I took a doe this weekend in an early season doe only hunt. I shot the doe with a Winchester M70 .308 Heavy Varmit. I was shooting Federal 165gr Soft Points. I usually shoot a Federal 180gr soft point but the 165gr was grouping much better.

The doe was about 25 yds from my blind and I shot it behind the vitals dead center of the animal. I was expecting the bullet to go completely through but it did not.

Does this surprise anyone? It sure does surprise me especially from just 25 yds away.

Long story short this situation causes me to worry because the doe ran on me and she didn't leave any blood. A couple of drops at the point of impact but no trail to follow. I had to go back and get everyone from camp to help me track this thing. It didn't run very far about 50 yds but it was dark and a blood trail would have helped.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

Sometimes at such short range (high velocity) a bullet will basically explode (fragment) upon hitting an object. Basically the bullet is traveling too fast for controled expansion. Not to worry though, it will still kill your deer, just not with the perfect mushroom that we expect to see because of advertising. I'm guessing that if your doe was out at 80 yards or more you would have seen different results.

This is the very reason the "premium" bullet was invented.

Personally, i like my bullets to expand well, but still go on through. The only bullets that do that for me at all ranges (within reason) are Nosler partitions. The soft nose blows off, and the rest of the bullet drives on through.

Drilling Man

The Partition is king.

Last year I shot a little yearling at about 30 yds, classic side standing behind the shoulder shot, with a 180 gr Rem. Corelokt PSP. I've used this bullet on many deer and it has performed just as needed. On this particular little deer, it just exploded - at least as far as I can tell. There was a huge injury on the entrance side - like the ribs separated from the skin with a large blood clot between the ribs and the skin. The hole itself wasn't huge, about the size of a normal exit wound, but not the pinprick of a normal entrance wound. Then the bullet passed through both lungs, just destroying them. Really - just turned both lungs and the heart into something you could hardly recognize. Then there was a large baseball size exit wound. As an aside, this poor thing ran about 20 yards before it hit a tree and fell over. ( I say "poor", but I do think it was running dead and not feeling pain or panic).

I can only attribute this to the short range of the shot and the soft pliant structure of the yearling's ribs causing the bullet to do things it normally wouldn't??

Two seconds later, I shot a second deer - an adult doe - closer in, a front on shot and she dropped and the bullet behaved as I would expect. So at an even shorter range, it didn't explode - I'm thinking the front structure of the closer, larger deer was more to the bullet's liking.

I don't find it surprising at all because I've had my own share of unexpected results.

I shot a mature buck broadside from 40yds with a 300WM/150gr bullet; it ran 50yds and the Nosler Partition didn't exit so that kind of surprised me.

A few years ago I shot a mature buck from 40yds with the same 300WM/150gr Nosler Partition load straight on in the neck. The bullet shattered the spinal column, didn't exit and I still had to put another shot in it because it was only paralyzed.

I never found either of those bullets. My point is, expect the unexpected. With the cartridge/bullet/distance/shot placement/etc...in your scenario I would expect the bullet to exit and the deer to drop on the spot but it doesn't surprise me that it didn't work out that way.

Just my 2 cents.

Unexpected yes, did you recover the bullet? I don't think I've ever had a bullet not pass through on direct broadside shot through the ribcage. All the way up to 535yds. But on other occasions have seen some hunters bullets not pass through on close shots.

But if the bullet goes into one side of the animal and sticks in the hide on the opposite side, then that bullet has dispersed as much energy as it could and a pass through would have not gained anymore knock down power. But on the other side of the coin people have gone to higher velocity loads or magnum calibers to gain pass throughs so as you mentioned easier tracking. Bullets that tend to open up to fast will not have the penetration that the slower expanding bullets do. But also putting the slower exspanding bullets in a high velocity load will alot of times leave the animal standing in front of you just as if it wasn't even hit at all. This being the case on most broadside ribcage shots. Shoulder shots will tend to open up the bullet and delilver the initial knock down energy because of bone and muscle mass.

From what I have seen personally on animal hits and bullet penetration most bullets will have pass throughs under 100yds. Even through both shoulders on elk and black bear. Pistols and muzzleloaders need a harder bullet for deeper penetration because of slower velocities. High powered rifles do best in the medium range of exspansion. Not too fast or too slow. If a bullet will open up but will retain atleast 75% of it's weight under a 100yds on bone contact then it has substancial energy deposit with enough energy for reaching the opposite side and possible pass throughs.

Example a Remington Core Lokt is a softer bullet which will work well in a heavy bullet that moves slower. Take the same bullet and reduce the bullet weight and add velocity your going to have explosive bullets on bone.

Nosler partion is one of the best because of the partion inside of the bullet that will stop expasion and retain bullet mass. But the front of the bullet is not heavy jacketed so it will open up on contact and provide knockdown power.

The Failsafe bullet is reaching the other side of the spectrum in which it massive jacketed bullet is made for penetration. While it still opens up its just a couple steps down from a full metal jacket if loades to high velocity's. Slower exspansion leaving less initial knock down on impact.

But the final part broadside shot through the lungs and heart. All this talk on what bullet doesn't mean dinky doo. lol. Just one out of three animal mights travel a little futher to die. End result the same dead animal.

I've been waiting for someone to ask this question. This is not a question of bullet quality but rather one of velocity and distance. What you experienced is a little discussed phenomena that can occur with high velocity and short distances regardless of bullet.

You can actually reach a point while increasing velocity where bullet penetration is reduced. Prime example: I load for my .300 RUM and a buddy's RUM. Load was 180 gr. Nos. Partition, 97 gr. Reloder 25, with 3300 f.p.s. He shot a 70 lb. doe at 20 yds. broadside through the ribs. The great Partition was lodged under the skin on the offside. Retained weight - 110 grains. He was cussing the Partition. Said it was a sorry bullet. "Won't even penetrate a doe!" "No blood trail!". At most 12 in. penetration. Two days later he shot a 160 lb. buck at 220 yards. Bullet entered right hindquarter, breaking the back leg, sailed through right side of digestive organs, totally smoked vitals, and exited through a large hole in center of breastbone. Maybe 24" penetration through bone, muscle, and organs? Bullet success!

Same load, same rifle, same shooter. Difference? Distance and velocity on impact. Your higher velocity cartridges really need some distance to shed velocity to see bullets perform like the pics in the ads.

Rick Jamison wrote a good article on this very thing Oct. 2002. He tested all the premium bullets ( Par., A-Frame, Barnes, Fail-safe) at 2000 fps and 3000 fps. At 2000 almost all bullets penetrated deeper than at 3000. At 2000 all but two bullets retained more than 95% weight. At 3000 most retained less than 70% with the others less than 80%.

Bottom line though on the two aforementioned animals. Two very dead deer.

And to steal a question from someone else, I had to ask my buddy about the doe. I asked, "At just what point of that deer dropping in her tracks did the bullet fail?"

all I have to say is a fast moving object flying through the air such as a bullet, its stability can be nocked off quite easily, and yes they will do the strangest of thing when hitting an object. The strangest ive seen was a 150 grain winchester power point shot from my 30-30 at a doe from about 50 yards the bullet didnt pass all the way through when processing it i found the slug lodged in the right shoulder mushroomed backwards the nose was still intact somewhat but the base was mushroomed, weird i thought how do you explain that I would imagine the bullet hit a twig or branch before it hit the deer and begun to tumble just as it hit the animal.