Great buck!
Great buck!
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. -Tecumseh-
Good buck. Congrats!
Nice!
Welllllllll,
My thoughts -
Deer died right there, so I would submit the bullet performed perfectly. Nosler Partition is a pretty old design that still work well. It is well designed as a hunting bullet. On a broadside shot, Partitions will drive through most of the time- depending on what the bullet struck. The design of that bullet is a soft frontal area ( for expansion/fragmentation) and the rear 2/3 of the bullet to hold together and penetrate. For all practical purposes a Nosler Partition is a soft point bullet. The "partition" is merely a section of copper that runs across the bottom 2/3 of the bullet, effectively a second slug that should not fragment. Think of it as a "H" that holds the slug intact after the front 1/3 expands and in some cases fragments. At 200 yards, your velocity could have slowed enough to keep the bullet from fully penetrating after hitting bone (s).. perhaps into the 2600 FPS range.
On deer, I am a high shoulder shooter every time that shot presents. That said- if you hit onside scapula, spinal column and offside scapula, that is a lot of dense bone for a bullet to have to penetrate. On heavy animals or for shooting through bone, the Barnes X or similar "hard" bullet will get an exit - most of the time. Bullets can do strange things at impact.
Perhaps consider going to a slower, heavier bullet like a 180 grain Partition ( which would decrease expansion) but will have enough bullet frontal area, mass and energy to penetrate fully. Or change your aim point and try to shoot behind the shoulder, through ribs into the lungs and guarantee an exit at the risk of the deer being able to motor a little way - but leaving a blood trail. It's another option. Whitetail deer can be tough, but I wouldn't second guess the performance of a Partition on deer sized animals.
I have shot some Elk with a Partition - and most of the time they are recovered under the hide on the offside, nicely expanded and intact. The first Bull I ever killed took 3 160 grain .284 caliber Partitions into the rib cage before he dropped. He just stood there and let me keep shooting and hitting him until he tipped over.
Congrats on a great Buck!!
F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
Nice Buck and I need to Charge more for Skull Mounts.... Good Lawd they HIGH.....
Good points on shot placement. Nitros summary goes way beyond my experience. It doesn’t take but a one or two bad tracking experiences to get a fella double guessing things. That I know plenty about. And you can muff a high shoulder shot too. Lol
Worship the LORD, not HIS creation.
"No self respecting turkey hunter would pay $5 for a call that makes a good sound when he can buy a custom call for $80 and get the same sound."-NWiles
I have some "shaky" marksmen in my group of associates. I usually see some variances on aimpoint. One thing for sure about snugging the crosshairs on the behind the shoulder region is there is some extra real estate if a guy pulls the trigger a little too hard that can cause a deer to die- forward yank and it's shoulder, rearward yank and it's lungs or worst case - liver. We have had some interesting tracking / trailing adventures. Having a well trained tracking dog nearby is helpful.
I can't tell you how many times we have had ol Sniper Joe swear he shot the deer in the " shoulder" only to find white hair and leg bone fragments at the site of the shot.. most of those end up with not finding the deer or best case scenario - a gut shot deer dead at the end of a long tracking job.. sometimes , days later.
Just this past week, we had a guy who never practices " shoot " a buck in the shoulder. They never found it. Four days later the deer was killed by a guy who practices and has the "ol flinty eye and nerves of steel" thing going - he hit the Buck perfectly with a DRT shot. The deer had been shot low in the ham and was poor as hell. It was trailing a doe when killed. Buck fever, poor marksmanship skills and shitty equipment can get ya. We have a solid shooting bench and target butts at the distances of 100, 200, 300 yard range at the club and encourage all our members to get some time behind the rifle. It is damn disappointing to lose an animal due to poor preparation. That can be prevented. It has happened to me and it sucks. I strive for accuracy at the moment of truth. Things happen. We owe it to the animal to shoot well.
F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
FWIW, Friggin Gutpile is NOT in that group. The little Leprechaun can shoot. He practices.
F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
One last personal experience note - last year I killed a nice Texas 8 point buck at about 85 yards. Watched him corral a doe for over 10 minutes down a Sendero and into the mesquite. When he finally popped out he only offered a front on shot.I wasn't going to let him walk. I was shooting my 7 Rem Mag with 139 grain LR TTSX. Hit him square in the Brisket. He was DRT. First X bullet I have ever recovered. It exploded his heart, both lungs and was under the hide on the offside - with all four petals torn off the slug. I was amazed by that- until we opened him up and saw that the bullet had hit a rib on the offside. Tremendous internal damage. Jelly everywhere. Can't ask for more from any bullet.
F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
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F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
One more, since I am bored... a 165 grain Sierra BTSP - from my .308 Tikka. Similar shot angle into the neck/shoulder crease on a frontal shot. Found under the hide on the offside near the ham. DRT and pretty impressive performance from a plain Jane vanilla cup and core bullet.
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F**K Cancer
Just Damn.
Nice buck!
Nice buck!
very nice sir
Congrats
Very nice, great deer!
Nice!
NICE ONE!!
Poverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another"
Nice one Mark ! Surprised you didn't use the Creedmore.
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