zrexpilot

dude, I have used a .243, a 270, a 300 mag, a 7 mag a 7 mauser, and 222. and I am serious when I say they the ones hit behind the shoulder ran a distance of 40-60 yds on average between all these calibers. I have also tracked other deer that was used by a .308, a 25-06 a 30-06, and a 6mm, There was no difference there also, on average 40-60 yds. On rare occasions deer hit in the heart seem to have sprinted the farthest, 100 yds or so.
then you get some wierd incidents, last year a buddy hit a doe with a .308 and found very little blood for about 60 yds and then it looked like it was painted on the ground, she ran close to 200 yds and her internals were totally destroyed., perfec shot, adequate caliber and great bullet, but still ran far.

Pawildman

Let's not lose track of the state of anxiety the deer was in when shot. Typically a hyped-up animal is going to be harder to stop in it's tracks than one who is just plodding along without a care in the world. Just another twist in the puzzle.....

nchawkeye

Lung shot deer might run 25-30 yards and they might make it 100 yards...Once you start seeing deer run past that 100 yard line then I would start to question the weapon used...A hunter should be good enough at tracking where it shouldn't matter if the deer runs 50 yards or 75 yards...I would call that insignificant, but if 50% of my lung shot deer ran over 75 yards then I'd be changing bullets...

I've hunted over 10 years with bow, shotguns with slugs and buckshot, muzzleloaders with round balls, conicals and saboted bullets as well as centerfires...Plus, since we own 3 farms and have killed 40-50 deer a year for 30 plus years on these farms with everything from 22-250s to .300 Mags, I've seen a heck of a lot of deer killed with dang near any type of weapon that's legal...

What I want a bullet to do is usually exit on broadside lung shots...I don't care if it exits on high shoulder shots, but I do want it stout enough to break the shoulder blade and put enough shock into the spine to drop a deer...

Heck, I've killed dozens of deer with .45 caliber and .54 caliber round balls with 75 and 80grs of FFF that only went 50-60 yards with lung shots...

When bow hunting, I am surprised if a deer makes it a hundred yards...We are lucky today because we have a better selection of bullets than ever but to some newer hunters it can me confusing...

I guess what I'm saying is that some hunters think if you put a bigger hole in the lungs with a larger caliber then the deer will drop faster...Makes all the sense in the world...But it doesn't happen that way...Those deer are running dead and a .243 with a CoreLokt will drop them just as close as an '06 with a CoreLokt...

homers brother

Hmmm...not quite. Given my memory isn't quite what it once was, I can only remember one deer and one pronghorn that I've taken with a .243 that DIDN'T fall over dead in their tracks, and neither of those other two went more than 50 yards afterward.

To the contrary, I've had more deer take off after being hit with the .30-06, only two bang-flops that I can recall, one a whitetail and the other a pronghorn.

That I generally shoot the .243 more accurately doesn't hurt the whole equation. However, I think it's more a matter of terminal ballistics. For some reason, and on deer-sized game, a 100gr 6mm bullet at .243 velocities seems to be more "efficient" in killing game than a heavier .308 bullet at slightly slower .30-06 velocities. Though I'm not interested in owning one, I'd wonder how the .243 WSSM compares to the slower .243 Win using the same bullet?

I've piled two elk up in their tracks with a .243 as well, but I'm not sure I'd advocate as strongly its use on elk/moose-sized game over the .30-06 or something else heavier.

No two shots are alike, no two animals will react to being shot exactly the same way - it'd be awfully hard for you to establish a control group from which to compare.

Sling

I believe you. I just don't think that would be true for everyone, and I wanted a large group of responses to average out.

Sling

Ok. Thanks.

TUK101

I personally have only taken deer that where pretty much totally unaware of me having a beed on them and that where totally calm before I or my son have squeezed the trigger. Bang flop. But, when I was a kid my dad used to jump deer and then shoot them when they where trying to flee. Deer that we had to track and that where typically tougher meat than the ones that went down instantly. I typically wont shoot at deer that are already on the run, we hunt in some pretty thick timber and I hate tracking deer. The caliber has never really mattered as far as whether the deer was going to fall dead on the spot or not, but the deers demeanor before you squeeze the trigger sure does.

Dan480Man

I have probably killed 14 or so deer over the years, with a 444 Marlin.
All folded like a broken lounge chair right on the spot. 25-100+ yards. 240gr factory up through 300gr JSP handloads.

I also have killed 6 deer with a 44 mag SRH since I started handgun hunting. 240gr factory up through 250gr hardcast handloads.
25-75 yds. Each of these ran at least 40yds, some over 100yds with
good lung shots.
Most ammo does not expand mcuh, if at all, I have noted.
Unlike the 444, which is like putting a cherrybomb in their lungs.

I have killed 1 deer with a 44spl. with a 240gr handload, at approx. 780fps. 30yds. (By accident. I usually keep 2 specials in the cylinder, in case I need to pop one up close to finish it off. Someone evidently turned the cylinder, and I didn't check). Anyways, the deer bucked its hind legs when hit, jumped a few feet, then resumed grazing acorns like nothing happened. I decided, for some reason, to just observe the animal.
I knew I hit it good behind the shoulder.
After probably, a minute or so, it just lay down, like it was bedding down. It looked around calmly for awhile, no screaming, no kicking. It then just drifted off....

3 guns. Same caliber. Different results.
Don't know if it helps....Im just laying it out there.

I think the velocity gives the 444 more shredding power, as its bullets expand violently in the animal, depositing its energy.

I think the 44 revolver, doesn't have the beans to open its JSP's or JHP's reliably, so they just go through, along with alot of energy. The hole is large enough, the crittter bleeds out, but it takes awhile.

I got lucky with the special. It carved a perfect round hole straight through the lungs, and clipped the heart. Imagine someone sticking a wooded dowel through a deer. Perfect round hole. Virtually no
bleeding outside the animal. All pooled inside.
If I would have spooked this deer, I bet it would have ran 300yds.
Hard to say.

Sling

Yes, that does help. I actually read back through all of the posts, and I realized the answer to my question is actually here, but it is buried in the text. I broke out the responses and actually got what I was looking for.

User # 1 said – “How come one man shot with a 9mm in the head dies, and another does not? Ask God. He may know. That's about as close as you're gonna get with this question.”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = No expectation = User only expects consistent recovery of game

User # 2 said - “… I have also tracked other deer that was used by a .308, a 25-06 a 30-06, and a 6mm, There was no difference there also, on average 40-60 yds. On rare occasions deer hit in the heart seem to have sprinted the farthest, 100 yds or so.”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = 60 - 40 = 20 yards

User # 3 said - “Without a CNS hit there is absolutely no way any one could predict with any certainty what so ever how far a deer will travel after being hit with any cartridge. I have shot deer with magnum cartridges that have ran much farther than deer that I have shot with cartridges like a .270 or .243.”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = Much farther still acceptable = User only expects consistent recovery of game

User # 4 said - "Let's not lose track of the state of anxiety the deer was in when shot. Typically a hyped-up animal is going to be harder to stop in it's tracks than one who is just plodding along without a care in the world. Just another twist in the puzzle.....”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = No expectation = User only expects consistent recovery of game

User # 5 said – “Example Lung shot deer might run 25-30 yards and they might make it 100 yards...Once you start seeing deer run past that 100 yard line then I would start to question the weapon used...A hunter should be good enough at tracking where it shouldn't matter if the deer runs 50 yards or 75 yards...I would call that insignificant, but if 50% of my lung shot deer ran over 75 yards then I'd be changing bullets...”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = 100 – 25 = 75 yards (with limitations)

User # 6 said - “… I can only remember one deer and one pronghorn that I've taken with a .243 that DIDN'T fall over dead in their tracks, and neither of those other two went more than 50 yards afterward.

To the contrary, I've had more deer take off after being hit with the .30-06, only two bang-flops that I can recall, one a whitetail and the other a pronghorn.”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = 50 – bang-flop = 50 yards

User # 7 said - “I personally have only taken deer that where pretty much totally unaware of me having a bleed on them and that where totally calm before I or my son have squeezed the trigger. Bang flop. But, when I was a kid my dad used to jump deer and then shoot them when they where trying to flee. Deer that we had to track and that where typically tougher meat than the ones that went down instantly”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = No expectation = User only expects consistent recovery of game (but prefers not to track)

User # 8 said - “I have probably killed 14 or so deer over the years, with a 444 Marlin. All folded like a broken lounge chair right on the spot.

I also have killed 6 deer with a 44 mag SRH since I started handgun hunting. 240gr factory up through 250gr hardcast handloads. 25-75 yds. Each of these ran at least 40yds, some over 100yds …”
Acceptable Average Cartridge Difference = Let’s say (40 +100)/2 = 70 subtract (folded like a broken lounge chair) = 70 yards

So, I did get some numbers to work with. If I take the average of what I did get:

(20 + 75 + 50+ 70)/4 = 53.75 yards

So, on average, the respondents on this thread would accept a difference of at least 50 yards travel distance (in deer) between 2 cartridges and still consider them equal. But I know the number is actually greater than that, because 4 more users indicated that they did not feel it was possible to put a cap on the distance. So, I need to assume all of them would tolerate a cartridge difference greater than 50 yards, but I cannot predict the true upper limit.

Keep in mind, I never said one cartridge would produce average kills 50 yards shorter than another. I am just presenting the average of what the users feel is an acceptable difference between 2 equal cartridges.

Thanks everyone.

bigbulls

You are trying waaaaaaaaay to hard to find a correlation between cartridges used and distance an animal may run.

There is no correlation.

Take a .223 Remington and a 300 Win mag. Despite the difference in power and bullet weight and diameter you could shoot 10 different deer with each cartridge and get 10 entirely different results for each. With either cartridge some deer may run 200 yards, some may drop in their tracks, some may trot off and look back at you and just fall over.

Assuming the cartridge you are using is adequate for the game being hunted there is no correlation at all.