6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[Bluumoon]

Dang you.

Any noticeable difference on the game animals? Shorter time to drop? Wound channels?

Not the numbers of other guys. This year I personally witnessed or shot.

1 Mule deer 22CM 77TMK - devastating at 150 ish yards, cantaloupe size wound channel, bullet base found off side hide.

2 Caribou 22CM 80 ELDM 500-550 yards, each received a couple rounds, neither travelled more than 10 yards, baseball size wound channels

1 cow elk 22CM 80 ELDM - not my best shooting 500 yards , heart shot immediately dropped her. Base ball through chest cavity

1 cow elk 300ish yards 6CM 108eldm. I didn’t spend much time w this one, hard to find entrance wound, liquified chest cavity except heart (I’m thinking pulmonary veins/arteries and onside lung) , maybe 30 yards travelled.

1 small bull elk 6CM 109 ELDM 225 yards 4 impacts (fast), it made a mess, I have no concerns.

1 caribou, 1 cow elk, 1 bull elk sitting shooting off vertical standing pack (not ideal) , to me no appreciable difference in maintaining sight picture between 6CM and 22CM.

I agree w @MX, no concerns w either. That being said if it was one or the other I’d absolutely go 6CM. More factory ammo choices, seems less picky on bullet choice, almost interchangeable ballistics, and double the barrel life.

 

[Gribley]

Cow elk. 243 win. 108 Eldm. 274 yards. Impact velocity around 2475 fps. She appeared broadside when I pulled the trigger. I hit further back than I intended but it worked out because she was quartering away when it hit her. The bullet entered the stomach. You could see green poop grass coming out of the bullet hole in the stomach. Parts of the bullet made into one lung. Definitely not lung soup like a lot of the other pictures in this thread. She traveled six yards and then dropped 5-10 seconds after the shot. She did have a little blood coming out her mouth so clearly some lung trauma. Still, I’m a little perplexed as to why she dropped so fast with such a poor shot. Thoughts? Also, those grayish/maroon spots on the lungs I’m assuming is just hemorrhage right? Not indicative of a disease process? Thanks.

 

[KyleR1985]

Cow elk. 243 win. 108 Eldm. 274 yards. Impact velocity around 2475 fps. She appeared broadside when I pulled the trigger. I hit further back than I intended but it worked out because she was quartering away when it hit her. The Bullet entered the stomach. You could see green poop grass coming out of the bullet hole in the stomach. Parts of the bullet made into one lung. Definitely not lung soup like a lot of the other pictures in this thread. She traveled six yards and then dropped 5-10 seconds after the shot. She did have a little blood coming out her mouth so clearly some lung trauma. Still, I’m a little perplexed as to why she dropped so fast with such a poor shot. Thoughts? Also, those grayish/maroon spots on the lungs I’m assuming is just hemorrhage right? Not indicative of a disease process? Thanks.View attachment 981248View attachment 981249

If the spot circled in blue is the impact, you likely severed dorsal aorta. Rides under spine. That’ll drop blood pressure quick fast and in a hurry…

 

[Gribley]

Makes more sense. Thanks. Sounds like I got lucky.

 

[The Guide]

Also, those grayish/maroon spots on the lungs I’m assuming is just hemorrhage right? Not indicative of a disease process?

Those are spots of pooling blood that generally come from inhaled blood that was in the airway. Your shot damaged the respiratory system in some manner. The photo as I look at it is not indicating any obvious disease.

Jay

 

[KyleR1985]

Makes more sense. Thanks. Sounds like I got lucky.

I’ve shot a handful of deer with a bow there, and my first bull. It’s “oh shit” followed by “ well that worked out”.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Not the numbers of other guys. This year I personally witnessed or shot.

1 Mule deer 22CM 77TMK - devastating at 150 ish yards, cantaloupe size wound channel, bullet base found off side hide.

2 Caribou 22CM 80 ELDM 500-550 yards, each received a couple rounds, neither travelled more than 10 yards, baseball size wound channels

1 cow elk 22CM 80 ELDM - not my best shooting 500 yards , heart shot immediately dropped her. Base ball through chest cavity

1 cow elk 300ish yards 6CM 108eldm. I didn’t spend much time w this one, hard to find entrance wound, liquified chest cavity except heart (I’m thinking pulmonary veins/arteries and onside lung) , maybe 30 yards travelled.

1 small bull elk 6CM 109 ELDM 225 yards 4 impacts (fast), it made a mess, I have no concerns.

1 caribou, 1 cow elk, 1 bull elk sitting shooting off vertical standing pack (not ideal) , to me no appreciable difference in maintaining sight picture between 6CM and 22CM.

I agree w @MX, no concerns w either. That being said if it was one or the other I’d absolutely go 6CM. More factory ammo choices, seems less picky on bullet choice, almost interchangeable ballistics, and double the barrel life.

I’m gonna have a hard time not grabbing the 6 Creed with 115 Bergers for killing.

Got a couple more big game kills on the agenda here soon and it’s getting the call again.

 

[CJ_BG]

Jacket thickness mostly. Eldx should mushroom, somewhat stay together, and have much better weight retention. Eldm or the like violently expands shedding much of it's weight as it dumps massive energy several inches into the game. The shock and sheer trauma from the eldm is too much to take.... with proper shot placement.

It's a matter of do you want a possible pass through with deeper penetration and a relatively small permanent would cavity. Or do you want to dump all the energy at once with a massive permanent wound cavity?

Okay because the front half of those two bullets that actually does the expansion and shedding are pretty dang close, and the eld-m is closer to being a traditional cup and core bullet

 

[LongWayAround]

I finally have one small data point for this thread

My lady killed her first deer this weekend, a button buck about the size of large dog.

.243 100gr Norma softpoint. 50yd shot, deer traveled about 50yd after the shot. The deer appeared broadside, but was quartered away.

Shot entered behind the near side shoulder and exited forward of the offside shoulder.

Caliber size entry, pingpong ball size exit. Lung material was blown out of the exit. She took out the top of the heart, but I didn't do much of a necropsy. No fragments were found during butchery.

 

[Nine Banger]

I’m gonna have a hard time not grabbing the 6 Creed with 115 Bergers for killing.

Are you rolling your own? That would be a cool factory load option.

All I see are the 95's and 108's.

It might be my new year's resolution to stop hand loading. It's taking too much time at night with my schedule lately.

 

[Hypernatremia]

Made a not so great shot on a buck that turned out ok and is a data point for the performance of the TMKs on heavy bone.

95gr TMK @ 2400 fps impact velocity. Shot taken broadside at ~150m leaned up against a fence.

Impact low forward on the shoulder, ended up centered right on the joint. Blew right through it and and caused quite a bit of meat loss on the opposite quarter. He stood up on his back legs and flopped over with both front legs inoperable. Needed a second shot through the lungs to finish off.



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[mxgsfmdpx]

Are you rolling your own? That would be a cool factory load option.

All I see are the 95's and 108's.

It might be my new year's resolution to stop hand loading. It's taking too much time at night with my schedule lately.

My own.

 

[Nine Banger]

My own.

View attachment 981341

View attachment 981340

Nice.

Looks quick drop friendly too.

 

[Jstumbaugh]

Any of you guys using the 80gr CX or GMX lead free option? I picked up some seconds and started playing with load development. They shoot lights out and my daughter is crushing deer with them. Usually bang/flop full pass throughs. I need to chrono them and see what they are doing out of the 243.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Nice.

Looks quick drop friendly too.

Gayyyyyy.

 

[Big_wals]

Shot a WT doe with the .243 at my parents farm over Thanksgiving, first kill with a 109 ELDM. Impact velocity around 2560.


Hit the humerus on entrance.



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