GRAPHIC Why you don't hunt whitetails with a .300RUM

[buggybuilder]

I reload for 100% accuracy first. 5 shots @100 yds with a .5 group. I want all that bullets energy to stop inside the body. 3500 fps doesn't do any good if its exiting the aft side of the deer. My bullet severed the windpipe,jugular vein and broke his neck. Nothing more is needed.

[squirrelsniper]

Something isn't right if a .224 60gr Partition isn't passing through a Neck shot on a whitetail.

Not to get off topic, but this is kind of what I meant earlier when I said no two shots are alike and there are a lot of factors that go into it. So, to tell the story that got me to post this...
A few years ago I was hunting from one of my favorite spots with one of my favorite rifles. The rifle was a 7mm Rem Mag, shooting a 140gr Sierra GameKing BTSP. A good buck steps out, but about the same time I see him and get the rifle up, he sees me and stops. He's facing me, dead still except for a little ear movement. He's good, look's like a 140-class or so, certainly not going to let him walk if I can help it. But there's a problem, the only shot I've got is the neck and up, I can't even tell where his shoulders are. I'm thinking 7mm mag, 140gr bullet, maybe 50yds (ended up being 42yds), and a neck shot on something I wanted to hang on the wall. Oh well, he's not walking. Bang, drop.

I get up to the deer a couple minutes later expecting to see a trophy animal that I'll just be doing a skull mount on. Oddly enough, I don't see anything wrong. I lift its head up and just a few trickles of blood run out a small hole centered in the front of its neck. I'm thinking... "What the heck, how did that happen?"

I pretty much perform an autopsy on a kill any time I can and I certainly try to any time something strange happens. Since I've already told a long enough story, here's the explanation, which was pretty straightforward once I discovered it. The bullet entered centered in the neck, hit vertebrae in the neck causing both the vertebrae and the bullet to essentially grenade inside the neck. Again, fast cartridge/bullet, short range, major bone, yada yada. The muscle (which was substantial) and the skin contained all this within the neck without doing any outward damage. Part of the mangled bullet jacket was found about 1/2" under the skin on the back side. Bone and lead fragments were scattered throughout the neck.

[whiteknuckle]

Doesn't seem ethical IMO. My favorite cartridge inside 100 yards: 30/30.

I don't think he suffered much:)

[davemuzz]

Something isn't right if a .224 60gr Partition isn't passing through a Neck shot on a whitetail.

I had a 77gr Custom Comp enter the top of the skull on a doe and exit in the neck bug enough to stick my thumb into...

If you look at buggybuilder's post, he stated his POA and POI was at the base of the skull and neck. If that's where his .223 bullet hit's there is nothing but bone and I would expect to find very little of a bullet (but pieces) left….if anything at all. Pieces of bone, bullet, and a deer that never felt a thing upon impact.

Dave

[BoilerUP]

I saw that.

But a Partition should not have any issues penetrating and exiting a deer's spine and skull, especially if a SMK/Custom Comp/Amax can do so.

Pretty sure 3500fps+ has something to do with that "failure", however...

[rl550]

I had trouble using my 300 wsm(wasting meat) until i went with a hornady 180 gr. inter bond bullet. Tried 150 gr ballistic tips then 165 gr. sierras , but the 180 gr. seems just right plus now I have an elk load to if I ever can afford the hunt.