Bullets Pencilling Through

bill123 · Oct 27, 2024

Shooting 6.5CM Hornady Precision Hunter 143 ELD-X chronographed at 2680. I've had great experiences with this ammo before. I was getting good exit holes with visible blood trails. Not sure if I'm using a new box of ammo now.

I just shot 2 deer at under 100 yards, 96 & 180 lbs in south Texas. Both deer had caliber sized entry and exit wounds with zero blood trail. Both deer found dead in the brush less than 50 yards away.

Any thoughts on why the exit wounds would be so small with no blood trail?

WapitiBob · Oct 27, 2024

Saw the same thing, same caliber but with Bergers. WT Deer, maybe 80# soaking wet, at less than 100 yards, follow up shot at about 10 feet. Bullet size entry and exit on both. They worked just fine on Pronghorn at 325.

dnb86 · Oct 27, 2024

I've heard rumblings that people claim that the ELDX isn't a great bullet for inside 100 and I believe you can find posts on multiple forums about that topic

Bucklowery · Oct 27, 2024

It can happen with any bullet at different ranges

Thanks

Buck

Varmint Hunter · Oct 27, 2024

bill123 said:
Shooting 6.5CM Hornady Precision Hunter 143 ELD-X chronographed at 2680. I've had great experiences with this ammo before. I was getting good exit holes with visible blood trails. Not sure if I'm using a new box of ammo now.

I just shot 2 deer at under 100 yards, 96 & 180 lbs in south Texas. Both deer had caliber sized entry and exit wounds with zero blood trail. Both deer found dead in the brush less than 50 yards away.

Any thoughts on why the exit wounds would be so small with no blood trail?

If the bullets didn't expand and just "penciled through", I'd expect those deer to go a alot farther than "less than 50yds". Small exit holes don't necessarily mean that the bullets didn't properly expand. Nosler Partition bullets often leave small exit holes, and they normally shed their noses off completely.

What did the deer's lungs (or whatever you hit) look like when the deer was field dressed?

haisardao · Oct 27, 2024

Probably a piece of the bullet broke off and passed through, I've seen that multiple times before, dead deer at 50 yards speak against pencil through and no expansion

Redleg84 · Oct 27, 2024

What did it look like on the inside?

Lou270 · Oct 27, 2024

You can't tell much from entrance and exit wounds. A bullet can make a terrible mess inside and have a small exit. For ex, only a small piece of core exits or the "mushroom" is small because lot of material blown off either because of bullet design or hit a sustantial bone

Lou

willfrye027 · Oct 27, 2024

What did the lungs look like? If you look at Hornadys gel block tests, you'll see football shaped wound channels. That "football" may have been in the chest, with what's left of the bullet exiting through the skin.

hard to judge a bullet on exit wounds or blood trails, both of which are hard to control and not reproducible.

You could use something like an accubond or Barnes..you may get more of an exit wound at the expense of less internal damage.

Jon Bischof · Oct 27, 2024

I prefer to see at least a golf ball sized exit hole. But you need velocity to get expansion like that. I've noticed that bullets perform better once you get somewhere around 2800. Always get good exit hole with my 270 WSM at 3080 fps.

Dmagna · Oct 27, 2024

Anything in a 100 yards I shoot for the shoulder bone

WA Coyote · Oct 27, 2024

Son shot a buck last week with a factory load 103 ELDX out of a 6 Creed. Shot was right in the pocket and caught the triceps on the way in and out. Deer went less than 20 yards. You could hardly see either the entrance or exit wounds, and there was no blood trail.

When we opened the deer up, the heart was blown nearly in half, and the lungs looked like a couple gallons of raspberry preserves.

Entrance/exit wounds do not tell the tale of what happened between them

biednick · Oct 27, 2024

Entry and exit wounds don't mean much. Some bullets (including ELD-Xs at short ranges and Bergers by design) expand explosively and leave minimal exit wounds if any at all, but turn the insides to jelly. If you want big exit wounds switch to something designed to atay together like Barnes' TSX or TTSX, just know they might not do as much internal damage and kill slower.

cajun · Oct 27, 2024

The bullet did it's job. If you want bigger exit wounds try some 120 gr ballistic tips. You can find loaded ammo with them. 3000 fps muzzle 50 yd shot by my grandson. Dont let the internet rumors fool you. It's a solid bullet you can push fast in the creed. The 7 mm version is great as well. That is what my grandkid was using.

Bullets Pencilling Through

bill123

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WapitiBob

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dnb86

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Bucklowery

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Varmint Hunter

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haisardao

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Redleg84

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Lou270

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willfrye027

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Jon Bischof

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Dmagna

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WA Coyote

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cajun

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