BAR got the job done!

[bshefa]

This is the first deer I've killed with my Browning BAR 30-06! Not the biggest but still a 10. I was really proud if the shot, 225 yards! Missed my intended mark by 2 inches toward the neck. Dead right there.

Interestingly, I was shooting 150 grain core lokts and my entry and exit wound were the same diameter. I am not opposed to shooting higher end ammo, but this rifle really seems to like the core lokts. Any ideas why no bigger exit wound?
The damage inside the chest was catastrophic from hitting both lungs. Since he was DRT, I doubt it did not expand.

 

[AllenJ]

Congratulations on a fine buck. How big were the entry and exit holes?

 

[bshefa]

About the diameter of my pinky on both sides

 

[big al hunter]

I have had the same results with premium bullets. If it didn't hit bone it destroys the lungs but entry and exit are very similar. I think bone fragments cause the larger exit most of the time. Every gaping exit I have seen was directly influenced by bone.

 

[born2climb]

Large exit holes are not due to large bullets so much as to pressure within the body. Shoot a milk jug full of water with a cap, and one without a cap. There is a difference as the cap holds pressure longer. The accepted rule used to be double original diameter...so you're .308 diameter bullet should expand to .616 ideally. A pinky-sized hole sounds about right. I've talked to folks who seemed to be under the impression that a .30-caliber bullet will flatten out to the size of your fist as it traverses a deer's body, wrecking all that it contacts. In reality, it's the pressure(s) that cause the majority of the damage, barring what the bullet actually strikes.

 

[jersurf101]

+1 to what big al has said. I have noticed that hitting a rib bone on the way into the rib cage produces larger exit wounds. Or the use of magnums. Dead is dead and the less meat you screw up in the process is better.


Nice buck!

 

[LOUD]

Congratulations on your nice buck! And on the clean kill shot.........LOUD

 

[Dirty_Harry]

"not the biggest" he says.....ha! Much bigger than anything I have ever shot.

 

[jimbob86]

"not the biggest" he says.....ha! Much bigger than anything I have ever shot.

The skinny bodies on those Texas Hollywood deer make the racks look bigger .....

I've shot does that weighed more, like as not.

Nice deer, nonetheless.

 

[bshefa]

Different climate down here. Semi arid doesn't make for big bodied animals. They do grow big racks here and they get bigger on average as you go south. This one came out of the northern most part of the Hill Country and would be considered an average deer.