Thread: Shooting through stuff.

Back in the 80’s I run a muck with my 243. I had found an area ploughed up by a big stag and had found several freshly used rut pads (this was in June) I retreated out of area with the intention of returning for evening hunt and came prepared for a late night with spotlight. It was only a few minutes walk into the area that had the rut pads back in the pines in a clear area. I sat back against a tree and waited , listening to the trees rattling in the average breeze. Half an hour before dark out stepped a massive stag beautiful antlers that almost formed a circle and white tips every where. He walked around to my right then stopped behind a light screen of scrub but still visible enough for a good shot. I fired , he launched and in a bound was gone, no blood and I could hear him disappearing towards the gorge. I went to where he was standing at the shot and found the screen of scrub was about 10 meters in front of him and my 243 bullet just didn’t make it through.
On the morning hunt I had my 30 06 but decided to take the 243 in the evening as I new the shot would be close so figured the nice accurate 243 was the ticket, I think the out come would have been better with the 30 06 but I will never know now.
I remember reading a Norma catalogue and they set up a test shooting through willow sticks and tried various cartridges and the one least affected was the 222 REM.