I killed a doe last year with my 308 using a Speer Spitzer Boat Tail traveling at 2400fps muzzle velocity,
the shot was 150 yards. The shot was a little further back from the point of the shoulder than I wanted, but
it was a clean pass-through on both ribs. The entry wound was nickel sized and the exit was fist sized with
what looked like almost a full lung hanging out of it. But the doe made it 30 yards into the downhill tree line
and was very hard to find since darkness came on quick, even though there was a strong blood trail.

Anyway when my uncle was cleaning the deer, my dad made the comment that it was a lot of damage. My uncle
disagreed and said it was not a lot of damage. There was no lead fragments in the cavity, my uncle said he thought
bone fragments from the entry wound cause the enlarged exit wound.

My idea of a lot of meat damage is when you grenade on entry and have fragments everywhere, particularly in the entry
or opposite shoulder. Judging from my deer's exit wound, if she had been quartering slightly away and my shot had gone
through the opposing shoulder, my dad may have been right.

Whats the right balance between too much and not enough damage? What kind of damage would have been ideal on a double
rib shot? Doe was about 125 lbs if that matters.

Thanks.

For me good bullet performance is controlled expansion. I shoot almost exclusively nosler partitions at game and in my opinion that is what they do.

caliber sized entry hole and quarter to 1/2 dollar sized exit. I do not like fist sized holes in my critters.

Seems odd to me that so much talk is devoted to how much damage is done - too much or too little. The basics here is that we (you, me, whoever) went hunting with the intention of shooting a deer. We did so, and the deer died and was collected. You got what you paid for with that bullet. Pretty much any of today's available deer hunting bullets will do an adequate job. Are any of us expecting 'just the right amount' of damage? Would that be a quarter sized exit?

I have shot a lot of deer over the decades and I really don't ever remember fussing over how messy the result was. The deer was dead and that was my expected result.

I think that is pretty much exactly what I said in my post. Yes I am looking for the goldilocks bullet not to much and not too little and NP's fit that bill for me.

Too much damage is when you shoot them in the high in the shoulder (my preferred shot) and there is nothing salvageable. I haven't had trouble with this except for deer shoot with a .300 mag inside 100 yards.

If you don't want extreme damage slow the bullet down and stay off the shoulders.

Just stay off the shoulders period regardless of velocity. Ain't much eating to be done on the ribs.

I don't have to debone many deer shoulders when im rifle hunting... oh darn