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Recovered bullets

nastynate

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Mar 7, 2021
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Got any? Any good stories? I’ve had nearly all pass throughs so don’t have many. Pictured are the two I’ve recovered. A 165 grain federal trophy copper 30-06 I dug out of the hillside after a broadside shot on a mule deer and a Barnes 50 cal TMZ I recovered out of a rear ham from a frontal shot on a whitetail. It heart shot that zipped through ribs, missed guts and ended up in the back ham, sliding along just under the hide, as best I could tell.

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I have a drawer full around here somewhere. I have had elk stop more bullets under the hide than pass through. Most of my elk have been shot with a .30-06 and lead core bullets. Most were Speer Hot-Cor, a few were premiums. The Hot-Cor performs surprisingly well on elk. My .30-06 loads used to push 2900fps for a 180 grain. I finally realized that if you want a magnum, you should buy a magnum. A couple elk and many deer were killed with a 264 Win Mag and Sierra GK. Those frag and the most you ever find is a jacket if you are lucky.

I ate tag soup this year on elk, I'm really hoping to find out if a 358 Norma Mag passes through a moose or I recover a bullet.
 
I have a 200gr SST that went through a mule deer a few years ago. Caught in the offside hide. Not sure where it's at at this moment. I'll find it and post it up.
 
160 grain Sierra SPBT GameKing recovered from a mule deer shot at about 150 yards with my 7mm Rem Mag Ruger Number One rifle. The bullet has been very accurate from that rifle.
 

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I have a little drawer full of bullets that I've recovered from animals that I've shot. Many of the smaller animals, like deer and antelope, the bullets often pass completely through the animals, and more recently many of my Barnes bullets also completely passed through the larger animals like elk and moose.

I also usually don't spend a lot of time trying to fine the bullets, especially in the gut pile.

Here's some that I have recovered and took pictures of them, usually for contributing to threads like this one.
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And years ago, my favorite elk rifle was my .30 Gibbs shooting 180 gr Nosler Partitions. These were found just under the hide of the off side of some of the elk. My theory is that the front half of the Partition bullet comes apart inside the animal, then the large flat surface of the remaining bullet is not sharp enough to punch through the off side hide, and stops there.
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40 cal bullets pulled from bear shot at 20 feet.
They guys I was hunting with who loaned a pistol when my bow malfunctioned said, keep shooting till we say stop or you are sure it is dead, we got 30k worth of dogs standing around we need to protect. And I did, a lot more than just these.

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130 grain Hornady interlock, .270

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165 grain Barnes TTSX, .300 Win Mag

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140 grain Nosler Accubond, .270

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180 grain Federal HST out of a .40 Glock that my dad finished off an antelope with.

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180 grain Hornady SST, .30-06.

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180 grain Barnes TTSX out of my .300 win mag that I found in the bone pile while looking for my lost knife after the snow melted.

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