CONatureBoy
Well-Known Member
I applaud your diligence tracking down the wounded animal. I hope it will inspire other hunters to do likewise. It's heartbreaking to lose a game animal.
I agree with other comments about your being undergunned for that distance. The rule of thumb I've read is, you need 1,000 ft-lbs of retained energy for a deer. I input your bullet's G7 BC and your reported muzzle velocity into the Berger external-ballistics calculator, which gave me this range card (for standard conditions):
You might have had 850 ft-lbs or so of retained energy for your first shot. Monolithic bullets are not known for their ability to expand at long ranges (low retained-energy levels). For such a load I'd keep deer shots within 350 yards.
I started my hunting career using a 243 shooting similarly light bullets. I quickly graduated to a 270 Win. and then a 7mm Rem. Mag. so I could be more comfortable shooting to 400, then 500, yards. You might consider a heavier bullet or a larger caliber if you want to shoot deer outside of 300 yards. And you might consider a more explosive bullet like a Berger, Nosler Ballistic Tip, or Hornady ELD-X. If the animal drops in its tracks, you don't need a blood trail to track it.
I say all of that in light of my own experience making a perfect broadside shot on a nice bull elk at 460 yards (ranged) with a 220-grain Sierra Match King. I had read online that long-distance hunters were using the SMK 220 for elk hunting, and that the military used it in sniper ammunition. But (just like your broadside shot) my bullet went between the ribs, in and out; it never expanded. (I've since learned that military gel-block tests on the bullet resulted in their classifying the bullet as a "full metal jacket" bullet, because it expands more like an FMJ than a hollow point.) I tracked the elk from 4:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in two-foot-deep snow, into a blizzard. The elk kept falling down and leaving impressions in the snow with a telltale pinprick of lung-colored blood, but I never caught up to it. I had to abandon the search when my GPS receiver quit working because of the blizzard, miles from my truck. That winter I did more research and converted to Berger bullets. I've lost meat to a Berger's explosiveness, but I've never had to track an animal shot with a Berger. They've always just dropped where I shot 'em.
Example: a few weeks ago I shot this bull elk with a Berger 210-grain VLDH at 445 yards, high shoulder shot (right side). It dropped without taking a single step. 300 RUM, 3,000 fps muzzle velocity, retained energy about 3,000 ft-lbs (double the minimum 1,500 ft-lbs of retained energy). No exit wound:
I lost several pounds of meat (backstrap and high shoulder) to the fragmentation.
Now I hunt everything with long-for-caliber Bergers, adjusting caliber and bullet mass so it's appropriate for quarry (156-grain 6.5s for predators and smaller deer, 180-grain 7mms for heavy deer and cow elk, and 210-230 grain 300s for bull elk etc.).
High muzzle velocity is sexy, but I've learned the hard way that adequate retained energy and adequate energy transfer are what bring an animal down.
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