I circled the low point in the brush, keeping the open swales to my right and turning, working my way onto the point and the open timber.
Almost immediately, I saw motion and several does and a buck crossed 150 yards in front of me and dropped over the edge. They didn’t appear to have seen me.
Sprinting that distance, I crossed the crest and immediately sat down, slipping the sling strap around my arm to aid in aiming. The hill sloped down for 100 yards to the creek and past that open swamp and aspens stretched before me for another 200 yards.
Breathing heavily, I searched in front of me for motion and saw nothing. Where had the deer gone?
They weren’t running and couldn’t have crossed the open terrain in the short time they were out of sight. Puzzling indeed.
Remaining sitting and catching my breath took a few minutes, and just as I was about to stand, a doe appeared by the creek, then another and finally the buck. The deer had run down a 20-foot bank and then stood at its base by the stream, hiding them from my view.
I took careful aim and fired. The buck staggered a few feet and collapsed.
Excited, I hurried down and admired my deer. It was quite a drag to the car, but worth every minute of it.
When I cleaned the buck, I found the 7-mm caliber, 139-grain bullet had exploded inside the chest, shattering the heart. I’d been lucky, that fragile bullet, though giving an impressively quick kill, would not have held together well enough to go through the shoulder and in that case have wounded the deer.
Since I’m a handloader, the problem was immediately addressed. A quick check of the bullets then available showed one brand to clearly outperform the rest, the Nosler Partition.
The partition is in the shape of an H with a thick crossbar. The jacket is thick at the rear and tapers to a thin point in the front.
This front of the bullet opens violently on impact, expanding outward and rearward until striking the crossbar when expansion stops. The remaining half of the bullet continues onward through tissue or bone until it exits the animal, ensuring vital organs are hit and a good blood trail provided. The Nosler has never failed me over the years; it’s a winner.
The ability to choose the perfect bullet for your shooting or hunting needs is one of the most desirable aspects of reloading your own ammunition. No matter how big or small your quarry or the range a target shooter may be firing, the handloader has the ability to pick the bullet that will provide the best results.
Bullet penetration is critical in the hunting world, especially large, dangerous game. What has been proven true in African big game hunting over the decades is just as true around the world, but in no other place is inadequate penetration apt to have fatal results as on the dark continent.
A bullet that breaks up on the shoulder of a lion, leopard, buffalo or elephant has proven fatal to an alarming number of sportsmen. Bullets must hold together and reach the heart and lungs.
In the US, inadequate penetration most often results in suffering to the animal and a lost trophy, though a wounded grizzly’s undivided attention is best avoided.
Hunting bullet design today is excellent. My two favorites are first, the all-copper hollow point made by Barnes, the Tipped Triple Shock or TTSX bullet and as already mentioned, the Nosler Partition.
Many other brands nowadays will penetrate deeply and get the job done. However, the TTSX bullets allow the hunter to drop down a bullet weight or two for higher velocities and still pass through game.
Target shooters, especially long-range competitors, want a long, heavy bullet that’s very stable and retains its velocity at distances up to 1,000 yards or more. This is best understood if you think of throwing a one-foot piece of broomstick.
Hard to toss accurately and apt to tumble. However, a three-foot piece of broomstick is much easier to throw, maintains its directions and flies further.
Sierra bullets tackled this problem by introducing their MatchKing line. Looking at just .30 caliber bullets, they’ve introduced a 200-grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) and a 220 grain HPBT that retain their velocity and accuracy at extreme ranges.
Again, the handloader has their choice of multiple brands. Hornady, always seeking to perfect its line of bullets, now offers extra low drag bullets, the ELD, whose special tips retain their shape despite air friction which can deform other manufactures plastic points.
Varmint hunters are the opposite of big game hunters. They want their bullets to expand violently and fly to pieces. On small varmints, this is always fatal and prevents ricochets if you’re in settled areas. The number, size and shape of such bullets is vast, but with some dedicated experimentation, you can find the brand and weight your rifle shoots into dime sized or smaller groups.
Handloaders can take advantage of today’s modern technology, which is producing up-to-date bullets specifically designed to address every aspect of shooters needs at the range or in the field. After all, when all is said and done, it’s the bullet alone that gets the job done.
