I shot a big doe Saturday 12-11-04 with the Huntsman and a 200gr 40/50 Shock Wave over 100gr BM'3. The deer was at 110 yards almost perfectly broadside, ever so slightly quartering to. At the shot, the smoke bellowed out and down out of my line of sight allowing me to see the deers reaction to the shot. The bullet entered right on the shoulder knuckle shattering it and penetrating all the way through the other shoulder and stopping just under the hide on the far side. She ran approximately 50 yards and dropped dead.
I quickly reloaded and there was no need for swabbing as the second loaded as easy as the first with no additional resistance as the fouling is very soft and minimal. I proceeded to the impact zone after waiting about 10 minutes and the deer not moving. I arrived at the impact zone and could not find any sign of a hit no blood, no hair, no nothing except kicked up leaves with fresh earth on them. I followed the trail in the leaves and could see where the deer stumbled a few times before going down for good. What troubled me was that there was not any blood on the leaves with this shot. I'm sure if I would have punched a hole behind the shoulder, the outcome probably would have resulted in a pass through.
After arriving at the deer and rolling it over to see the entry wound, I could clearly see the large shoulder bone and knuckle were shattered. There were only a couple of drops of blood on the ground where she came to rest.
The bullet retained 65% or 130 gr of it's original 200 gr weight and was mushroomed perfectly. The core was still inside the jacket until I washed it up, then the core come out of the jacket easily. The bullet looks just like Omega50's avatar.
Did the bullet do it's job? Sure. Would I use it again? Not sure. I am just wondering what would have happened if It would have been a big buck and I had not seen it go down. I like blood trails and the deer I shot last year was almost at the same angle but the much heavier 300gr SST blew clear through and left an awesome exit wound and blood trail.
I personally feel this bullet did everything it should have considering MY shot placement. I do feel however, that I like the heavier bullet at my non-magnum powder charges and you just can't have enough added insurance when heavy bone comes into play.
[EDIT] I almost forgot, love the BM'3 Powder! It ignites fast and clean up is a breeze. The fouling is light and soft. I will do more testing later with conicals, as I have only shot sabots with it.
