So this one time ............ Ok nuff' a that .
I did see a 3x3 mulie hit on a shoulder with a 117 grn early partition in a 25-06. The for leg was dangling by hide the meat was gone bone chips in the neck the remains of the bullet (its safe to say that its design function failed) were mostly just inside the ribs and the neck and the fillets . "hydroshock"did the work .I am not justifing a bad shot or nonpenatration. The bullet did the job all of the energy was dumped in the target and the bang flop was instant . Ruined half the deer I mean a lot of burger . I shot a mulie 150grn '06 total pass through .3 in. inhalf dollar out .Heart and lungs gone and just stood there we got close enough to call it deer tipp'n be for she went down . The rib exit was 3 inches the hide looked like a 15 yd 12ga of bird shot went through . In both cases the deer was dead completely dead .
IMO I think we place the idea that we can use penitration and shoot-thru to make up for average skill . The poor shot is ok because the bullet hit between the head and tail and wetn out at a piont 180 degrees from there . The if I had only a butt shot at 100 yrds while the bigest mulie I'd seen ever I'd wait for 150 or 200 when he stoped and turned to see me or to go through the trees rather than count on that bullet to exit the chest or even get to the vitals .
Maybe I just expect to much from me . Maybe I live too much O'Conner and Wolff .