Starting loads and hunting question

Recently into reloading and used a Lee Classic loader for my 270
Fist loads where IMR 4007sec with 46.9 grains with 130 game king bullet
Sighted in at 1 MOA at a 100 meters
So I took a 8 point buck with this round in December(one shot and drop quickly) and when I went to clean it I noticed the deer did not have an exit wound? From past experience with my Remington 130 Core Locks I always had an exit wound.

So my question is can you have too light of a load for hunting if that makes sense?

Thank you
M

Obviously, the load worked. A typical 130 gr. bullet out of a .270 won't always exit, although it's pretty common on a Texas whitetail. Your load is a little light, right at what IMR calls a starting load. You're probably getting around 2600 fps. IMR load data says you could go up to 51.5 gr 4007SSC and get around 2900 fps. You could get even higher velocities with some other powders. There's nothing wrong with what you have, but you could certainly crank it up as long as you maintain your 1 MOA groups.

At what range?

Deer was 95 meters from the ground blind

Plus Sierra bullets have a reputation for rapid expansion and therefore less penetration than some other brands.

That's a good "starter load" for that round, and no exit at 96m is no surprise. It's probably going about 2200fps or a bit less. The Core-lokts you used were likely going just a tad faster, and I'm not being sarcastic. They were probably about 2500 or so, maybe 2600. If that's your usual shot I'd stay with it. I've honestly done very little .270 loading. My notes are certainly not complete and I'm extrapolating some data here, but I think I'm in the ball park.

edited to add: I bet you could have found the bullet just under the far-side skin.

Kinda surprised you didn't get an exit, but do not know what the bullet hit on its way through.

To a point cup and core bullets will penetrate more when started slower than pushed hard. Sure there is less energy for penetration but then there is less energy to cause fragmentation. If you want an exit just about every time go with a Partition, Mono-metal or bonded core type bullet. Or if sticking with cup and core a high sectional density bullet like the rarely used 160gr round nose cup and core bullet in the 270.

For the load you are using, some data shows it as a starting load while other sources have it at mid range. With the velocity expected you should be good for killing critters out to 250 to 300 yards reliably IMO.

I prefer my bullets to stay in the animal. If the bullet leaves the animal, then the full force of the impact was not exerted on the animal. I prefer that the bullet hits, enters and stops in the animal. That way the full joules force of the bullets's impact is imparted.

smh

x2

Thank you

At the guy who said he prefers his bullets to stop in the animal? This used to be a view held by a number of top gun writers.

I'm not convinced, but I don't think it is a stupid position to take.

I prefer exits for the bullet. Like John Wooters once wrote about the 7mm-08 long before it was very popular shoot a buck with a 140gr partition and its will to escape goes out the other side.

My first year with the 7mm08 I used a factory load, at that time there was only one, the Remington 140gr Corlokt or so the box said. First deer with that round was a small 145lb 1.5 year old buck. First shot was to the shoulder, luckly the second shot only hit one rib on the way in. No exit and did not make it through the ribs on the off side. Remington later admitted they loaded some of the first factory fodder with non-corlokt bullets. After that I got a box of partitions to load and never looked back.

I would ask, would that bullet have not performed better had it penetrated far enough to exit?

This notion that mass times velocity squared is what kills is plain silly. Why not mass times velocity (momentum)? How about going with the Taylor knock out index?

Take a spear and shove it through an animal's vitals. That will kill it. Would it kill better if you don't poke it all the way through?

I pretty much disregard energy figures and Taylor's knock out index (which I would use before I used energy) was (IIRC) for shots to the head of an elephant that missed the brain. With all his experience I bet they were pretty close to reality, but that's not the same as killing a deer in fewest steps.

I want a bullet that both expands early and has enough oomph to exit.

Having said all that, if a bullet exits it means that it did not expand in the vitals as much as it could have. Their reasoning is that a bullet that stops under the hide on the off side expanded more, and earlier than one that exited.

It's a complicated question but, fortunately, one that doesn't require an exact answer.

There's really nothing wrong with a 130 grain bullet at 2600 fps but I think 3000 fps is easily obtainable in the .270 WCF.

You can't compare a spear and a bullet. A bullet travels at a significant speed. Upon striking a target, it causes a transmission of force that causes injury and damage as the wave radiates away from the point of impact. The secondary action is the release of joules force on the object by transferring all the energy to the object by stopping in the tissue. A bullet that travels through an object retains a significant amount of joules force that is not applied to the target.

Not only do you want both actions to occur, most do not want a round that will leave the animal and potentially strike a second animal without sufficient force to cause death only injuring the animal. It is the same principle used in shooting an enemy combatant. You want a round that strikes with significant force and will immediately dissipate its force to the object without leaving it. A sniper doesn't want the bullet leaving the criminal to injure a bystander. If a criminal is shot with a pistol, you want the round to stop inside the criminal and not exit and continue on to strike someone else.

Some might want to pick of the book Applied Ballistics for Long-Range Shooting by Bryan Litz and do some reading.

The vitals area is typically recognized as the heart and lungs of the animal. Most often center in the chest cavity. A bullet enters by passing through the hide and meat to enter the organs. What is the benefit of having the bullet exit the meat and hide on the other side? The objects you wanted to strike where in the middle and allowing a bullet to pass through causes more damage to the meat and less trauma to the organs.

When it comes to shooting animals like hogs, I prefer to shoot them in the neck, the impact of the bullet will cause a force wave that often causes the spinal cord to severe. The bullet dissipates all its force in the tissue and doesn't exit the next. The animal gets knocked down and doesn't get up.

As to the spear question. I will associated it with the many stabbings I treat in the ER. A blades compresses the tissue of the body with a slow pressure before it actually penetrates the skin and as it penetrates. This causes the tissue and organs to flatten as the blade penetrates. A blade of 4' in length with a strong person applying the stabbing motion may actually achieve cutting depths of up to 6' or more because of the flattening of the body. Therefore, it is not necessary for a person to use an extremely long bladed knife or for the knife to penetrate all the way through in order to cause a fatal wound.

I like the animals I shoot to leave me a trail to find them if they should happen to run. An exit wound provides that trail. You can easily find bullets that do plenty damage inside the animal and exit.

I prefer mine fall dead where I shoot them and not walk anywhere.

I can see this debate going on for a few more posts.