Deer vs. 30-06
 

Two weekends ago I shot a small buck and he dropped where he stood, this morning I shot a decent doe (doe week) and she ran approx. 20 yds. I'm not worried about the difference in how they reacted when hit but why my round did not pass through them.
I can understand the buck not having an exit wound, I hit him in the shoulder region, shattering it, and a fragment severed his spine (hence no exit wound). The doe I hit 2" aft the shoulder, and 5" above her breastline. She ran hard so I knew I made good contact but when I got down to find blood, I found a quarter sized blood spot (with meat) and the copper-jacket of my round lying there with no blood on it. From there I took my time tracking(15yds for 30 mins), becuase I could only find pin-drops of blood in a zigzag through thick stuff.
My question, what is going on? I shoot a 30-06 with 180gr. Federal premiums. I've shot this same round for years and have never seen this before. I'm wondering if the box of rounds I'm using are old and the jacket has somehow 'defused' from the lead core? Any ideas?

No clue. Generally 180 gr bullets don't come apart on deer like that. I never got into "premium" bullets for deer. Plain old 150 or 180 always worked fine for me.

I shoot premiums because I'm always looking for "keyhole" patterns when I'm practicing/sighting in (out to 300-400yds). I figure, if I can achieve this when relaxed, I can acheive similar when my heart is racing and shaking like leak when the "big" one steps out. The Premiums have been the only ones that have been able to produce the same results time and time again. But, I'm concerned about the past two shots.

im sure everyones gonna bash me for the round i use but o well. i have always shot remington 180 gr core lokts in my 30 06 and have always been extremely happy with them. Its rare that I dont have a pass through and i have never has a complaint

This year so far all ive use is a 30-06 with 150 Rem. core lokts. Only one doe ran because i hit her about 4'' farther back than id like,she went about 50 yards but the blood trail was so heavy Stevie Wonder could follow it lol but from ranges 50 yards to 130 yards all were DRT's not even a flinch. I have recovered 2 bullets from the deer but no fragmentation at all. So i dont know why the 180 gr. bullets would fragment.

i believe it has to do with how fast the bullet is going upon impact, and what velocity the bullet is designed to open at?

I don't understand your term "keyhole" pattern. The term keyhole generally means your bullet isn't spinning straight and flying true during flight
and is smacking the target sideways causing it to breakup immediatly on impact.. The bullet is actually tumbling.That could be your problem.I don't think you should be questioning the caliber, but your choice of bullet style
and or bullet weight for the particular rifle twist your gun has, at distances
you shoot.Also it may have alot to do with velocity of your bullet your shooting. If the bullet is going to slow it will tumble as well.Are you shooting TBBC bullets in the Federal premiums?

I use the same exact round for my 30-06, and i've only had one deer not drop dead. He did drop though, but that shot went a bit far back, and i put another one in him to stop suffering.

By "keyhole" I'm refering to when you have atleast two rounds passing "almost" through the same hole and you are left with a small tear from the second round. It looks like the keyhole of an old skeleton key. I had an OLD 30-30 the rounds would tumble and this is a much different pattern. I appologize for the confusion with the terminology I use. My greatest concern is why did I find the jacket of my round separated from the lead, and there be no blood on it. It's like the round expanded prior to impact. The more I ponder on it, it's like I'm shooting a proximity fused round (where it fragments just prior to actual impact). I forgot to mention, the distance of shoot was only 60-70 yards on both animals.
On the flip side, my father just shot a doe yesterday (75 yds distant with same box of ammo) and his dropped where she stood and her guts where laid out on the ground. No gutting necessary. The only differance is that he shoots a Rem. 700, and I, a Savage 111. Very puzzling to say the least.

Two shots, two dead deer. So tell me again whats the problem?

Exactly what I was thinking when I read this thread.

You should have had pass thru's. I shoot 165gr sierra bthp, they are not super strong bullets but do a very nice job. I cant remember one of them not passing through before, however I always try to shoot for the lungs. I loaded up some 168gr match bullets several years ago and thought I would try them for hunting. Shot 2 bucks with them both exploded inside the animal with no pass thru, both dropped in the tracks, but I want a bullet that will pass thru. Why yours didnt pass through I have no idea.

the problem is that he has two instances of a 180gr bullet from a 30-06 not being able to exit a deer. He is concerned with the poor, and unusual, performance of these bullets. Two dead deer is nice but, with poor performing bullets, his luck might run out the next time.

At what range were these deer when you shot them?

RIGHT ON! The majority of the deer I've killed were with the .30-06 and 165gr. Hornady Interlokts. I've never had a shot that didn't penetrate completely. Even when the shoulders were taken out. If I take my .30-06 elk hunting, I'm going to be using a "premium" 180gr. bullet. Nosler Partition, Swift A-Frame, Barnes TSX, ect. If I use that same load on a whitetail, I would expect a passthrough from almost ANY angle provided shots were under 200 yards or so where velocity has dropped off.

Damn you dont need that kind of ammo on deer, if you want to drop them then you need a 150gr BST, there is no magic bullet though

I shot a small southern whitetail with a 300WSM at 35 yards, quartering shot, deer heading out at 2 oclock, got him slap in the pumphouse.
The load was a Nosler Ballistic Tip 150gr in a Federal factory load.
Yeah, it was WAY overkill, and in theory I should have blown the deer's innards all over the place.
However, what ACTUALLY happened was the deer was dead before it hit the ground, it's innards were turned to goo, and there was no exit wound.

I wanted to figure out why, so I started doing ballistics reaseach, even going so far as to directly ask Nosler to give me their best guess as to what the bullet did.

The information I gathered was pretty interesting.
Nosler figured that, since it was so close, and the bullet was going so fast, the bullet essentially exploded inside the animal.
Which, based on what I saw while gutting it, seemed to be reasonable.

Depending on the load, a 30-06 is zipping along in the 2600-2800 FPS range, based on what I read.
I personally like core-lokts because they're super cheap, the brass is pretty durable, and I can get 10-12 reloads from them.
I won't use them on animals, just because I like other things for that purpose.
My theory on why the jacket stripped off is that you hit something during the bullet's flight that changed it's trajectory as well as it's shape, which would account for both the deer taking off instead of being DRT, and also the jacket being found on the ground.
I'd look along the bullet's flight path, within 20' of where you found the jacket, and see if there's a small twig or something of that nature that's either blown off or nicked.
Again, this is my theory.
Seems plausible, at least based on what you wrote.
Either way, you have a nice pair of dead deer in the freezer.
Dead is dead. Only difference is how far you had to walk to collect your quarry.

I use this round to. I normally get pass throughs. Ive never had a weak blood trail with them. But 1 out of 6 deer shot with this ive only had to track one. And it looked like some one had got a 5 gallon bucket of blood and poured it out all the way to my doe.

I use a 30-06 with 165 gr Federal Premium Nosler Partitions and they almost always drop a deer in their tracks. The few that run don't get out of site. And they always pass through. Not sure what happened in your case though.

My father-in-law put a bad shot on a deer this year with a 150 gr 270. Not sure the brand or bullet, but the bullet is a big, fat bullet that looks like the African big game bullets. It has a very rounded nose instead of being pointy. Anyway, it went through the near side leg, including the bone, up through the hip and out the other hindquarter. He had someone tell him that wasn't a good bullet but it sure did the job.

Probally a federal powershok. They look like some big 670 nitro express bullet. Ass far as the shape of the bullets go.

the 150 grain cor-lokts or however its spelled, and the 150 grain winchesters look identical also, so im betting its one of the 3.

i use 203 grain silver bear rounds (soft point) and they pass right through (7.62X54r) but surprisingly the exit wound is pretty small about the size of a pencil