6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[Formidilosus]

6um or 6xc?

6 UM.

 

[eric1115]

6 UM.

That's like 1100 yards then? Dang.

 

[Happy Antelope]

These are from my trip to RSA where I shot springbucks and warthogs mostly. The warthogs were one shot kills taken at 380 and 570 yards. 6XC load was 105gr VLDs pushed at 3,000 fps-even by IMR7828SC with BR2 primers. This particular lot of powder was much faster than expected, and proved very accurate in my gun, a Blaser break open single shot.
The other photo is the result of a morning dedicated to springbucks taken with the mentioned VLDs and 105gr AMAXes as well.
I have to rush now, BjornF16, but will load up some pictures of bigger stuff I shot with the same gun in another trip to Namibia.
View attachment 472733View attachment 472734View attachment 472732

Nice day of Springbok culling

 

[JRay]

115gr DTAC

Approximately 1,940fps impact velocity. No bones hit until exit side rib. First shot was very rear lobe of lung. No upset at this point.

View attachment 630538


Then it caught the very front of the stomach. Look to the left of the knife tip and you can see the hole into the stomach.
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Came out through the edge of the liver, and the other lungs rear lobe and is showing signs of yawing (tumbling), breaking a rib on exit.
View attachment 630541

Exit side shows a near perfect sideways bullet from yawing.

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Second hit was through lower neck, no pictures unfortunately. The elk fell at that shot, started tumbling down hill, then at some point stood up generally quartering away, and the third hit angled through the femur and lower spine. The bull dropped at this shot and laid still with his head down for a few seconds, then tried to lift his head again, and a final shot was out into his neck.

Femur/spine impact. This was approximately a 4” diameter wound channel.
View attachment 630543

Relative to the circumstance of this kill, did the dtac perform as expected?

 

[Formidilosus]

Relative to the circumstance of this kill, did the dtac perform as expected?

This is what I wrote in the 6UM thread when asked about it-

“Ideal or not is relative. The DTAC’s general behavior is to penetrate several inches then yaw (tumble) about half the time fragmenting some when they do, about half the time not. The first shot in the back of the lungs caught the stomach right at the diaphragm line, and my guess is the grass in the stomach is what kept the bullet from yawing as normal earlier in the wound track. As soon as the bullet hit the liver it was already turning, and was fully sideways by the offside lung and exit.
The one in the hip behaved as normal- that is dramatically. The two in the neck, didn’t catch any bone and not that much muscle, and only started to upset as they exited.

I wouldn’t say this was “bad”, I would say it’s about worst case scenario of impact locations and performance for this bullet. From first shot to last the elk moved exactly 60 yards.”

 

[justin davis]

6 creedmoor shooting 108 eldm’s Shot was around 80 yards. Perfect shot. Right behind shoulder. Buck ran 50 yards or so and went down. Entrance was bullet sized with no exist.

 

[JRay]

108eldm are excellent killing bullets but they sure can mangle up some meat.

 

[bhylton]

108eldm are excellent killing bullets but they sure can mangle up some meat.

Sure looks it. I was thinking a 6mm might be my next deer/elk round, but maybe 22cal is a better route. That 108 looks rough

 

[Wyo_hntr]

108eldm are excellent killing bullets but they sure can mangle up some meat.

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.

 

[idahodave]

Berger 105 VLD out of a 6 Creed at 490ish. He didn’t make it 10 yards.

Impact side..

And the exit side…

 

[JBradley500]

Does anyone use a 95 TMK in a standard twist 243 Winchester?

 

[ktmkaratechips]

Interesting one for you guys. This buck was 300 yards bedded in some grass that covered his body about halfway up the chest cavity. Broadside(ish) so I took the shot and didn’t realize the position of his leg was cocked back under him more than I could see and ended up shooting him directly in the front shoulder. I thought I was aimed far enough back to miss the shoulder as I don’t like that shot. The bullet (103 eldx) hit right above the joint of the shoulder blade and punched through the bone, chest cavity, and the offside shoulder blade and stopped in the muscle of the offside shoulder. The deer acted like he was struck by lightning and his head hit the dirt and he lay still for about 1 minute. Then he started flailing around and was obviously not able to use his back legs and rolled out of his bed. It took probably 3 minutes to get up to him and he was shockingly still very alive and needed a finishing shot in the chest at point blank to send him home. This shot made a mess of this vitals so I didn’t learn much by cutting him open to inspect the vitals. Now I learned a good lesson about shot placement on bedded animals but my question is for “high shoulder” shot placement guys. If you shoot ‘em high shoulder, what kills them? Or are finishing shots common for that shot placement? I guess I either missed the lungs or just barely clipped them on top but obviously disturbed the spine. Either way he was still alive a lot longer than I wanted. In the end it was my mistake for not plceing the bullet correctly but just curious about others experiences. Cheers.

 

[Savagenut]

Nice buck. Sounds like you broke the neck somehow.

Here’s the off switch on the high shoulder

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[Jordan86]

My 11 year old son killed his first buck this week.

6mm ARC, 103gr ELDX out of an 18” barrel at 150 yards. Double lung hit and dropped him in his tracks.

 

[justin davis]

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.

Yea at closer range it makes me a little nervous using it on say a big bull.

 

[Formidilosus]

Yea at closer range it makes me a little nervous using it on say a big bull.

Why?

 

[Anschutz]

I killed my first six or seven deer with a New England Handi-Rifle in .243. I think my furthest shot was maybe 60 yards using 100gr Winchester Power Points. The furthest I ever had to track a deer was maybe 30 yards, and it was a lung trail more than a blood trail. This was from 2004-2007, so I don't have any digital pictures. I have another .243 built on a Savage Action in a B&C Medalist and 26" McGowen 1-8 Sendero Profile. I haven't hunted much with it, but I've shot my best 600yd F-Class (588) with it.

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[justin davis]

Why?

With the penetration

 

[Jbehredt]

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.

 

[Formidilosus]

With the penetration

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-



This is a WT buck-



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.