I thought i'd post a couple pics of the 385 grain great plains bullet i pulled out of my mule deer doe this season. I was using 90 grains pyrodex RS in my winchester. The shot was maybe 90 yards and got her dead through the shoulder and i found this on the inside of the other shoulder. It put her down but after seeing my brother shoot a doe with his cva hawken, 90gn's pyro rs and a 295gn powerbelt, his put the deer down in a matter of a second while i had to finish mine off with a shot from my side arm. No reason to let an animal suffer. I'll probably give these another try next year and see how things work out again, after that, i'll be switching back to powerbelts.

I'm using the 410 gr. great plains myself, awesome bullets. The fact you had to put her down with a second shot from your sidearm has more to do with shot placement than the bullet itself. Being able walk up on her and finish her off at close range lets me know she didn't go far and the bullet did it's job with the given hit. Your brother's shot placementprobably hit more vitals, hence the animal expiring quicker. I like the powerbelts as well, but I hate paying that much for bullets. I canget a box of 20 great plains bulletsfor almost half what I pay for 15 of the standard powerbelts.

That looks good. Here is an expansion test I did shooting roundballs and the Hornady 425gr in a bucket of sand.

Deer are funny animals. Have you ever noticed that some deer take a minor hit and drop like a rock where others get a major blast and dance off like nothing happened. This .530 roundball went through a firstdeer dropping it in their tracks, and then hit a second one breaking their spine and dropping them as well.

I would have thought that Great Plains Conical would have been a real planter. Just goes to show you, you must have found one tuff critter out there. To break down the shoulders like that and not drop it just goes to show how tuff deer are. Personally I would have trusted the energy of the Great Plains over the Powerbelt. Very interesting report and great pictures...

That's incredible Cayugad!

Kinda reminds me of several years ago when my neighbor was planted 80 yards away from wherehe was seeing deer the day before.About 9:00AM rang - two hours of sitting in hishunting chair with his favorite centerfire, a deer pops up right at that spot he was seeing deer the day before--he shoots - the deer goes down & he congratulates himself on getting one that came up out of her bed.Wellthe deercame back up to her feet after 20 seconds or-so.He shot again & down the deer went again- only to pop back up in only five seconds or-so.He shot the 3rd time and waited for several minutes this time -before walking over to the edge of a moderately slanted ridge-top. Therehe found three dead deer -- thinkinghe was shooting the same one over& over again. Thankfully, this was private land with the owner having several doe permits.

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Keep Your Powder Dry Folks
. . . . . . . Joe [/i]

I recently found the remains of a .735", 507.5-grain pure lead RB in a sand pile I fired it at from about 25 yards. All that was left was a 3/8" thick "plate" about the size of a silver dollar. Nostem or thicker center ortion remained. MV was around 1500 FPS from 150 grains of Swiss FFg.

IMO, a sand pile is NOT a good test medium because it causes a lot more deformation of a projectile than flesh and bone......