Meanwhile on RS they're killin bear, deer, elk , and moose with .223 and 77gr TMK.

Mike D Texas said:
I'm the opposite. Have you ever been hunting in the South Texas brush country? You better hope your game drops on the spot or you get a good blood trail because if you don't, you are in for a bad day. If you don't get a pass through you are going to be the one leaving a blood trail trying to bust through that brush that has every thorny bush known to man.
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Yep I have and 99% of everything I have hit dropped in it's tracks including a 7X7 bull elk (which actually surprised me.
Very rarely has one run and when it does 20-30yards max
 
if you can use a bullet that does so much damage they usually drop in their tracks or very nervous so wouldn't that be ideal?
Why not try to eliminate tracking by blood trail through the brush altogether?
Narrow wound channels of bullets that exit with nearly 100% weight retention also seem to result in the longest trailing jobs. Maybe not every time, but quite often.
 
I may be incorrect here, but I'm going to assume that a CNS shot from a smaller caliber cartridge and a large diameter, minimally expanded bullet will have equal results!

For those of us "not" blessed with perfect shot angles, or 100% surgically placed bullets every time…..a bullet that is capable of fully penetrating or nearly, so the animal from any angle will likely contact, destroy, disrupt more vital organs than a bullet that offers a short, though large, permanent wound channel! memtb
 
BigNate said:
if you can use a bullet that does so much damage they usually drop in their tracks or very nervous so wouldn't that be ideal?
Why not try to eliminate tracking by blood trail through the brush altogether?
Narrow wound channels of bullets that exit with nearly 100% weight retention also seem to result in the longest trailing jobs. Maybe not every time, but quite often.
Click to expand...
That really only happens in mono bullets or heavily bonded bullets. If you are using those you should be breaking bones anyway.

A well constructed cup/core bullet as simple as a Nosler ballistic tip or Partition works very well and leaves a good blood trail if needed.

You are never guaranteed an animal will drop every time unless you take CNS shots so I'll take a pass through with a blood trail every single time.
 
Mike D Texas said:
Well in over 40 years of hunting I've shot enough animals that didn't drop on the spot and was thankful to have a nice blood trail to follow.
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I will absolutely agree with you about that 👍
I have hunting them 45 years and until the BT's came along things for me at least changed.
I have stuck with them because they work for me, someone else's load might be totally different I don't know 🤷🏼‍♂️
I try to always load my stuff hot, if I see pressure I back down until I get it to group at the next node. If it's not fast enough I switch powder until I get the load exactly like I want it to be.
We each have our own way of accomplishing the same goal.
 
Since 1980 hunted on a section by Laredo, just me and a friend. The first deer I killed I put in the boiler room as it stood in the middle of the sendero trying to figure out the bump on the road. That was me prone on my shooting mat.. Blood trail ran into the thorny, rattler infested brush, and haven for those stinky javelinas. After crawling through the the brush destroying my original issue field jacket, and emptying my 1911 on group of javelinas, I found the deer. Dragging it out was another story.

Never again.

Ever since then, I place the shots at high shoulder. Never chased one more deer till the section was sold 7 years ago. The 210 VLDs coming out 2950 from the AI AWM never failed to drop the SoTex WT where they stood. Sometimes the 7 mag gets the nod.
 
No doubt the small calibers will do the job, and especially with the bullets available today. I used to shoot does with my .223 until I shot one right at dark one year, gave her a few minutes before picking up the blood trail only to jump her at the field edge. Left came back in an hour or two and I was already too late, coyotes had literally wiped her out. With a suppressor I can shoot large caliber rifles with no more felt recoil than a small caliber, make good shots and pick my deer up within feet of where I shoot them. I shoot them behind the shoulder and rarely throw more than two handfuls of meat away. I butcher all my own from field to freezer, been doing it for over forty years, we eat a lot of critters I bring home, so meat is my main goal, but not letting the coyotes have my deer ranks pretty high too.
 
highfinblue said:
No doubt the small calibers will do the job, and especially with the bullets available today. I used to shoot does with my .223 until I shot one right at dark one year, gave her a few minutes before picking up the blood trail only to jump her at the field edge. Left came back in an hour or two and I was already too late, coyotes had literally wiped her out. With a suppressor I can shoot large caliber rifles with no more felt recoil than a small caliber, make good shots and pick my deer up within feet of where I shoot them. I shoot them behind the shoulder and rarely throw more than two handfuls of meat away. I butcher all my own from field to freezer, been doing it for over forty years, we eat a lot of critters I bring home, so meat is my main goal, but not letting the coyotes have my deer ranks pretty high too.
Click to expand...
What bullet did you use? And I'd argue that could happen with any bullet in any caliber.
 

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