cayugad

I want to hear the STRANGEST thing you ever saw a muzzleloader bullet do after you shot it into an animal. I don't care what kind of animal. But tell the tale that led up to the shot being taken, the kind of bullet, rifle, powder (if you remember all of that) and last what made this so strange.

For instance... I once shot a whitetail deer with a .54 caliber roundball. It was a broadside shot. I had 80 grains of Pyrodex RS in the Renegade percussion cap rifle. Nothing really special about the shot mind you. You know, deer comes down the trail like you figured. You have a good sight picture. You fire...

Anyway, I shot that deer behind the front shoulder. Not in the shoulder mind you, but behind it. I figured it would pass through and out the other side. That doe never took a step. I shot and she dropped. Why is this so strange you ask?

The roundball entered behind the front shoulder (learned all this after skinning the deer). From there all I can guess is, it hit a rib on the other side of the chest cavity. Instead of breaking that rib and going out the other side, it traveled upward with that rib and hit the spine bone, then exited almost but not quite, along the side of the spine. That had to be the strangest bullet path I ever saw a roundball do.

This was on flat ground, no hill, no nothing...

popeandyoungchaser

I shot a doe with my Granddad's 50 cal. Hawken PRB pushed by 80 gr. of T7.

She came down the hollow and crossed at the head of the ravine right in front of me, I shot her broadside at about 30 yards. When I got all the way down the hill to her (too bad deer never roll up hill) I could not find an exit wound. I thought "hmmm... thats odd" but whatever I was happy. During the butchering process I found the round ball smashed flat on the backside of her onside (the side I shot her from) shoulder blade.

I could never put together what exactly happened.

Any Ideas?

Semisane

Neat stories guys. I've heard of balls making drastic turns in the body, but haven't experienced it myself.

cayugad

popeandyoungchaser... I have heard one other account like you describe. I really cannot say what might have happened. But roundballs can do some strange things.

hunt12ga

My dad's first deer was a nice buck that he shot from about 40 yards, perfectly broadside. He hit it right behind the shoulder with a .45 PRB. We found that ball lodged under the skin on the hip of the opposite side. It must have hit a rib and bounced straight back through his gut and back leg. He didn't go far!

rw

Breechplug

Mines kinda similar to yours Dave. I saw a Bedded Buck in the Grape Rows behind our House, he was looking in My direction, I think he was asleep. I aimed the 50cal Dixie Gun Works ML loaded with a Round ball and 90gr's of 3F at his lungs from 77 yds and fired, he never moved, hs head just went down.
When I came upon him I saw the shot was a tad high in the lungs (it's tough to judge a bedded Deer's vitals) Anyway when I rolled him over there was no exit hole. When I field dressed him I still could'nt find the Ball. Later when I cut him up I just had to find it, I was puzzled.
Come to find out the ball glanced off the ribs, hit the spine and travled the spine into the Bucks head into his brain. I had to cut off the top of the scull plate to find it.
(BP)

Semisane

Do you suppose that because a ball is round and spinning, in certain situations it acts like a billiards ball with "English" applied?

Gm54-120

The strangest besides a white (not albino) deer was this season.

I talked my buddy into using my 45 with a Barnes bullet i modified. His rifle's scope was older and didnt cover the bigger field very well and he loved mine. So i loaded up a modified Barnes TAC-XP bullet and a good dose of BH209.

So we head off and shortly after getting into the stand, 3 deer are in our 2 main fields. I take out the largest doe and the other two run another direction. I kept watching where mine ran and he followed the other 2 into another field.

Then i hear the boom next to me after a good pause and he yells, "holy Fecal Matter it dropped like a rock". Im still watching my field and get ready to reload since i know his is down for sure. The last deer comes back into my field and wont leave. He even yelled at it but it stayed so i decided to tag out and reloaded with a different bullet.

I literally sat there like a sniper awaiting his approval to kill it and endured the taunts from him that the first doe wasn't DRT like his. Although later we found out my first shot was perfect.

BAM, the last one nearly did a back flip from the 50FTX and went 10 yards.

I waited a few minutes to leave the stand and grab a backup load and steve goes and gets his.

I get to the bottom and reload while he goes and gets this...


He hit a bit higher than we wanted but the modded Barnes TAC-XP (imagine a solid copper bottom Partition) flew far flatter than either of us imagined at 150yards+ and he has shot this gun before.

Granted this was a bad spine/upper shoulder shot but it was nearly broad side.

Ended up being a great weekend for 3 of us and we saw many other deer including the opening morning kill.

cayugad

Wow... that is an amazing wound!!

keyshunter

Last year, I had a small 8 point walk by in a field at about 35 yards. I shot him behind the right shoulder in line with the left shoulder. Bullet entered where aimed (I am usually pretty reliable at 35 yards), but did not exit. Later, we found the perfectly expanded 300gr Gold Dot in the neck just below the head. That bullet apparently hung a right, and penetrated about 18 inches to the point we found it. Load was 90 gr pyrodex RS. Whodathunkit.