First Experience with Hornady Great Plaines

[michiganmuzzy]

And to be fair, every year i hunted(penna.) the first day of hunting season sounded like Omaha Beach! Every yahoo who had not been in the woods all year, suddenly becomes a hunter for a day or two!! Most can't hit anything past 10 yds! They take garbage shots, shoot at running deer etc. We used to just go and sit behind a large blow down ,to protect our backs , and wait. Usually in a day or two the yahoos left, and only the real hunters remained. Your mileage may differ!!!

Used to be kinda like that here. But as hunting becomes more expensive and less pc i hear less shooting on opening day

 

[10gaugemag]

Seems like every year for the last 20sh years we hear less shooting every opening morning. I think we still have strong numbers of hunters but a lot of them have gotten picky plus the point restrictions we have slowed the killing down of any antlered buck.

 

[.45er]

And to be fair, every year i hunted(penna.) the first day of hunting season sounded like Omaha Beach! Every yahoo who had not been in the woods all year, suddenly becomes a hunter for a day or two!! Most can't hit anything past 10 yds! They take garbage shots, shoot at running deer etc. We used to just go and sit behind a large blow down ,to protect our backs , and wait. Usually in a day or two the yahoos left, and only the real hunters remained. Your mileage may differ!!!

I've seen that scenario in PA on State Lands before...sad but true.

 

[4stringdude]

From my experience, those Hornady GP bullets put deer on the ground pretty fast. But, honestly, you never know. Heart shot deer can go a long way. Considering that a deer can run about 35 mph, when they bolt they can cover a lot of ground. Still, it sounds like that bullet, and you, did your jobs well.

 

[WP79Vet]

The only times I've had deer or elk drop instantly the bullet or arrow caused either complete nervous system disruption (brain shot or severed spinal cord in the neck), or caused a calm animal's blood pressure to hit zero instantly (severed aorta). My brother, who is a doc, tells me that the latter causes instant death in humans, too, and is a common way that surgical mistakes kill patients so quickly that they can't be revived. Surprisingly, heart-shot animals often run quite a ways, even when the heart is completely destroyed.

With all other wounds - no matter how severe or what weapon, arrow, or bullet was used - animals can be amazingly tough. I shot my biggest bull elk from 12 yards away with a huge 3-blade broadhead. He was quartering towards me, and that broadhead took out the near lung, the diaphram, the liver, passed all the way through the elk's abdomen, went through all the hip muscles on the far side, and wound up just under the skin. That elk still ran 800 yards, and I had one heck of a time finding him - I was at 11,000 feet in the mountains north of Taos, NM, and it started raining and snowing right after the shot, which covered tracks and blood trail. Found him the next morning by traversing back and forth across the mountain side, dropping down 20 vertical feet after each traverse. I've had deer that were hit perfectly with a high powered rifle run well over 100 yards. On the other hand, I've deer and elk that were perfectly hit through both lungs drop after running only 20-30 yards.

 

[eekjellander]

I took a does this morning with a TC Omega, 100 grains of Triple 7 powder (2 pellets) and Hornady Great Plaines 50 cal. The result was interesting.
She was standing 5-7 yards (correction: measured now and was 12 yards) from my blind and I hit her right in the pumping station. Even I can hit the right spot at that distance.

Several points of interest:
- I blood trailed and found her almost 100 yards away. This is odd because of what i found.
- Imediate lung blood then the blood was smaller drops and hard to follow
- Her lungs were torn in half
- The bullet passed through breaking ribs on both sides.

Just food for thought. Fun facts to know and tell.

Thats easy ,you destroyed the lungs/probably didn't due the heart any good so the blood flow stopped pumping and started filling up the cavity . She couldn't asperate enough to matter at that point .