ORIGINAL: Moebedda
I shot a Whitetail doe tonight with a CVA Optima Pro loaded with 100 loose 777, winchester primer and a 260 grain .451 Nosler Partition HP pistol bullet with MMP sabots. It's the most devistating thing I have ever shot a whitetail with in over 17 years of hunting and around 60 whitetails harvested. My .308 is a close second. The exit was about the size of a quarter. My 1st reaction was WOW.
It was about 30 yards away and I did not have a clue where she went from the smoke. I went to where I saw her standing last and it looked like a crime scene. Solid blood trail about 4-5 inches wide all the way to the deer. The internal damage was rediculous. It jelloed the lungs, took off the top part of the heart and was so much extra internal damage that it made gutting it a mess. It ran about 30 yards which is to be expected on a boiler room shot.
In comparison. I have shot 2 other deer this year with my 12 ga. using the Hornady 300 grain SST sabots, which are the same SST and Shockwaves we shoot out of our smoke poles. Both shots were through the boiler room, both deer ran about 40 yards. Both were pass through shots and both left a decent blood trail, but nothing like the Nosler. And the exit wound was about half the size of the Nosler as well.
Thank you to all the people on these boards who suggested this bullet/sabot combo as I am very pleased with it's accuracy and knockdown power.
Yep, the Noslers are a strong, accurate non-fragmenting bullet. Excellent for deer. This Nosler 300g went almost lengthways thru a deer shot on RHS in the brisket, I found it on the LHS under neath the skin, it went almost totally thru the deer front to back! Now that is penetration, no problem getting into vitals with this bullet on bone hits or difficult angles. Note the perfect mushroom of the Nosler and the fact that the shank is still intact, not totally pancaked out. Craig Boddington calls perfectly mushroomed bullets with long shanks "thing of beauty" (see latest issue of American Rifleman). The bullet that totally pancakes out is spending a lot of energy flattening out, not driving deep into the animal. I like LONG shanks, perfect mushroomed head and exits with my bullets, the Noslers do that almost every time, even on bone.
As Randy Wakeman says here:
http://www.randywakeman.com/ballltd105.htm
Most of it remains a compromise, and there still is no substitute for good shot placement. As a very vague rule of thumb, larger and tougher game requires larger, tougher bullets. Higher velocity muzzleloading rounds likewise call for tougher bullets. It makes sense to me to use a bullet that is tougher than it might have to be, heavier than it might have to be, higher velocity than it might have to be, and while we are at it-- more accurate than it might have to be as the game gets bigger, and tougher.
I find his words have a lot of wisdom in them when speaking of bullet design. Oh he is a Barnes, XTP fan for the most part. Any bullet will kill a 100 lb doe, it sometimes takes a strong bullet to get into the vitals of a 250lb buck, especially with a shoulder hit. You want penetration AND expansion, the Nosler do both well at ML speeds.
Chap Gleason
