barnes bullet on mule deer

[mddat]

I was in region 3 hunting for moose with my browning xbolt 338 win mag and happend to spot a small 4 point mulie about 600 yards away bedded down. It was about an hour before dark and I decided to make a stock on it. I got up close enough were i felt comfortable and had a good rest to take a shot. The buck was bedded down about 10 yards from the tree line and i ranged him at 241 yards. I waited about 25 minutes till it stoded up and I took the shot. After the shot I reloaded and looked up quick and I saw another deer there but it wasn't the one I shot at, it was a small 2 point that was bedded down as with it that i hadn't seen. I had know idea where it ran but figured it went into the treeline. The 2 point headed into the bush so i waited 15 minutes and headed down there to take a look. When i got down there the two point was still standing about 20 yards in the trees and it took off so I walked down there and started looking for the deer. I didn't see and blood and it was getting so dark i couldn't find it so i decided to head back in the morning with my partner and look when there was more light. So the next morning i went down and found it dead about 70 yards into the trees. I shot it with my handloaded 338 win mag using 225 grain tsx bullet and 72 grains of imr 4831 powder. I hit it right through the lungs and when i gutted it and skinned it i was surprised to see how little damage there was. It was less then I've ever done with my .308 165 grain partions. Guess the bullet was travelling so fast it didn't have time to expand that much. Anyways got the buck and had a great weekend. The other buck is my bros wife and its her first it was a spike

[1899]

Maybe there just wasn't enough resistance for the bullet to open up. At least you got your deer; and good for you for going back and being thorough.

[hunter1993ap]

velocity is what makes a barnes x expand and at 200 and 40 yards with that big of bullet has probably slowed it down too much to expand. also a barnes x is such a hard bullet it wont give you that much damage with a perfect lung shot but if you would have hit that deer in the shoulder you would have a lot of damage and ruined meat.

[BlacktailStalker]

Nothing better than a tsx.

Well done.

[eastkoot]

velocity is what makes a barnes x expand and at 200 and 40 yards with that big of bullet has probably slowed it down too much to expand. also a barnes x is such a hard bullet it wont give you that much damage with a perfect lung shot but if you would have hit that deer in the shoulder you would have a lot of damage and ruined meat.


That's encouraging.. IF only it would expand at low velocity or hit something hard, then it will expand?? Not a Barnes commercial for sure..And if the cute little petals do show themselves, you MAY get twice the diameter for a little better than pencil size wound channel..

[cloverphil]

I'm glad you got your deer but I'm not sure if waiting till morning to look for it was a good idea , it would have been disappointing to find a bear eating it the next day when you got back . . .

[mddat]

it was pretty much pitch black by that time and walking 70 yards into the real thick stuff with a flashlight would a been pretty tuff to find it

[todbartell]

bullets dont have a clock, telling them when to expand. impact velocity and resistance is what will effect expansion.

225gr @ 2700 fps (muzzle) would be going about 2200 fps @ 240 yards. The 225gr tsx is no doubt designed to penetrate big game, so it is to be expected that it will not tear up a deer real bad, especially at lower impact velocity

70 yards is a fairly short trail, Ive seen them go further with good hits from deer cartridges with deer bullets

[Ltbullken]

I think lung shots rarely drop an animal in its tracks. They will go some distance before going down. I have had animals run on me when lung shot. Hit a shoulder or major vascular channel, the animal should go down quicker, especially the shoulder. I remember my buddy hitting a small deer with a 180 grain SP bullet from his .303 through the lungs at about 30 yds. Spectacular expansion and wound channel but the animal still ran about 40 yds! :eek:

[Jehiah]

Seeing as a mule deer can run 65 - 70 meters in less than 10 seconds (a guess) Id say your bullet did pretty damn good. You filled its chest cavity with enough blood and air to colapse the lungs and squeeze the heart. We are talking 2-4 litres of blood and a majour sucking wound.

[Brett]

What did the lungs look like? Are you saying it was a pencil size hole right threw and no other damage?

[Barracuda]

I am guessing what you found was a loonie/ toonie size whole through both ribs instead of a bunch of wasted meat and jellied crap.
The tsx did what it was meant to do .

[tracker]

If you want a larger entry hole ,I would switch to the tipped tsx ,I have noticed it opens alot faster and does more damage going in, but it does not hold together as well as the tsx [pedals rip of faster on bone and such] they all work on a hydralic principle so saying that the bullet never opened up would be a false statment... Look on the hide on the off side there should be a toonie sized hole through it where it came out..Sounds like it was another barnes x flawless kill though ,end result dead critter...

[KevinB]

Nice buck! and nice shooting. 240 yards is nothing to sniff at.

TodBartell summed up the "not enought time to expand" nicely.

Whether it's a toonie sized hole through the lungs or blown up lungs, it doesn't make much difference, that animal is going to lose a huge amount of blood in a hurry and it won't go far. The TSX did pretty much what it was supposed to do. Dead deer within a few seconds sounds pretty good to me. An arrow through the lungs will result in a dead deer in a few seconds too, and you don't see any expansion there, just a nice clean slice.

If you get into the habit of following through on your shot, and learn to reload without having to take your eyes off of your target, you'll have a much better chance of seeing where the animal goes after you shoot. That's a very good skill to have but probably overlooked by a lot of hunters. Seeing where the deer goes and how it reacts to the shot is more important than getting the fastest possible reload IMO.

[RiverOtter]

Personally, I'd drop down to the 210 TSX version and rock on. You can't push a TSX too fast in a 338 Winnie.....meaning, you're not gonna nuke one...

[todbartell]

if I had a 338 Win Mag I think I would hunt with 210gr Barnes TTSX, unless they just wouldn't shoot, which is unlikely

[troutseeker]

Nice deer, nice shot, good bullet choice, and nothing wrong with leaving the animal overnight either!

[benbeckoutfitters]

well thats just a typical barnes trick.....ive seen a three hund mag barnes zip right through a black bear.....ive also seen it go through one of my best freinds bull elk and leave merely a friggn pencil hole....ya the do shoot but in my eyes i dont like to hunt with a bullet that keeps me wondering wether or not itll open on impact....

[30-378-magnum]

ive shot deer and moose with a 180 grain barnes x and it has expanded great from 35 yds out to 480 yds all were lung shots almost all game went at least 35 yds before expiring