It seems the most balanced rd.
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- Thread starter Waynzee
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I can't argue with your experiences. I will say that with any hunting caliber, picking the wrong bullet for the application is going to increase your chances of wounding and not recovering game... and while I haven't personally killed hundreds of whitetails, the ones I have killed and seen killed all responded about the same across modern calibers with similar hits. A hit through the lungs and the big buck or small doe were off and running for 30 to 50 yards until they bled out. A high shoulder hit dumped them... maybe they thrashed around before they died, maybe they didn't. I have to wonder how many of the folks you're referring to who had bad experiences with a .243 were going for rear quartering shots... and how many made a bad shot or simply missed. Or used a varmint bullet combined with a rear quartering shot that blew up in the guts and didn't penetrate into the chest cavity. You are right; the Corelokt is/was best at broadside shots and very effective when used for that... and ineffective when people used it for Texas heart shots. In my experience, getting a bullet into the heart/lung area with a high power rifle leads to a quick death regardless of caliber, and any deer shot badly will die but likely not for hours or days and will get away regardless of caliber.
I dont do it yet what would m80 ball ammo look like in a hunting senario with your exp/knowledge?
What hunting scenario? A broadside chest shot on a whitetail deer? The deer would be killed quickly, but it's going to run, and likely further than the same hit with a 150 gr Nosler Ballistic tip or other hunting bullet. A shot from the rear? The M80 bullet would likely penetrate completely, the deer will die in any case, but will run a considerable distance absent a hit to an artery or the spine. Even a lung shot with an M80 may be survivable... a lot of soldiers have survived lung shots from AKs at close range... see Franklin Miller. This is a function of energy transfer, not caliber or cartridge. The more damage to vital tissues that directly affect the circulatory system, the quicker the kill.
I would not use an M80 round for hunting, even for hogs, unless it was a matter of survival. Yes, it will kill them. It will likely require multiple shots. I'm not into making animals suffer unnecessarily. Military use is not hunting... neither the goals or the values are the same. I have come across a deer that was wounded several days before... a very unpleasant experience.
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Lots of my acquaintances started out with the 243. Many were very good shots and could easily put a bullet where they wanted to. Over the years most moved to the 270, 7mm08, 280, 7 mag or 30-06 due to negative experiences with the 243. Most animals were shot broadside or slightly quartering to or away. The Texas heart shot was always seriously frowned upon. If we had to take a straight on or going away shot we shot head or neck shots. Most of these deer were shot with corelokts but some folks used gamekings or hornady interlocks. Both of the latter resulted in quicker kills than the Corlokt did with lung shots. Deer shot with the 270 travelled a significantly shorter distance before expiring compared to those shot with the 243 with similar shot placement. Particularly deer in the 175 pound plus class. They also tended to leave more blood when shot with the 270 or larger caliber. When cleaning it was noticed that wound channels and damage with the 270 was greater than those shot with the 243. The circle I hunted with would kill between 150-200 deer per year so we got to see a lot of wound channels and do our fair share of tracking. One of the most emphatic killers I saw back then was the 7mm mag with 140 grain softpoints. I personally didn't care for the recoil and muzzle blast of the 7 mag but it certainly performed well. Many broadside hits behind the shoulder would just drop on the spot. Similar hits with a 270 would result in a dead on their feet run for 25-40 yards. That's why I switched to all shoulder shots. In the terrain I hunted in it was just better to drop them in their tracks. Even a run of 30 yards might mean a long night. As far as bad hits it didn't seem to make much difference. Deer hit with any caliber took a lot of time to expire and could travel for quite a distance.
Over the years patterns developed. It was very obvious that the guys shooting the 243s either lost more deer or required trackers and dogs more often. Many replaced their 243s with 270 or 30-06 and the number of losses or long tracking jobs decreased. Interestingly enough they have been quite satisfied and have never gone back to the 243.
There was however an interesting case with one of my friends. He shot a 30-06 for a long time and was deadly with it. His number of kills is in the 1000s. Well he went out west and when he came back he was bent on switching to 300 win mag. His number of dead right there kills went down. His marginal hit number went up. Deer hit perfectly didn't expire any quicker than they did with the 270 or 30-06. Also, He simply couldn't handle the recoil and muzzle blast so his accuracy suffered. It took a lot of convincing on my part to get him to go back to the 30-06. Things settled down after that.
I'm no expert. But I am fortunate enough to see quite a few deer and hogs shot every year. Bullets have improved big time. I kill around 100 deer and quite a few hogs a year these days doing depredation. All with 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 CM, and 6.5-06. All three perform admirably with 123 or 147 eldm's. Every now and then I pull out my AR 10 in 308. Some of the guys do pretty well shooting depredation with the 243 and 95 grain SSTs. I just prefer to stay at 6.5 and above.
