The bullet failure thread

[Texas270]

Say what you wish, but you don’t often hear about Core Lokts failing. Or round nosed bullets for that matter.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Say what you wish, but you don’t often hear about Core Lokts failing. Or round nosed bullets for that matter.

How far are most folks shooting rounds like that though?..

 

[MDR]

Both of these instances were from many years ago. I've since smartened up and use better bullets. Still surprising since neither of these cals are speed demons.

8mm mauser 196 S&B SPCE on a grizz. Encountered bone and turned into a grenade. I've had other cup and core bullets hit bone and stay together much better than these.

7.62x39 Hornady SST on a black bear. Hit but not recovered. Seen later in the year with a limp from broken leg. A friend used a 30-06 with the SST on a 57" bull and had good performance so your mileage may vary.

 

[Forkasauras]

Shoot enough bullets into enough animals and eventually you’ll see some odd stuff happen

7mm-08 with 140 gr corlokts, whitetail deer from a treestand about 20 yards. Entrance and exit wounds were about 2 inches apart just behind the shoulder. Deer dropped.

Another with 180gr round nose from a 30-06. Entrance was behind the shoulder, exit was just under the offside ear.

 

[Deeker]

2 bullet “ failures” on the same hunt. 140 accubonds out of 2 seperate 6.5 prc. First was my buck at just under 400. Quartering to shot, hit front leg just under the shoulder no entrance into chest cavity. Another shot infront of the shoulder put buck down. 2nd was two days later, my buddy shot a buck at just over 600 I believe, 1st shot was back on the hips, follow up shot was through the lungs broadside. Both were killing shots, however the shot in the lungs had zero expansion. Bullet keyholed going through the body leaving a perfect bullet shape wound channel on the offside ribcage.

The second incident I can wrap my head around, I would imagine we were over the terminal range of the bullet. Gun has a 16 inch barrel. The first buck I can only guess what happened…. Both resulted in dead deer, so technically not a failure, but still concerning.

 

[Mtndawger]

This is a good thread. No doubt at all that sometimes bullets do unexpected things. A good many of the descriptions of failures leave me wondering if it was an actual failure or a marginal shot placement. I don’t really know what “ under the shoulder” means for example. To me that means out of the kill zone. Or a going away shot that is somehow supposed to go through the back straps, the spinal column and out the sternum. Seems like too shallow an angle resulting in a deflection and not straight line penetration. One guy gets 12” penetration but expects 5’. What bullet gets you 5’ of penetration? Once again though thanks for sharing the data so we can see the results. My own experience with “failure” was cow elk shot broadside @ 40 yards 3x from 280 Remington and 139 sst hornady light magnum ammo. The damn thing stood there like it was frozen and then just tipped over dead. All three simpy failed to expand. This was 2009 and my takeaway is they were “high lung” shots which I had read somewhere were the best shot placement. That’s a little high and a little back. I don’t do that anymore. Nor would I go near an sst again. I believe the eldx bullets are based on the sst except with an internal cannelure to lock in the core. I’m suspicious of the eldx as well. Plenty of folks have have had outstanding results with both.