ORIGINAL: andrewjoseph

This saturday I placed a shot through the front shoulder of a 150 pound doe, and thought I had made a clean kill. After waiting about twenty minutes I went looking and found the deer scrambling around about 100 yds from where I shot it.

It was getting dark so I decided to come back the next morning, when I got to the deer it was still very warm, which I think means that it died very soon before I arrived as it is is below zero here in Iowa. I was sort of upset about he kill and felt bad about it taking so long.

The bullet went in through the front shoulder and out the opposite shoulder, travelling through both bones - how this did not sever anything vital enough for a kill I dont know. There was no bullet expansion after examining both the entry and exit thouroghly.

This alarmed me so I decided to look for the bullet, because I know exactly where I was sitting because it was in a stand and I remembered when the deer was standing. After looking for quite a while a found the bullet in a tree about two feet up and after digging it out, was amazed to find that it was the exact same shape and size as a new bullet.

You could not tell that it had been shot except for the nose was slightly smashed.


After seeing this I cant use this bullet anymore, even if it was a fluke thing, on whitetail anymore.

I bought a bunch of 300 gr Hornady xtp mags from close out at Wal Mart and took one deer yesterday with a large wound channel and large exit wound.