Bullet failures

[adam32+P]

So, after all the threads lately about bullets and how one is better than the other etc etc etc...

Has anyone truly had a "bullet failure" on a game animal? Where you for 100% certainty, can say you made proper shot placement and the bullet actually failed at killing the animal humanely?

Do any of these new bullets actually "kill" better than a Cor-lokt? Partition? Game King? TSX?

Have hunters been losing animals for a hundred years by using soft point lead core bullets?

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

I've used partitions, corlockt, berger, amax, eld-m, eld-x, interlock, vmax, nosler BT, and im sure a few others I'm forgetting. I dont have one recorded bullet failure. The poorest performer of the group for me was the partition believe it or not.

 

[xsn10s]

So, after all the threads lately about bullets and how one is better than the other etc etc etc...

Has anyone truly had a "bullet failure" on a game animal? Where you for 100% certainty, can say you made proper shot placement and the bullet actually failed at killing the animal humanely?

Do any of these new bullets actually "kill" better than a Cor-lokt? Partition? Game King? TSX?

Have hunters been losing animals for a hundred years by using soft point lead core bullets?

I can say kinda. Honestly it was more me not fully understanding the bullet's abilities. I won't name the manufacturer but the bullet is marketed as a varmint bullet. At 52 gr hp 22 cal I used in a 22-250. Nailed a yote in the boiler room at 125 yards. It took off running. I hit him twice more on the run and one on the ground. The bullet expanded, just too violently. It was better to use for rats. On big game I've never lost an animal or had to take more than one shot using conventional hunting bullets.

 

[Ol' Red]

Yes. Once and only once. I was shooting a Contender pistol in .30 Herrett. I shot a buck antelope from 80 yards right behind the shoulder. he turned 180 degrees and I put another round about two inches from the exit hole. I waited 30 minutes after he laid down. I low crawled to within 50 yards of him before he stood up. I hit him with a third round in the chest facing me. He went down dead then. Both of the first shots went through the lungs and clipped the heart with no expansion. I called the manufacturer and they replaced the box of bullets. I have used them since on whitetail and mule deer with no problems. I think it was just a bad batch.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Just remember "There are No Bad Bullets-Only Bad Bullet Owners"

 

[FEENIX]

The "NUT" behind the trigger remains the biggest factor.

 

[coop2564]

Many years ago I shot a WT buck 165lb roughly, with a ballistic tip in fed ammo in 270 win 130gr.
Buck fell and got back up running slowly with leg flopping. shot was slightly quartering to me. Aim point was slightly forward of center shoulder @ about 120yds. Trailed buck about 600yds little blood heard him jump up. Dark got me and lack of blood. Two days latter another member on our lease shot same buck and called me. We did autopsy and the ballistic tip hit joint at very bottom of shoulder blade where joins leg and disintegrated mostly. Found a piece of jacket in a rib and the whole shoulder was a meat mess. Nothing we found penetrated into chest past ribs. I did strike about 3" more forward than I was aiming, but had bullet held together he would have been dead.

 

[adam32+P]

Many years ago I shot a WT buck 165lb roughly, with a ballistic tip in fed ammo in 270 win 130gr.
Buck fell and got back up running slowly with leg flopping. shot was slightly quartering to me. Aim point was slightly forward of center shoulder @ about 120yds. Trailed buck about 600yds little blood heard him jump up. Dark got me and lack of blood. Two days latter another member on our lease shot same buck and called me. We did autopsy and the ballistic tip hit joint at very bottom of shoulder blade where joins leg and disintegrated mostly. Found a piece of jacket in a rib and the whole shoulder was a meat mess. Nothing we found penetrated into chest past ribs. I did strike about 3" more forward than I was aiming, but had bullet held together he would have been dead.

Did that BT happen to be the early yellow tipped version?

 

[coop2564]

Did that BT happen to be the early yellow tipped version?

It was so long ago I do not remember the tip color, but it was before the beef up Nosler did.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

We've had excellent luck with the Nosler BT. Very good bullet

 

[7.62 Gunner]

I've personally seen a few bullets fail to penetrate heavy shoulder muscle or bone, some may say that qualifies as shot failure but I disagree.
A shoulder shot with a good bonded bullet or mono is very deadly, maybe it's more accurate to say these bullets failed outside of their optimal parameters.

The failures I've seen were:
1. A 140 sst grenaded on a deer scapula at 75 yards from a 270wsm
2. 143 eldx came apart and failed to penetrate an elk shoulder at 275 yards from a creed.
3. 75 amax splash impacted a coyote shoulder at 200 yards from a 22-250
4. 140 Barnes ttsx penciled through a doe hit right behind the shoulder at 80 yards, recovered later 1/4 mile away

 

[Old Rooster]

2 failures.
#1 180 gr Barnes TSX penciled through the body just behind the shoulder.
Most likely my fault as I carried the shells in my coat pocket and lint, and debris was is all the other bullet openings so I expect that is what caused it.I found the buck and shot it again in the neck and took it home.
#2 185 gr Berger VLD hunting bullet and it penciled through just like the Barnes.Called Berger and a guy named Walt said look at the open mouth tips and see if any looked buggered up and I did and they were.Berger sent me a new box of 185 Gr VLD hunting bullets and a small drill bit to make sure the opening is truly open.
Both times it was my fault

 

[Scott E Ames]

Not a complete failure but an FYI on the Sierra Gamechanger 6.5mm 130 grain. Hit scapula on a whitetail and pretty much blew the left shoulder to pieces. Deer dropped in its tracks but as I walked up there was literally a 6 foot squared area completely covered in deer fur. I have harvested well over 75 deer and never had seen this. The shoulder had an area larger than a pie plate missing down to the scapula, the base did enter the chest and get both lungs. This seems in my series of 1 to be a very explosive bullet.
2830 FPS, (muzzle)
range 105 yards

 

[Muddyboots]

The "NUT" behind the trigger remains the biggest factor.

Ed, if you don't mind. I'd like to enhance your statement to "loose nut behind the trigger".

The only failures I have ever had was COMPLETELY my fault and never a bullet. Just made a bad shot.

Edit added: Which I am sure nobody makes a bad shot, the bullet did weird things.