ORIGINAL: BarnesX.308
Yes; when you shoot an animal with an overly powered firearm, you simply waste energy in whatever is behind or beyond the animal.
Wow. Not too many people left holding on to that old camp myth
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How much energy is left behind the target when using a 30-06? 20%? 50% Do you know? The faster the bullet, the faster it will start expanding and causing hydrostatic shock. The 7.62X39 is an adequate deer cartridge but certainly not better than the 30-06. The 30-06 is going to expend plenty of energy inside the deer. Don't worry about that.
It's not a myth, it's the truth...
We kill 40-50 deer a year on our 3 farms, have done so for at least 20 years...Cartridges used include the 22-250, .243, .260, .7mm-08, .308, .270, .280, 30-06, .270 WSM, .300 Win Mag...In addition, I've killed quite a few with a bow, inline muzzleloaders, a .45 and a .54 caliber flintlock, shotgun slugs and buckshot....
I've killed over 300 deer in my lifetime and have cleaned and tracked several hundred more killed by guests that we have on our farms...When you look at lung shot deer with cartridges from .243 up to the .300 Mag, you see very little difference in how far that deer runs before it drops...
A few years ago my brother and I shot the same doe, him with his .270 and the 130gr Sierra SPBT and me with the 100gr .243 Sierra SPBT...Both hits were behind the shoulder, both exited....That doe still ran 70 yards...Some folks claim that bigger holes drop the deer faster (on lung shots)....It's just not so...
What drops deer are a well placed bullet that goes through the spine or a bullet into the brain...
Several years ago I set out to see what was the best factory loading in .243 caliber...Bullets tried included:
100gr CoreLokt (I had already killed about 75 deer with this one)
100gr Remington Premuim SPBT (discontinued)
100gr Winchester Supreme PowerPoint
100gr Winchester PowerPoint
100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partition
100gr Federal Premium Sierra SPBT
85gr Federal Premium HPBT
100gr Federal Classic Sierra Pro-Hunter
100gr Nitrex Grand Slam
100gr Hornady Custom SPBT
I killed 5-6 deer with each of them, took either high shoulder shots or broadside center lung shots...
What I found out is that the "softer" bullets that usually stayed in the deer dropped the deer closer to where they stood than the "harder" bullets that usually went through the deer....
Once that bullet exits the other side, it's through killing...
Exit wounds are good, I like to see a bullet that usually exits on lung shot deer, but not on high shoulder shots...With them, no blood trail is needed...A bullet can actually be too hard, leave a small exit wound and a longer tracking job...
Even if a bullet does not exit on a lung shot deer, there is a blood trail, I've tracked them many times on the blood that expells through the mouth and nose....
In this case, a good LED tracking light or a Coleman lantern is imperative, but that's another post...
btw...Not ALL 30-06 bullets will exit...The 130gr Winchester Silver Tip is one example...My closest hunting buddy used it for years, and it seldom exited....It did make a mess of the lungs, but they still ran 60-80 yards after the hit...
He was a non-believer about the .243, until he had skinned a few dozen deer that I had killed...He now shoots a Remington 700 in .243 and the 100gr Hornady Customs...Deer run no further than when hit with the .243 and he never looses sight of his target...
When discussing different calibers for deer it's also important to discuss the bullet that is being used...