Recovered bullet

[Brute 23]

My son and I have been hunting down south the last couple of days. He was able to take a pretty nice buck one morning. When we got it hung up to skin I was looking for the exit hole and I felt a lump under the hide that we thought was the bullet. We peeled it down and sure enough.

I have found quite a few pieces and fragments but this was a first. It hit the deer high in the shoulder and went to bouncing around. It's pretty rare for a bullet to not exit a whitetail.





I'm very proud of him. He had passed on several other nice deer this year. This one came out chasing does. He had to wait it out for around 10 min before it gave him a good shot.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

Nice buck!!

 

[Brute 23]

Nice buck!!

Thanks. He is proud of it and we had a ton of fun taking it.

 

[EasTex]

Man that's a nice one!
I was talking to my neighbor yesterday and he found his bullet in a deer as well. He drilled a hole in the cross section and put it on his key ring. Pretty neat.

 

[Dave]

What caliber and weight of bullet? I find them from time to time in Mule deer and fairly regularly in elk.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I've dug a couple from under the hide on Whitetails over the years.

 

[Brute 23]

It was a Winchester Whitetail XP 150gr. Been having pretty good luck with them for several years now. Had some exit holes I could wobble my thumb around in.

 

[EasTex]

I've been using the 150 grain Winchester Power Points in .270 and have been thoroughly satisfied. They are as close to my hand loads as I can find.

 

[JW IN VA]

The bullet seems to have expended all it's energy inside the deer. Nothing wrong with that. It expanded well and killed the deer.
Winchester XPs are my son's favorite factory loads for his 270 and 308

 

[coachg]

Did it leave a blood trail or did it flop and drop ? No exit wounds usually mean not much of a blood trail .

 

[Travlr]

One of my dogs was laying in the road about a quarter mile from the house. We stopped and got out of the truck, the dog struggling to its feet, wobbly and barely able to stand. I was feeling its ribs, thinking it had been hit by a car, and felt a lump under the skin. It took me a minute to put it together... but when I inspected the opposite side there was a tiny hole. Lung shot. Took the dog to the vet and he removed the bullet by slicing a tiny hole and squeezing it out. Other than that he said he couldn't do much other than antibiotics. Dog survived and gradually seemed normal.

 

[Brute 23]

Did it leave a blood trail or did it flop and drop ? No exit wounds usually mean not much of a blood trail .

He dropped right there, no blood. We shoot high shoulder shots just for that reason. That is an open mesquite flat in the pic so it's not so bad but parts of that place are real nasty. If they run 20 yds they are gone for good.

 

[Atimm693]

I recover them from time to time. I found the one in my buck last year just like yours, 270, hard quartering away, entry near the last rib and the bullet was found just in front of the armpit under the hide.

The way I see it, the bullet is doing exactly what it should, expanding and dumping all it's energy in the animal.

I shot one with a muzzleloader in 2020, 140 yards, slight quartering to. Entry just behind the shoulder and exit at the 2nd or 3rd rib from the rear, full pass through. That deer ran 80 yards and didn't bleed a drop.

 

[Brute 23]

I've been using the 150 grain Winchester Power Points in .270 and have been thoroughly satisfied. They are as close to my hand loads as I can find.

I started with the power points, also Just got curious and tried the xps.

 

[southernultrablack]

It was a Winchester Whitetail XP 150gr. Been having pretty good luck with them for several years now. Had some exit holes I could wobble my thumb around in.

Started using the XP's last season. 150gr 350 legend. Shot a couple of bucks and found both bullets, looked similar to your pic. Now I'm going to the 6.5 CM, and using the XP's again, I like em'!

 

[Dave]

My 30-06 was my only choice for a lot of years. It really liked 180 grain bullets. We loaded 54 grains of H414 with Sierra boat tails for deer and Nosler partitions for elk. One year I made a mistake and took the partitions deer hunting over to NE Washington. Shot a nice 3 point whitetail (8 pt for you easterners). 80 yards broadside double lunged it. Bullet designed to hold together on a elk went right through that deer. He must have gone 150 yards before he died. I have made that same sort of shot on deer using those Sierra bullet and had an exit hole you could nearly stick your fist into. Lots of interior damage and they died a lot quicker.

 

[callmefence]

For deer I use
55 grain in .223
100 in 243
130 in 270
150.in 30-06
140 in 7mmstw
150 in 30-30
Whatever brand is cheapest. Same amount of dead . For me Usually a failure to penetrate is in the smaller faster cartridges fired at close range. Fast bullets expand faster and penetrate less

 

[Caustic Burno]

Nice deer.
Always great to hunt with the kids!

 

[Brute 23]

Nice deer.
Always great to hunt with the kids!

It is. We don't always hunt together either. He left his charger at the house so his phone was dead that morning. We decided to sit together to make it easier. It's funny how stuff like that works out and turns in to a great memory.