codyadams
Well-Known Member
None of the comments related to hammers that I saw were about bullet failures, they were about their admittedly low bc, so I'm not really sure where this upset is coming from, and why it is being dragged into yet another thread.
I personally have only read of two people have legitimate data backed issues with them, but I did not witness them myself so I can't comment. For the most part, terminally, they are pretty predictable, and compared to other bullets have a low ratio of failure reports. Every bullet however can fail.
To add to the thread in a productive manner- personally, my only "failures" with bullets on game, have been with target bullets, specifically the 147 ELD-M, and they were documented on video as well as with photos. Again, these are match bullets, not hunting bullets, so I can't fully say they were an entire "failure", as they were not intended for that purpose.
On one, it was an elk taken at 713 yards, slight quartering to. While the bullet expanded properly as demonstrated from the recovered bullet that was perfectly mushroomed and approximately 80 grains retained, after impact, it changed course dramatically. From the video showing the angle, and the picture of the impact on the recovered elk, it should have exited a couple ribs forward of the diaphragm, impacting both lungs. However, the bullet was recovered in the front of the ham, just rear of the flank. The bullet deflected shortly after impact, and upon dissecting the chest cavity, only hit the very rear of the elks on side lung, missed the liver, went through the stomach, and was under the hide. This resulted in the elk traveling approximately 3/4 of a mile, with zero blood trail as there was no exit, and the entrance sealed up. The only reason I found her was because I was very closely following her tracks in the three day old snow, which was a challenge as there were other elk tracks everywhere.
Also had the same bullet fail to impart any significant damage on a pronghorn at 940 yards. The bullet was still traveling over 2000 fps if I recall correctly, I have it documented in another thread, again with photos and video. Bullet sized hole in and out. This is a challenging media, as pronghorn are very light game, you can easily cut through their sternum with a pocket knife, ribs hardly offer resistance, their hair is light and hollow, and their skin is paper thin, speed helps with expansion, but distances of 800+ significantly reduce speed. The result was a pronghorn that ran a short distance and stood, was shot again, with a similar result. Then the pronghorn layed down with it's vitals just out of sight, with it's head up alive for at least 5 minutes, then we hoofed it over to the goat. It was dead by the time we traveled over half a mile to it, but it was not quick. More target resistance for the bullet may have had a different result, who knows.
I believe we took 13 big game animals with that bullet that year, all the rest had acceptable results. Essentially I moved up to a minimum of 7mm, with preference to 30 and .338 cal bullets for long range deer and elk. The 6.5's still tend to do pretty good on pronghorn, just with a different bullet choice for me personally.
I have a relatively small amount of game I have taken sub 300 yards, but no failures there as of yet with any of the bullets I have used.
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. Your call, obviously, but I see that a lot. People have a less than ideal result and jump to a premature conclusion. It's fine until they start telling others a particular bullet is terrible and they shouldn't use it, when in reality it wasn't the bullet's fault.
