From: Peter H Jackson, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I have just returned from Northumberland were I was after
>fallow bucks. I was using a .270 Win with the old 130gr
>Nosler soft point boatails. It would appear that fallow
>are pretty tough beasts! One I shot was taken through
>both lungs and the heart. Like most animals it ran for
>30 yards or so, just like red stags but it was still
>trying to get up and required a finishing shot, unlike
>reds which seem to go down and stay down. The bullet
>did not exit.
What's the problem? You killed the buck reasonably quickly with a
correctly-placed shot. Well done.
An expanding or fragmenting bullet in the chest cavity is fatal,
but there is no anatomical reason why it should be instantly so.
Death is a process, not an event, and it takes a little time for
the brain to be sufficiently starved of blood so as to lose
consciousness. Until and even shortly after that time a beast may
run if it is minded to do so (for instance if it has seen its
assailant and is charged with adrenaline), though usually not
more than a hundred yards or so. However, a deer with both
shoulders smashed by a 308 _can_ run several hundred yards. Not a
problem, as long as you stalk with a dog.
The only way to guarantee that a beast will die where it stands
is to disrupt the brain or the central nervous system. For this
purpose any centrefire rifle bullet of 55 grains or more is
adequate for all deer. Varmint bullets, so-called "deer" bullets,
"match" VLDs, FMJs - they all work if you put them in the brain
or upper spinal chord. (The practical problem with military
FMJ bullets for killing large deer is their lack of stability and
unpredictable trajectory in soft tissue - see
http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/ for a paper by Martin Fackler on
military bullet wound patterns and fragmentation).
>Do members of the stalking side of cybershooters think
>that the .270 should be replaced by a .30 calibre for
>better results on fallow in woodland that you do not
>want to lose, if the shot placement is not perfect? I
>know some people swear by the .243 for neck shots but
>this must be able under powered for fallow, sitka and
>red. Or should I go to heavy or premium bullets?
I'm afraid that you are asking a rifle to do what it can not.
There's nothing wrong with shooting deer in the ribs. It's a big
target, and therefore a sure and easy thing. However, sometimes
the deer will run. It matters little what calibre, cartridge or
bullets you use, because it depends more on state of the tissues
you don't hit than on the extent of damage to the heart and
lungs.
If you don't like hunting for dead deer (who does?), or if you
don't have a dog, then stalk a little closer and use a rifle with
the necessary precision to hit the brain or spinal chord. Any
cartridge from 222 Rem to 243 Win is good enough, subject to
local legislation. Accuracy and light recoil are all that matters
for this work. My own preference is for something like the 6 BR
Norma with a 95 grain VLD bullet, but each to his own.
Rgds, Peter.
www.jacksonrifles.com
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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