ORIGINAL: frontier gander

not even the big heavy great plains bullet can pass through both shoulders, as i found out. I feel the best way and quickest way to dropan animal is with a lung/heart shot. You think back in the old days, hunters went for a shoulder shot on a buffalo? heck no, you go for a lung shot, the lungs fill with blood and its dead. No wasted meat, guaranted a dead animal at the end of the trail. Not everyone can use sabots and not every gun will get groups with a conical bullet. Once you find something that gives you good accuracy, even if its a light bullet, a lung/heart shot is going to bring that animal down a lot faster than a bullet that cant punch through bone. And my first year hunting, i found that maxi-balls in the rifle i was shooting, grouped great, 3" at 100 yards in my old .45 rifle. But i was really mad when i found out these bullets were not mushrooming in 2 deer i shot. Heck the buck i finally did shoot at 35 yards in the ribs, didnt even make a pass through.Thankfully the next year is when the powerbelts came out. By then i had got a cva staghorn as an replacement to my .45. Lung shots in my book are by far the best shot placements on deer/elk. i read somewhere in this thead earlier that someone said, You cant always get good accuracy to put the bullet behind the shoulder. Why not? If you can hit the shoulder bone, thats a harder target to hit than the big lung area. This shoulder bone/lung/heart subject is simply just opinions. In my mind, you may break its shoulder but what if that bullet doesnt work on how you thought it would? Wouldnt it have been safer to go for a lung/heart or even a neck shot and put that animal down? I love the 245 powerbelts, those suckers in my rifles have dropped dear like a giant hand swatted them. In truth, i dont really think its going to matter what type of bullet you are using. If you cant place the shot where it needs to be, that animal may just be wounded badly. Next year im going to try a shoulder shot on a deer with a 295 and report back. We've had collar bone shot deer and they drop. All our deer lastyear with powerbelts were pass through, all except one and that was my 385 grain great plains bullet that didnt even make a dent on the other shoulder blade.