Sounds like the gun did its job to me. I shot one Saturday evening at about that range with 140 grain nosler ballistic tips. Pretty messy, but I like to put them down. I've ruined a lot of meat with a 30-30 before, so I've decided unless I want to neck shoot everything, I'm going to live with it. If your hunting requires some longer shots I would suggest a25-06 barrel for your gun. That should handle any long range shot on a whitetail.