There's been lots of talk about various bullets and how well they perform on game. I've been hung on XTP bullets for years and have pared things down to where all of my .50 long guns take a .44 cal 300 grain XTP pushed by 77 weighed grains of 209 powder and all of these guns are 1" or less/5 shots at 100 yards. They all send those XTPs straight through the critters as a rule so I haven't got much to offer in the line of pictures of the spent round. I do have three bullets recovered from white tail kills that break from the "as a rule". All three came from neck shots. All three were shot from an elevated stand [22 feet] and all three came from deer shot less than 35 yards away.
The bullet on the right came from a deer shot quarter angling away from me at a walk and hit just ahead of the shoulder, then followed the spine thru the entire length of the neck and finally lodged in the jaw joint, all on the same side of the deer. 2014, 9 point.
The bullet in the middle came from a 9 point buck shot in 2015 as he was sneaking thru some tall grass/weeds down a grade and almost straight at me. This bullet hit right behind the jaw on the right side of his head and followed almost 15" of spine before hopping over to the rib cage, breaking five ribs before lodging under the hide on the opposite side right ahead of the rear leg.
The left bullet came from last years 10 point, entered midway in the neck and followed the spine for about nine inches before veering hard to the right, breaking two forward ribs and passing thru the rear portion of the front should but missing bone.
Needless to say, all of these critters hit the ground instantly. I haven't bothered weighing these bullets but know that they've each shed some substantial weight. In each case the damage was unreal in the neck. The 2014 buck had to be hung from the hind quarters as the neck won't not support him hanging by the neck. I did some digging after the deer were processed to retrieve the bullet and to see just how much damage was done. It was pretty incredible in each instance.
This last fall I shot both 300 grain XTPs and Deep Curls into a box target filled with really damp but not hard packed newspaper and old rags that were wet about the same. The box was 45" from end to end, about 20" wide, tall and both bullets shot with the hunting load. Both performed almost identical. I thought there was enough substance to check an A-frame 300 but that bullet spread rags and news paper all over and was never recovered. From what I saw though I have no doubt that whatever bullet I used from the three it would be a dead deer. Deer I've taken with heart/lung shots have usually dropped on the spot and the longest I have had to track was under 40 yards and that deer had no heart left.
While I most likely will stick with my XTPs I do find it very interesting to see the various bullets pictured that have been recovered.
