Knockdown power on deer.....???

[Gerald]

I have been shooting a .243 for over 20 years and probably killed about 45 deer with it. I have only lost 3 deer......and 2 were most likely due to poor shot [too far back] placement. One of these shots had a fair blood trail for 150 yards and then nothing.

The other I did not find due to my lack of tracking skill / effort in finding it. This was only the 3 rd deer I had ever shot. There was lots of good bright red blood in the area where it stopped for a while. I think what messed me up was that a second deer walked into this area and I saw it walk off and kept looking in only that direction.

About half of my kills are from neck or head shots.....they drop. Of the other ~25 kills, 15 of those drop......and ~10 run anywhere from 20 to 60 yards. The only deer that ran any farther, was gut shot......after the bullet took a chunk out of a small tree 10 in front of the deer. I found this deer ~ 150 yard away.

I shoot the 100 gr. Cor-Lock. That first deer that I did not find and 1 or both of the other two that I did not find were shot with some 80 gr. bullets that I still had not used up when target shooting.

All shots are short range......less than 80 yards and most are 30 to 40 yards.