Yes, that's a really ugly deal.

That little doe was hit with a 185gr 40cal at around 120-140 yard IIRC. Load was either 110gr or 120gr of BH209. Closeup of the exit wound is far more graphic than what i posted.

The bullet went higher than intended. The deer dropped instantly with barely a twitch.

That round was probably still trucking along pretty quick there GM54-120. With my Maxis that I make a little on the harder side, they open up enough to impart a good bit of energy into the vitals and I launch them with just enough speed to bust through any part of the animal out to 100 yards. If I don't absolutely have to anchor the animal right there I will go for tucking behind the shoulder which will sometimes drop them right there, sometimes not but if I am hunting along a property line and need to put that animal down right there, I know my bullets will bust through both shoulders and it really doesn't blood shot meat as much as those little buggers you are cooking off fast. You can actually eat right up to the hole on my shoulder shot animals that I hit past 40 yards. 40 yards and in?, not so much usually. Heavy and slow seems to work best, for me anyway, with my smokers.

Couple years ago i was sitting in a blind in deer gun season. The .50 Encore was loaded with a 250 grain Shockwave bullet. Luckily, i also had a Remington 700 in .308 in the blind.


Big doe showed up about 80 yards in front. Shot the animal with Encore. Doe lay still 30-45 seconds then jumped up. i shot her with the .308 and she went down to stay.


The muzzleloader bullet hit the deer about where yours hit. Bullet did not expand and the wound was much smaller. But it did ruin some meat.

I am guessing the 40x185 was a Bloodline bullet - that would account for the wound channel. But even then the location of the hit caused more damage than was/is normal.

It's not a long range bullet but muzzleloading is not a long range game... I would go with the 405 grain Powerbelt Aerotip... now that's a bang flop bullet! Even on a grizzly...:party0005::party0005::party0005:

Hitting a brown bear in the spine, and yes that was a spinal interruption high shoulder shot on the brown bear you are talking about, with a 405 grain anything will be bang flop. How about you show us the real world results of shoulder hit or even rib hit elk or whitetail from those bullets you love to advertise for flint head. If a fella has to go to over 400 grains of bullet to get good performance on whitetail, they edited for language - JW sure need to switch bullets. That's just a plain fact.

You're right, its certainly not a long range bullet.
But you're wrong on muzzleloading not being a long range game. You're just never going to get to long range with a CVA, especially with that bullet.

Just wondering, what do y'all define as long range in reference to muzzleloaders?