Discussion Forums

matthew winter

I apologize in advance, but I seem to always forget to get out the camera. I am too focused on getting my meat cooled down rapidly.

This season I was able to shoot a 90lb pronghorn antelope behind the shoulder, a large Mulie Doe (130 lb or so) through the shoulders, and made a bad shot another Mulie Doe that hit the rear quarter. All between 70-200 yards, muzzle velocity 2850 fps. These are reloads with pulled bullets and an above max load of H4831SC. I imagine factory federal fusion rounds are going a similar velocity.

All-in-all, this bullet is very tough, and expands very well. I had previously inquired in another thread as to whether or not this would be an OK bullet for elk, and I agree with the consensus, that with proper placement and moderate range it is. I agree that this bullet is tougher than the 140 accubond, in my limited experience, but the accubond seems to cause a little more shock and immediate collapse.

The pronghorn was shot behind the shoulder at 60 yards, quartering towards. Half inch entrance, golf ball sized exit near the lowest ribs. The animal stumbled for a second and collapsed dead. The exit wound created a vacuum effect and pulled about a foot of large intestine out, in-tact. Very clean and ethical kill. Great bullet for small medium game at this point, without any real resistance met. No bullet or fragments recovered.

Doe #1( 130 lbs/100 yards) was hit in the front shoulder, obliterated the vitals, and exited the offside shoulder. She stumbled and fell after 3 seconds of hobbling. This was a very clean kill. No bullet recovered, immense destruction of offside shoulder rendered it inedible. Great performance, messy exit unfortunately.

Doe #2 was not a clean kill. I took the shot at 200 yards in heavy bursts of crosswind....I normally wouldn't have taken the shot but she was about to exit our hunting area and I thought I could make a good shot. I hit the ball joint of the ham. It shattered the femur, pelvis, and made a 90 degree turn and exited the anus. Large pieces of bone were everywhere. It really struck some resistance.

The deer ran 20 yards and hid in the bushes, incapacitated but very much alive. The rear of the animal was really blown out, I could see directly into where the anus had been, the orifice had been widened considerably. I could see large intestine...no anus, rectum, or sigmoid colon to speak of. Bullet exited and no fragments were seen. She was put out of her misery. I feel terrible about this one. Not a proud moment as a hunter, but clearly the 150 grain fusion bullet is tough.

I like this bullet a lot. Not sure that it kills as quickly as a softer bullet if placed straight into the lungs, but there is clearly a safety margin built-in for times when we don't hit where we were planning. A nice combination of expansion and toughness. I was thinking of switching to 130's for smaller medium game, but I see no real reason to. These shoot .5 MOA when I can keep the rifle still.

Sorry for the lack of pics. I figured that this was better than nothing though.