7.62NATO

Don't worry, the buck dropped on the spot but still, I've never seen this happen with a DC. An 8-pt ran through and came to a dead stop 15 yards in front of me. My scope was set on 9x since I was monitoring this creek bottom where deer usually cross about 60 yards from my perch. It happened so fast I didn't have time to adjust my scope (which sucked!) but I put it about 3 inches behind the shoulder and fired. All I could see was the body at the time since I was so zoomed in.

He was not huge but decent. I went to recover him, and of course, massive entrance wound. When I flipped him over, I could not find an exit. I dragged him to where I would dress him and found a pinky-sized exit. Upon dressing, only one lung was destroyed (weird given the shot angle, fully broadside). No bullet in the vitals.

When I skinned him, no bullet. When I butchered him I found fragments of the bullet in the shoulder blade and other various spots.

Never seen a DC do this before, always clean in and out. Still, it did it's job. No tracking required!

txhunter58

probably due to close up shot and hitting bone.

WV Hunter

Curious, which bullet was it specifically?

Semisane

I'm guessing the .452/250 grain.

7.62NATO

.452 300gr

I don't believe it fragmented on contact with shoulder blade; it only hit the shoulder blade because it fragmented. It should have exited 3" back from the shoulder blade as that is where the entrance was and it was a full-on broadside shot.

I'm not complaining; he dropped in place and could not get up. I thought it was strange behavior for this particular bullet.

cayugad

you never knew what a bullet will do. But your results are very interesting. At least the buck stopped there.

WV Hunter

I would agree, all sorts of weird things can happen. At least you got the buck. Sounds like it had to hit something on the way in? Rib?

Over the years, I've had some crazy weird stuff happen with CF rifle bullets that was way out of the ordinary on a rare occasion. Could be this was the case here. Have you had good performance with that bullet previously? I know most folks have great luck with DC's.

I have not shot the 300gr/.452's, does that bullet have the real deep hollow point design? Like where it goes halfway down into the bullet? Or the shallow hollow point design? I had some issues with DC bullets staying together on the 250gr/.452 with the real deep hollow point design (in a sand bullet trap) doing some testing a few years ago. Of course sand ain't a deer, but the shallower hp design held together nicely in the same trap.

Got any pics?

7.62NATO

Do ribs count as bones?

No pics...sorry. Upon skinning the hole in the rib cage was large enough to insert my hand.

I have killed a dozen or so deer with a variety of DCs, including the 300gr. Always a solid pass thru; no fragmenting. This bullet is a shallow hollow point. The other DCs I have used (270gr .429) were soft points and 250 gr .452 were also HPs.

Was this a bullet failure? I don't feel like I can say that since my buck traveled vertically only. It was interesting and only mildly concerning.

WV Hunter

If it was me personally, I wouldn't be overly concerned either. Random stuff happens, even with the best bullets.
I once saw my buddy shooting a federal premium in his 7mm Rem Mag hit a buck and literally it had an entrance hole the size of a nerf football - dang near the whole rib cage was the entrance hole. No idea how that happened but it did. Normally he got great performance.

Good work on your buck! Bad work on taking pics... LOL

oldsmellhound

How fast were you pushing it? What was your powder charge?

Even with a heavy powder charge in theory the DC should not do this, but yeah, sometimes crazy things happen.