Thread: First fail - 6.5mm 143gr ELD-X

Troy, obviously can’t say much without having been there or seeing pictures, but that sounds like a bit of an iffy shot placement to me, the first one.

There was a whole investigation into this on another forum a while back, looking at gralloch of animals shot face on, in the shoulder, lots of those shots didn’t work out as expected. I have first hand experience of this from the Vic High Country with my very good mate and long time hunting partner. He shot a sambar facing on with his T/C Encore .30-06, he went for what he thought would be a raking shot across the vitals but found out the hard way that hitting the front of the shoulder is too far back already and the bullet passed down the side of the critical parts of the heart / lungs. I’ve seen the exact same thing happen in Namibia on springbok too, bullets passing down the side of the ribcage due to deflection from the very shallow angle.

When I shoot an animal that is facing me I go for the point where the brisket meets the neck, that is an almost guaranteed bang-flop. If that’s not available, and I don’t fancy a head shot, I wait.

Like I say, not being there I can’t say for sure but from what you describe, I’d be looking at placement not projecticle performance. Not looking to get all finger pointy, just reflecting on what you describe.