Elk bullet despair.

[hobbes]

I was quite happy to find these today, even if they don't qualify as "premium".

 

[Newtosavage]

I dont understand how he got lucky unless you're talking about the fact that he made a fatal impact at 400 yards. If your friend would have instead shot under the spine, that explosion would have happened in the boiler room and killed at least as effectively (probably quicker) as a tougher "premium" bullet. If he missed above the spine, it would have made a bigger mess of the backstrap than a premium bullet but he would have had a better chance of the rapid fragmentation taking out the spine. The only way he "got lucky" is he didn't hit it exactly in the toughest spot of the shoulder that MIGHT have prevented it from getting to the vitals.

He got lucky that he even hit the bull. 3" higher and he would have missed completely. You're right - if he had centerpunched the vitals that would have been a dead bull. But I have no idea whether we would have found it. We had hell finding it where it fell and 100 yards away was a thicket of nasty juniper with holes, cliffs and ravines. That's what I meant by lucky.