This past season I shot a moose Approx weight 600 lbs using a 30-06
cal and 180gr. TBBC bullet.One shot dropped in its tracks. Thinking that myseason was over,(enough meat in the freezer) I put my rifle away for the year.2 months later my brother dropped by my house with a 160 class muleybuck in the back of the pick-up truck.Boy was this deer beaten up badly.He offered to take me hunting the following weekend. When my brother picked me up early Sat morning I told him I should have loaded some30-06 cartridges with a lighter conventional style of bullet.
That morning I spotted a buck with a monster rack quartering down a
slope away from me. I waited for the buck to stop.When it did I fired
The deer did not stop running I thought I missed. I called my brother
on the 2 way radio and told him the story.He arrived 20 min later to where
I was sitting and we slowly apprached the area where I last saw the deer run through. We found the 190 class buck at the bottem of the ravine
150 yrds from where I shot. Boy was that a relief of my chest to find this
deer. The bullet had entered the deer behind the shoulder and because
it was quartering the bullet exited out the neck. The deer's weight was under 140lbs (Big rack for a deer this size) even if it is the rutting season.
This deer should have dumped in its tracks but I because of the heavily constructed bullet I used it didn't expand and hit the vitals it needed to
to bring the deer down in its tracks. The bullet passed through the lungs
and punctured its diaphram in the chest, but did not hit the juggular or spine or trachea in the neck region .Shot placement is very important but
using the right bullet for the animal being hunted is just as critcal. Its
hard enough to dump something in its tracks with any cal.being used.
My freind shot a big buck with his 7mm Ultra mag this past season as well.
He told me he used a 175gr. Swift A-frame bullet (same cartridge he used
on his elk just prior to this deer hunt he was on.) Shooting it in the neck
at 65yrds away the deer dropped.He walked up to the deer that was laying flat on the ground and assuming it was dead he layed his gun down and started taking photoghraphs forgetting his knife in his truck he walked back to the truck.To his amazment the deer got up and ran off.
He saw it four days later (in a no shooting area) with a group of does.
The deer looked fine, just a pencil hole in and out.Again shot placement
and bullet type played a key role in this situation. He did get some nice pictures though.