Shooting through brush?

[Beau Cassidy]

I remember reading one of the above mentioned articles years ago. The jist of the article is if you have to shoot thru brush use a flat point bullet as it had less of a chance of deflection.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Can't be much flatter then the 465gr Wide Flat Nose bullet that went astray as spoken of in a much earlier post under this topic.

Making it through any cover, grass or limbs is iffy at the very best, with any bullet.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[DougGuy]

Ross also wrote about shotgun slugs shot through brush (can't recall if it was the same article) and the round balls or hard, square shouldered Brenneke style slugs turned in a pretty good performance with minimal deflection... not no deflection, just less.

My opinion ~ if the range is short and the animal is in light brush with open shot most of the way and short distance of just a few feet between brush and animal, the .45-70 with RN, RNFP, LFN, or similar shapes will do the job. I would not trust a pointed soft point jacketed bullet at all.

Just my opinion.

Longbow

Agreed. The larger the frontal area, the less deflection from light brush. Heavy brush, wait, don't shoot.

I took a nice 9pt standing in medium leafy brush with a Foster slug in a rifled barrel, could only see it's head and neck, but the slug found it's mark exactly where I aimed. Took another one that a twig cut a deep groove across 1/3 of the slug, but it too found it's mark unhindered. Both these shots the brush was 2-3 feet at the most in front of the deer. Had the brush been halfway between us I doubt I would have pulled the trigger.

The 9pt, had the sun shining from behind the deer, I could see his silhouette and was sure there was no one behind him. The second one I was following through the brush with the scope and I was sure it was a safe shot then as well.

[300savage]

lots of good advice and experiance written here on this subject, so its hard to add anything of value except perhaps this;
following up a gut shot doe with a flashlight is one thing, but a bear, or a boar is something else.
so i just wonder if we would simply ask ourselves would i risk this shot at an unwounded animal that could rip me a new one , or kill me?
or what if it were a paid trophy hunt where the first drop of blood costs you $10.000 recovered or not ??
would we still be so casual with our shot choices? if not perhaps we should ask ourselves why?

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

VERY WELL SAID, 300Savage!

In the experience I related earlier, there was no way I considered the light screen of grass to be a negative or deterrent.

But having been there and in a situation and distance that clearly pointed to only one possible reason for the miss, I'm a true believer in simply don't!!!!!!!

As I related, I was laying on the ground, the critter was about 100yds., I had a solid rest over my fanny pack and at the shot, watched the deer run quickly away.

This is totally out of character for critter hit with my 465gr Wide Flat Nose bullet from my 45/70.

No blood, no critter, GONE when it should have dropped at the shot.

It might be possible that the critter would run. Very unusual, but maybe possible. But had it run, it wouldn't have been far and it would have been leaking huge amounts of fluids and/or body parts from both sides of it's body at every step!

For those proponents of using heavy bullets with flat noses, just how much heavier and flatter do you want?

No, You simply cannot RELYABLY shoot even through a light screen of grass and anyone saying it is good or possible to shoot through grass or twigs/limbs should confine their hunting to paper.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Del-Ray]

While it didn't involve flat tipped bullets on the video "Deadly Weapons" they shot various calibers through a brush screen. ALL of them tumbled.

Even a 50 BMG shot through the brush keyholed on the target.

Take it as you will, but I don't shoot through brush.

[300savage]

i have to admit i have, quite a few times but i dont ever recall it being at an unwounded animal.
unless we want to count jackrabbits ,in which case i am guilty as anyone.
although the distance between twigs and hair was usually measured in inches and 90% or more of the time it resulted in a dead jack.
i recently related a tale about dropping a wounded bear that i was following up with a spine shot, now that this subject has been brought up i do recall some small twigged brush in the way.
i took the shot anyway, why? well first of all i didnt have much choice, i was way too close to a wounded bear who had made his final stand so i could not be too darn particular.
something needed to happen and soon, plus the light brush covering my target area was again merely inches from his hide.
i felt any deflection in that short a distance would be minor, plus the bullet construction , weight and mid level speed made me confident it would hang together if i hit a small obstruction.
never will know if i did or not, kinda got distracted after he dropped and forgot to look.
but frankly i didnt give a dam, i was just glad when my freekn knees stopped shakin like a little girls.

[MNgunhead]

I missed a nice fat doe at 20 yards last year because the bullet from my slug gun cut two small saplings on the way to the deer. I put the crosshairs dead middle of the boiler room behind the shoulder and squeezed off the shot. In my mind, all that was left was the gutting and draggin. Both sapplings were destroyed, but the doe trotted off without a scratch on her. Luckiest damn doe to ever get that close to me. I've never had something like that happen before, but I now know that brush can ruin a good day. In the end I laugh at it. I never shoot through brush intentionally, but in the heat of battle, I never even saw the two sapplings that thwarted my shot. No bullet is immune to brush. Keep your shots clean if possible.