at first light, found her piled up less than 10 yards from where I called off the search last night. The yotes had gotten a rear quarter but I managed to salvage the rest of the meat.

The necropsy only made things more confusing. Unsure if the 1st or 2nd shot is pictured (believe its the 1st based on location), but I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.

Chalk this one up as one of those occasional WTF hunting moments?

 

[Ryan Avery]

Bit perplexed after this one:

Last night I had 2 does feed out into a clearcut at 300 yards on the dot. Held high shoulder on the lead doe and sent a 90 grain ELDX her way via my trusty .243 Win.

She immediately began "snow-plowing" with no front legs, face in the dirt, roughly 10 yards. Typical dead deer that doesnt know it yet right? She slowed down enough that I sent another and watched her dump.

Saw her laying there "dead" about 10 yards away and she jumps up and runs into the woods looking completely normal. I didn't even try to shoot her off hand as I was convinced it must have been the other doe that was with her and didn't want to accidentally shoot 2 deer with 1 tag.

Should have believed my eyes because it was indeed the doe I had shot. I followed blood for about 150 yards and kept on bumping her. It was getting dark fast and I had seen a bunch of grizz tracks across the creek last week so I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands...

Made the tough decision to back out and get back in there at first light, found her piled up less than 10 yards from where I called off the search last night. The yotes had gotten a rear quarter but I managed to salvage the rest of the meat.

The necropsy only made things more confusing. Unsure if the 1st or 2nd shot is pictured (believe its the 1st based on location), but I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.

Chalk this one up as one of those occasional WTF hunting moments? View attachment 631904

View attachment 631895
View attachment 631887View attachment 631888View attachment 631886

Indeed, a WTF??
This reminds me of a few deer that I shot with Accubonds.

 

[Formidilosus]

I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.

Chalk this one up as one of those occasional WTF hunting moments?

This is why small sample sizes can’t show very much. Trends can be noticed but it takes a relatively large sample size to do so- 20’ish animals at similar impact velocities.

 

[ianpadron]

This is why small sample sizes can’t show very much. Trends can be noticed but it takes a relatively large sample size to do so- 20’ish animals at similar impact velocities.

No doubt.

 

[Jake Leibke]

Bit perplexed after this one:

Last night I had 2 does feed out into a clearcut at 300 yards on the dot. Held high shoulder on the lead doe and sent a 90 grain ELDX her way via my trusty .243 Win.

She immediately began "snow-plowing" with no front legs, face in the dirt, roughly 10 yards. Typical dead deer that doesnt know it yet right? She slowed down enough that I sent another and watched her dump.

Saw her laying there "dead" about 10 yards away and she jumps up and runs into the woods looking completely normal. I didn't even try to shoot her off hand as I was convinced it must have been the other doe that was with her and didn't want to accidentally shoot 2 deer with 1 tag.

Should have believed my eyes because it was indeed the doe I had shot. I followed blood for about 150 yards and kept on bumping her. It was getting dark fast and I had seen a bunch of grizz tracks across the creek last week so I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands...

Made the tough decision to back out and get back in there at first light, found her piled up less than 10 yards from where I called off the search last night. The yotes had gotten a rear quarter but I managed to salvage the rest of the meat.

The necropsy only made things more confusing. Unsure if the 1st or 2nd shot is pictured (believe its the 1st based on location), but I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.

Chalk this one up as one of those occasional WTF hunting moments? View attachment 631904

View attachment 631895
View attachment 631887View attachment 631888View attachment 631886

I had a somewhat similar experience last fall only with a 300 prc shooting 205 bergers. Shot was close to 600 yards. With the recoil I got the scope back on her as she was doing the same type of snow plowing into a ravine. Was working my way towards her a couple does came by at 50 yards with no obvious signs of being hit. Got to where she was and found blood. Long story short she was one of the does that came right by me at 50 yards. She ended up going 3/4 mile and still had to finish her off.

My point is, I guess, that this can happen with any caliber big or small. I sold that gun over the summer and went smaller, 223 and 22 creedmoor.


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[justin davis]

Did you peel the animal back layer by layer to find how deep the deepest penetrating part went? It definitely made it through both lungs just looking at the wound.

Also, a “big” bull is no wider through the chest, or very little so, than a normal cow. Both are within a couple inches of a normal adult deer. The “shoulder” (scapula) isn’t functionally thicker on a bull elk than an adult deer either. I have both sitting here I could split and measure thickness on.

@huntnful posted this picture of a bull from the top-
View attachment 631811


This is a WT buck-
View attachment 631812


There is a large difference in length and height of the body cavity, but not very much in the width. Game animals are slab sided.

Yea makes sense.

 

[chamois]

Bit perplexed after this one:
...
but I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.
...

Well, for me it is quite easily to understand. The animal actually dies when its central nervous system (brain) dies and that only happens either by lack of oxygen or by a direct impact in the head. In the first case this is not something that happens instantaneously, taking a few seconds, and how much can a deer cover in 10-20-30... seconds in a frantically desperate death run?

 

[BrentVA]

I have a .243 that I hunted with as a kid. It means a lot to me Remington 700 bdl. I shot 100gr core lokt’s out of it for years with great success on whitetails. Later I handloaded 100gr Sierra Game Kings. They shot awesome in it. I can’t remember which imr powder I used off the top of my head lol.

 

[Savagenut]

I had a somewhat similar experience last fall only with a 300 prc shooting 205 bergers. Shot was close to 600 yards. With the recoil I got the scope back on her as she was doing the same type of snow plowing into a ravine. Was working my way towards her a couple does came by at 50 yards with no obvious signs of being hit. Got to where she was and found blood. Long story short she was one of the does that came right by me at 50 yards. She ended up going 3/4 mile and still had to finish her off.

My point is, I guess, that this can happen with any caliber big or small. I sold that gun over the summer and went smaller, 223 and 22 creedmoor.


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How did the Berger perform. What was the shot placement?


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[Jake Leibke]

How did the Berger perform. What was the shot placement?


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Last fall we shot 5, maybe 6, whitetail with that gun. Killed every deer, nothing performance wise to write home about. Overall I was not real impressed with that whole set, part of reason for selling.

This particular deer by the time I found it it was well after dark so I wasn’t really looking for damage. I do remember it odd though I didn’t find an obvious entrance or exit hole so couldn’t say for sure on shot placement.

I’ve got necropsy pics of some of the other deer. If you interested send me a message so the thread doesn’t get detailed.


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[eoperator]

With the penetration

My wifes buck from earlier this week is a good example of this. She made an absolute perfect standing broadside shot at 425yrd with a 20" 6cm 108 berger in a small gap within oak brush. I watched the impact trough binos on a tripod and felt very confident as it disappeared quickly into the brush. We searched for hours with absolutely zero blood trail, several does were with the buck so it was not possible to track him. Finally found him up hill and about 50yrds backwards from the direction he took off in. Terminal performance looked great but 2 holes would have been very nice in this case.

 

[Rich M]

Makes you wonder what it's lacking in "killing power." All the naysayers claim a 6mm is too small. Certainly doesn't look like it.

The bull I killed this year with a 108eldm this year didn't think it was lacking.

It only takes once to change yer mind.

 

[HingleMcCringleberry]

It only takes once to change yer mind.

I'll keep trying!

 

[slatebuilder]

My son shot a whitetail doe at 100 yards with his 243 Winchester this afternoon. 47 grains of H1000 behind a 100 grain partition. Impact velocity would have been around 3000 fps. The deer was quartering away, the bullet entered on the animals right side 2/3 of the way up the body breaking the last rib back and exited 3/4 of the way up the left side of the body breaking the 7th rib back. Both the entry and exit wounds in the rib cage were about 2” in diameter. The deer ran about 100 yards and piled up. The lungs are pictured below. This is typical of the wounds we have seen in whitetails from the 100 grain partition.

 

[Anschutz]

The lungs are pictured below. This is typical of the wounds we have seen in whitetails from the 100 grain partition.

I've had a few deer where lung was on the ground. One deer had lung tissue for 2/3 of the blood trail. How she made it 35 yards is beyond me.

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[roosiebull]

Bit perplexed after this one:

Last night I had 2 does feed out into a clearcut at 300 yards on the dot. Held high shoulder on the lead doe and sent a 90 grain ELDX her way via my trusty .243 Win.

She immediately began "snow-plowing" with no front legs, face in the dirt, roughly 10 yards. Typical dead deer that doesnt know it yet right? She slowed down enough that I sent another and watched her dump.

Saw her laying there "dead" about 10 yards away and she jumps up and runs into the woods looking completely normal. I didn't even try to shoot her off hand as I was convinced it must have been the other doe that was with her and didn't want to accidentally shoot 2 deer with 1 tag.

Should have believed my eyes because it was indeed the doe I had shot. I followed blood for about 150 yards and kept on bumping her. It was getting dark fast and I had seen a bunch of grizz tracks across the creek last week so I had a bit of a dilemma on my hands...

Made the tough decision to back out and get back in there at first light, found her piled up less than 10 yards from where I called off the search last night. The yotes had gotten a rear quarter but I managed to salvage the rest of the meat.

The necropsy only made things more confusing. Unsure if the 1st or 2nd shot is pictured (believe its the 1st based on location), but I have no idea how a small whitetail managed to run 194 yards through a brushy creek bottom with that level of destruction inflicted upon her vitals.

Chalk this one up as one of those occasional WTF hunting moments? View attachment 631904

View attachment 631895
View attachment 631887View attachment 631888View attachment 631886

That’s crazy! Thanks for taking pics, I would think you were a bullshitter from now on without those pictures, haha

 

[ianpadron]

That’s crazy! Thanks for taking pics, I would think you were a bullshitter from now on without those pictures, haha

I told my buddies what happened that night, when I sent them photos the next day they were even more confused than I was!

 

[houser52]

I took my first whitetail with the 6mm Creedmoor yesterday. The doe was approximately 225 yards and slightly angling away. At the shot the doe jumped straight up and did the mule kick. She only ran about thirty yards, fell over, kicked a couple times and was done.

The 108 grain ELD-M entered the left mid body and stopped near the hide underneath the right shoulder, no exit. According to my ballistic app, impact velocity was 2483 fps.

There was very little blood at the entrance but lots of it out the mouth. I took her straight to the processor and didn’t get any pics of the damage inside.

This is kind of a match bullet hat trick for me this year and they all worked extremely well.
#1- 8pt. buck, .223 77 TMK, 220 yards
#2- 8pt. buck, 6.5 130 TMK, 300 yards
#3- doe, 108 ELD-M, 225 yards

 

[Trapperkid]

I took my first whitetail with the 6mm Creedmoor yesterday. The doe was approximately 225 yards and slightly angling away. At the shot the doe jumped straight up and did the mule kick. She only ran about thirty yards, fell over, kicked a couple times and was done.

The 108 grain ELD-M entered the left mid body and stopped near the hide underneath the right shoulder, no exit. According to my ballistic app, impact velocity was 2483 fps.

There was very little blood at the entrance but lots of it out the mouth. I took her straight to the processor and didn’t get any pics of the damage inside.

This is kind of a match bullet hat trick for me this year and they all worked extremely well.
#1- 8pt. buck, .223 77 TMK, 220 yards
#2- 8pt. buck, 6.5 130 TMK, 300 yards
#3- doe, 108 ELD-M, 225 yards

What did you see as far as a difference in terminal affects between the three? Specifically the 6 cm and the 223.