UncleNorby

If all other factors are equal, the bullet used will have more to do with how far the deer goes. A bullet that penetrates and exits without expansion will lead to longer trails. The ideal deer bullet will expand and cause a good wound channel, and also exit. Heart/lung shot deer very often will go 100 yds, even with good bullet performance. It's just the nature of the beast.

If you want your deer to drop, use the high shoulder shot, with a bullet that is sturdy enough to break some bones. Once were into the 6mm / .243 class of cartridges, the caliber used is almost irrelevant.

thndrchiken

The only way to know for sure is how much adrenaline is pumping prior to and at the time of the shot. That is the determining factor to how far a deer will run.

nchawkeye

Well...When I was testing different brand loadings for my .243 I found that deer shot with the 100gr Federal Premium Sierra GameKing SPBT would drop within 25-30 yards with a lung shot...

But...With Remington Premium 100gr SPBT CoreLokts the deer hit in the lungs ran 100-125 yards...Fortunately Remington doesn't make this bullet anymore and if I was new to the .243 I would have gotten rid of it based on that bullet's performance...This is also a case of a "Premium" bullet giving poorer performance than the plain jane CoreLokts...

The Remington's were too hard, the always gave and exit and small exit wound...The Sierras usually exited on lung shots and gave massive internal damage...

Dan480Man

There really are ridiculous amounts of variables to deal with.
Shot placement is sometimes misunderstood.
How many times have we heard...
"I shot it right behind the shoulder, I KNOW I DID".
After tracking it for hours. You realize the shooter DID hit it
behind the shoulder. Its just that the deer was QUARTERING
TOWARDS him. Sooooo the deer was gut shot.
This would skew any test, even if sufficient caliber, and sufficient
bullet was used.
In other words on paper, the deer was "shot with .308 150gr bullet, right behind shoulder, and ran 300yds."


Tracking is really a misused term, with a proper shot. Following a blood trail, is....following!

Big Z

Cartridge comparison: Compare the ballistics. Shoots flat, keeps energy to the distances you'll shoot, wind drift. If you like what you see, the part that's up to you is putting your shot in the right spot. The bullet will take care of the rest.

driftrider

There is no way to judge the value of a cartridge/firearm based on the distance deer run after being shot. Just for example... a deer shot in the guts with a 338 Rem Ultra Mag will run a heck of a lot further than a deer that's shot through the heart and both lungs with a .243 Winchester. The 338 RUM is massively more powerful, but in the above situation will kill a deer much slower than the 243. At the same time, two deer shot through the boiler room with the above rounds might exhibit totally different reactions, with the 338 not always being the faster kill. There are too many variables that just cannot be accounted for. My dad brought home the heart of a deer that had hole clean through it from a 20 gauge Remington Slugger. The deer ran almost 100 yards by his account before going down. The fact that the deer had already been shot at moments before and was already on an adrenaline-pumped run when shot probably had something to do with the fact that it ran that far while clinically dead. The point is that there is no doubt that a 20 gauge Foster-style slug is extremely lethal to deer when shot well, but some deer refuse to heed the "common wisdom" of gun counter sages and magazine writers and drop stone cold dead at the shot, no matter what they might have been shot with.

Here's my take: 1) A well placed shot with a smaller/less powerful round is far better than a crappy shot from an extremely powerful one. 2) Deer die on their own schedule no matter what they are shot with, with some exhibiting almost supernatural feats of athleticism after suffering a wound that ought to be, by conventional wisdom, instantly fatal.

Mike

nchawkeye

Driftrider...When I was doing my testing of different bullets I could see a definite difference on how far lung shot deer ran when hit with different bullets...Now, I live in a deer rich state with liberal limits so I can easily kill a dozen deer in a year...I also have 3 buddies that shoot .243s and we hunt together for a week each year, so I was there to help with the tracking...

I also have 2 brothers, with 2 grown sons...One brother has
2-.270s the other has a 7mm-08 and a .280...So I have a broad base to compare from...

I will say, broadside lung shot deer should go down within 100 yards if the proper bullet and cartridge are used...Heck, when I hit them there with a .54 round ball out of my flinter or a 125gr Thunderhead out of my bow they hit the ground before 100 yards...

Sling

Big Bulls - Everyone seems to want to defend their favorite cartridge. Don't get stuck on the cartridges. The coorelation I am actually looking at is between hunters and the cartridges, not between cartridges.

For example, you said some deer run 200 yards when they are shot. I am assuming you meant it can happen, but deer shot with the cartridge would not average 200 yards.

But question I am trying to answer is whether or not you feel it is exceptable for a deer cartridge to average 200 yards for example. What would would you have to see in order to not recomend a cartridge. An average of over 100 yards? Or is anything exceptable?

You see, everyone says they are all the same, but I am getting a variety of results on this thread, so what would you have to see in order to say this is a bad cartridge over that one? Or, are they all just good in this respect?

You don't have to answer that. I am just explaining what I am actually looking for.

Centaur 1

Just for the heck of it I'll throw in my two cents, although its probably the same information just stated differently. It's actually pretty simple, don't just go by what someones says at the gun counter of your favorite store. There are a lot of opinions from hunters who are just repeating what they learned growing up, without any real knowledge of what happens when a bullet strikes an animal. Luckily most deer bullets out of most deer guns will kill just fine. Growing up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania I've seen too many hunters take 80 yard shots with buckshot and 300 yard shots with 35 Remington's, and you'll never convince these hunters that what they are doing is wrong.

You are out here on the Internet trying to research the best way to be a conscientious sportsman, you won't go wrong by following educated advise.

I also have had the opportunity to speak with representatives from several bullet manufacturers. Like what has been stated here, you need the proper bullet for the game that you are hunting. When bullets are designed they have to take into account what type of hunting will be done with each particular bullet. They also have to consider the velocity differences between the various calibers that it might be loaded into and what distance that caliber will be used. The reason that some people have deer run farther with magnum calibers is that these bullets are designed so that they won't blow up at high velocities when used at close range. Couple that with fact that deer aren't that big and you get a bullet that zips through without much expansion or expending any energy. They told me that it's actually easier to design deer bullets for a .243 and a 30-30. These are two calibers that most people wouldn't even consider using for larger game like elk or caribou. Not many calibers give the perfect mushroom like a 30-30 does, because it's easier to design a bullet when it's mainly used on the same animal at similar ranges. What you can't do reliably is design a bullet for a 300 mag that one person will shoot a deer with and another will shoot a moose or grizzly with.

bigbulls

I see a little better what you are asking.

Assuming that the cartridge is adequate to begin with and that the shooter is getting the bullets where they are suppose to go... if I were getting a whole bunch of deer that were running 200 yards after shooting them with a certain cartridge I would change bullets rather than change cartridges as this would be much much more likely to be a bullet not constructed properly for the game being targeted than a cartridge problem. It could be a bullet that is far too tough for light weight game or far to fragile for larger game animals.