On Thanksgiving day I was given the opportunity to harvest a nice 1 1/2 year old doe. I was using my .45 Knight Disc, with 90 gr. of RS Select, CCI ML primers, and Hornady 200 gr. SST. The shot was 38 yds, when the smoke cleared she had made a 180 degree turn and laid there lifting her head just one time. The bullet entered between the 3rd & 4th rib. from the back angling forward. Upon field dressing her, the lungs were liquefied and the heart was clipped also. I did notice that the left shoulder was broken also, but had no exit hole. After skinning her, I found the bullet in the left shoulder meat. All that was left was 60.7 gr. of the copper jacket, without any trace of the lead core. A loss of 139.3 gr. of the bullet. I guess I'll be going to a heavier bullet, and do some more testing.
Better yet get some 200 grain XTP's - you will be amazed at what they will do.... and one other I should suggest...Spreer Gold Dot .40/180 grain - bonded but with great expansion.
Another member also shoots another Speer Gold Dot... .41/210 grain and he puts it in a Harvester Crush rib to get it down the 45 bore...
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So the deer dropped in her tracks with good penetration to the opposite shoulder and liquified lungs. I'm a little confused what there is to complain about? Of course it won't hurt to move to a heavier bullet but how much deader can it be and how much shorter can the run be?
It's not a bonded bullet so it's not unheard of for it to separate. But realize it separated on the far side of the deer, AFTER doing its job, not fragmenting upon entry which would constitute concerning performance.
If you're not shooting long range try a Nosler or XTP. IMHO whitetails are not hard to kill and people over-index on bullets and lean towards ones that may be too tough and what you have is fine. I'd rather have a bullet that shows a little too much expansion by the time it gets to the far side of a deer going through a shoulder and breaking it on the way than one that sub-expands on a between-the-ribs lung shot and pencils through with little trauma.
Yep, that bullet did its job. Still - I like a bullet that expands yet holds together.
The 210 grain .410 Gold Dots do that if you can get them to shoot well in your gun. This one was out of my .41 Mag Blackhawk at around 1500 fps muzzle velocity. It was recovered from the soil behind my 100 yard target. I've never recovered one from a deer.
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I've had the 200 grain XTP impact deer at velocities close to, or over 2000 fps (faster than you were pushing that SST) on 3 occasions. None of the bullets fragmented.
However, the performance sounds like what you described - complete penetration, a lot of internal damage, and a lot of expansion from the bullets- all recovered under the off-side hide - the bullets pancaked out, and didn't exit the deer, but did do the job.
So I'm not sure I'd call it a bullet failure- it did get the job done. It may be a fluke too- I've only shot 1 deer with the 200 SST (at around 2000 fps) but I got a complete pass-thru. This deer was shot at less than 10 yards. So it's hard to say. Unfortunately there isn't a huge selection of bullets for the .45 so you are limited. But the 200 XTP or Gold Dot might be good to try out.
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I've had the 200 grain XTP impact deer at velocities close to, or over 2000 fps (faster than you were pushing that SST) on 3 occasions. None of the bullets fragmented.
However, the performance sounds like what you described - complete penetration, a lot of internal damage, and a lot of expansion from the bullets- all recovered under the off-side hide - the bullets pancaked out, and didn't exit the deer, but did do the job.
So I'm not sure I'd call it a bullet failure- it did get the job done. It may be a fluke too- I've only shot 1 deer with the 200 SST (at around 2000 fps) but I got a complete pass-thru. This deer was shot at less than 10 yards. So it's hard to say. Unfortunately there isn't a huge selection of bullets for the .45 so you are limited. But the 200 XTP or Gold Dot might be good to try out.
I would not call it a fluke, on another thread I posted pics of 2 separated and recovered 200SWs from around 200 yards. If you shoot them through the shoulder bones they will open and separate on the far shoulder. In 30-40 kills with them I have NEVER seen one separate before passing through the far shoulder, all recovered were captured under the offside skin.
What I like about the bullet is good expansion over a wide range of velocities. Deer are soft animals and I've never seen a bad experience where the bullet failed to do its job, but don't expect expansion to look as controlled as a Barnes, XTP or GOld Dot. That's not the way it's designed.
HOwever, if I knew that 90%+ of my shots would be under 100yds, I would recommend an XTP/Nosler/Gold Dot as your impact velocities will be in a narrow range and relatively high.
Squezer,
My son had a very similar experience earlier this week. The ammount of lead was 24.85gr and the jacket was 58.02. I know the accuracy is great. The terminal performance is a little questionable. I'm going to be sticking with noslers and may cough up a few for the kids too. They tell me "dead is dead", I just don't care to have bullet fragments in my venison.
.45 Hornady 200 gr. SST
