Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by Tentman

For what its worth.

I was farm hunting with a cobber trying to get him his first deer. We happened on 3 deer out in the paddock at 140M. A big framed spiker was facing us so I got him lined up on it. He took the shot with it just slightly less than square on. The sound of a hit was very clear, "that's not going far with a 308 bullet in it" was my thinking. Well bugger me it kept coming forward, head up and not looking the least bit crook. It turned slightly sideways so I smacked it in the shoulder to make sure it didn't get away.

I gutted it, and the damage to the lungs from my shot was clear, no sign at all of the 308 hit. I figured maybe he'd missed after all.

When we were breaking it down my cobber found his 308 bullet in the hip.

The 308 bullet had gone the whole length of the deer with bugger all damage, certainly none to any organs or even the stomach/intestines.

So funny things can and do happen.

What was the path of the bullet through the body?

If you apply occams razor to the 2 possible scenarios:

1: A .308 round travelled the entire length of a deers body doing no harm to the various extremely soft internal organs in it's path until it hit a bony bit
2: An inexperienced shooter shot at a deer angled towards him and hit it directly in the hip with a poorly placed shot


#2 seems much more likely and unless you could trace the path of the bullet through the body to demonstrate it's #1 it would not seem likely