Alacrity Fitzhugh

Agree with WV Hunter that bullet performance is one of the keys. Shot placement and the state of the animal when shot are also important.

bigcountry

My vote is the animal. Very unpredictable. You could fill a railroad car with the deer shot with my 270win 7400. 90% have been hit broadsided less than 100 yards and out of that 60% with coreloks, 30% with gamekings, and 10% with nosler partitions and misc bullets. Some have hit the ground right where they stood. They were relaxed when shot and maybe off balance taking a step. Some took off running, even though I busted the heart. And made it 50 yards. I even seen one, I didn' t do this, but a freind make a bad shot and ripped the lower adomen open and the guts fell out and when we found it 80 yards away, gut job was almost complete. Pretty wild. Point is when people say they drop where they stand, I see they only shoot 1 or 2 deer a year. And probably with only a gun. You really can' t predict what these animals are going to do. They are fascinating at thier will to live. If someone thinks that there is a magic bullet out there that won' t make them run. Then they probably believe in the magic bullet theory with the Warren Commitee too.

Nomercy

I' m going to agree that it' s the bullets, I do extensive testing on all bullets, factory or otherwise, before I load them during a hunt, and the core-lokts are crap, good for coyote, but to volitile for deer. I was going to blame it on poor shot placement, but you claimed that they were good shots, if they were, then it has to be the bullet performance. If you' ve noticed this on a regular basis with these guys, it can' t just be the deer, yes, if it was only one guy' s deer and it ran a long ways, I would attribute it to the deer, but since EVERY one you' ve seen shot with a .270 runs a long ways, then it can' t be the individual animal EVERY TIME. Have those guys try on a new pair of shoes, core-locts are crap, at ranges over 150yrds, if you can get them on the page, the bullets are slowed down enough that they don' t shatter, but at close ranges, in a 270win they' re still over 2750fps, they just blow up.

TWPAHTR

I' ve noticed this situation with, terminal ballistics being the answer. That is how the bullets performs upon impact. I' ve seen two different outcomes, bullets that poke holes thru deer and bullets that expand.

Nosler Partion get excellent results, next to no tracking. But, I had some cheaper tips loaded for target practice that I watched deer take off after being shot. I couldn' t believe what I saw, deer being hit hard and going a distance. Upon inspection they had a small hole in and out.

You get what you pay for, performance is the goal. Terminal ballistics is the reason.

Deer do act amazing when fired up on adrenaline, as well. So both can answer the question. Different deer and bullet composition adds up.

PABuck_HNTR

I have to disagree with some of you. Although there are many bullets that are better than core-lokts, the fact that the core lokt bullets take more game every year than all other bullets combined must mean something. I have never had a deer go more than 25 yards with my .270 with 130 grain core-lokts. But I had some deer go 100 yards with a 30-30 with core lokts, and some fall imediately.

LAHUNTER

I have killed a couple of deer with my .270, using 130 gr. core lokts. Some were perfect double lung hits, some were a little higher than what I wanted, but they all died quickly. The furthest a deer ran with a " perfect" shot was less than 50 yards. The shots that ended up a little higher than the lungs made the deer drop in their tracks. I think core lokts work great, I also think the .270 works even better. I just think deer react differently to being shot.

frizzellr

Sure it means something. It means some people are too cheap to buy good bullets. I have yet to see a CoreLokt hold together out of a 270, 7mm, or a 243. I have seen them all nice and mushroomed out of a 30-30 but let' s face it, I can throw a brick about as fast as a 30-30 can launch a bullet.

Amen to that.

remington_nc

What i' m saying is two people i hunt with on a regular basis, they shoot well, all the deer were hit in the kill zone (heart/lung) and i promise you they ran.......In 5 yrs only two dropped dead. One was a head shot the other in the spine, the rest ran like they weren' t even touched according to my two friends. I understand alot of factors determine whether they drop or run but , I mean every deer they shot..........I' m going with the bullet now that i hear other stories about the Core-lockt. ......They never switched bullets they completely changed calibers.One now shoots a 25-06 the other a 7mm.



I shot a deer last year with my 30-06,.........200yd shot through the lungs,165gr boatail. It knocked him down, he got up and ran almost 300yds! I found blood really good for about 40yds, then a big pile where he apparently laid down. In that pile a piece of lung the size of a fifty cent piece! Then not another drop of blood. I had three different people look ...........NOTHING...Finally three days later with the help of some buzzards we found him!.....So i know some just have a very strong will to live , but everyone ya shoot running 100yds or more after being shot through the heart or lungs is piteful.

P.S. By the way i have never had a deer other than that one run that far with my 30-06 and it always knocks em' down, most of the time they never get up.

Vapodog

Years ago some guy did some raw research in Kentucky. He interviewed over 1000 hunters at " check in" stations and asked them questions about their kill. The questions had to do with how many times they shot/hit the deer, what ranges, what caliber, what bullet weight, wish I could remember all the statistics collected.

This guy did a lot of footwork collecting raw data. He was successful in getting his data published in a national hunting magazine. (keep in mind now....this is Kentucky and not Wyoming!!)

Overwhelmingly the calibers that was the most successful was the big bores.....and these come to mind: 12 GA Slug, .44 magnum....then the most popular guns that rated high: all 30 Cals with bullets over 150 grain.....sorry I cant remember a lot of data but the calibers that wasn' t well liked in this study was : .357 Magnum and (yes) the .270

Wish I could find the article to give more data. Wish I could find the same data from a state like Wyoming. I think the results would be a lot different. I remember that my impression was that range is critical to performance. (DUH!!!)

Raymond270

I have been hunting with a Win 270 in a Browning A Bolt the last six years and the only cartridge I ever used was a Remington 140 grain BST. The farthest I had a deer run after he was hit was about fifty yards and that was blowing out both lungs. I have been very happy with the performance of these bullets. This year I just bought a 270WSM and hope for more of the same results with the Winchester BSTs.