Do you retrieve your bullet also?

[Old Iron Sights]

Always like to see if I can find the lead back. My 54 Lyman GPR sometimes leaves the ball inside the carcass. Here's one from a Christmas day kill.
.545 patched, 95 gr Triple 7.

[GLynn41]

absoposolutley -if i can rarely can I -- but I have every one i have ever found since i started in the late 70'severy--- boolit tells a story

[Thumbcocker]

Have yet to find a 429421.

[Reload3006]

get as many as I can find when I am target shooting or plinking.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Keep em when I find them as they are "cool" and are part of a story.

But prefer they leave a hole in the off side that leaks REALLY bad!

Did retreave the remainder of a 465gr boolit from my 45/70 this year, but it sure fought the battle, did it's job and traveled a long way through really hard go'in before it stopped in my big cow elk.

Never expected to find one of those big boys, and it took a quartering shot to finally stop it.

Have a few "J" bullets, but most did their job and just kept on truck'in.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
So far only 1 was still in a spike elk. rest got away.:Fire::Fire:

[stubshaft]

I never managed to retrieve a cast boolit they all went coast to coast.

[1kshooter]

congrats on the harvest! I have yery few bullets from game...unless steel shot counts lol

[Crawdaddy]

Congrats on your kill. Most of mine are pass throughs. I would certainly retrieve it if I could.

[x101airborne]

I will collect all bullets i can, but the ones collected from game are as part of the hunt as the animal. They go on the wall of fame. Target boolits and such get re-used.

[RugerFan]

Most my CBs are pass throughs, but I have found a couple. Pretty interesting to examine the aftermath.

[Wolfer]

I have always been a bullet tracker. Always checking out the wound channel and trying to recover the bullet. Over the years I have maneged to recover several. Three were dug out of the ground behind the critter. Soft cast hollow points might be the easiest to recover but unless the critter is pretty big or has really tough hide they are still likely to exit on broadside shots. 255 gr .45 colt at about 1000' fps are really difficult to recover on Mo. whitetails

[lister]

Whenever I can, tells a lot about the load, alloy, shot placement and is just fun. This one is out of a billy goat and acted like a stick blender , ending up as a lump under the skin in the back leg.

[DODGEM250]

Here's a sad reclaim from my buddies deer he got a few weeks ago. It started as a 240gr CVA PowerBelt and ended up as a sad 62gr piece of nothing. The bullet never made a pass-through and I told him these things were useless. It simply dissolved to nothing causing the deer to run 40 yards more than it should have.

When he saw the massacre from the 45/340 bullets I cast for my muzzleloaders in my last deer, he thought I was using a 20 gauge slug... I think he has learned to start using a real bullet.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Sure would like to but I do not think it will happen. I hunt river bottoms & thick woods so my ranges are usually less than 35 yards with firearms. Have yet to have any critter stop a bullet. Actually last time up north there I threw a "6 foot arrow" on two ocassions at two deer as the pesky critters were getting real close.
Mike in Peru

[roverboy]

I've only found one boolit from an animal. It was a .50 cal. Maxi-Hunter that expanded to about .90 caliber.

[Fenring]

3x .44 Lyman Devastators launched at around 1650fps, recovered from pigs. The nose cone has peeled right off each and they lost about 100gr of weight from that. Then the Lee 310gr flat nose launched at 1500fps still weighed almost the same. Gas checks still firmly attached.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Fenring/Shooting/Goodooga%202010/P1050767.jpg

[Reload3006]

every time I have a boolit j word or cast not pass through which has only happened twice in over 40 years It becomes part of the trophy along with the rack.

[nanuk]

I have only found one from my 270. a J-word at 10 yds. only about 30gr left.

never found another, although one moose still had a .338 WinMag 230gr FailSafe that didn't exit the neck of the moose, but hit the bone, turned about 75degrees and headed into the paunch.

another moose the FS went through over 5 ft of moose and was not located in the mess of lung material.

Just those three. I can't recall another that stayed in the animal for me.

and this past season, my buddy shot a WT buck with a 6.5x55 at about 200 yds. bullet literally disintegrated on the rib. made a small hole in the skin, and a bruise the size of an orange. Didn't even break the rib. Perfect aim for the heart.

next season we will be using ONLY boolits

[35remington]

"It started as a 240gr CVA PowerBelt and ended up as a sad 62gr piece of nothing."

I'm only a little tongue in cheek here when I ask the famous question, "At what point in the death of this deer did the bullet fail?" I know you may not like the idea of a flattish expanded bullet, or the fact the bullet was recovered, but apparently sufficient damage to vital tissue was present.

I also know enough to never, ever say a deer "will" do this or that length death run based upon what bullet was used. A forty yard variation in the distance a deer travels after a comparable hit with the very same bullet is not unusual. Even with identical placement.

Not trying to be a contrarian. Just mentioning my own experiences.

[Old Iron Sights]

I recover my 54 cal round ball more times than not. Just started casting boolits so maybe next year.

Can't believe a 6.5 swede didn't break a rib...

[waksupi]

and this past season, my buddy shot a WT buck with a 6.5x55 at about 200 yds. bullet literally disintegrated on the rib. made a small hole in the skin, and a bruise the size of an orange. Didn't even break the rib. Perfect aim for the heart.

next season we will be using ONLY boolits

What was he using for a bullet? The Swede is known for superb penetration.

[Fenring]

Certainly sounds odd for an average weight Swede pill to do that, and by average I mean 120 - 140gr.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Seems like the 6.5 shooter used about the same common sense a friend of mine did this past hunting season ---- his bullet lacked the needed integrity for hunting.

This friend bought a .243 this past year, as the coydogs were mess'in with his pooches and he wanted to decrease their likelyhood of coming in close to his rural home.

He has reloaded in the past, but wasn't at the time, so I gave him some banger ammo that was loaded with something like a 80gr Speer, a bullet WELL shy of anything like hunting bullet integrity!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not even close!

Hunting season comes and he calls to say he has a critter wounded and he can't find it. He in listed the help of some friends and still couldn't find the critter.

Put in parts of another day or two and no luck.

This same fellow has told me about the bad luck he has had with the .44 mag on deer, and after the recent situation, I am really wondering about his wisdom in selecting hunting bullets.

I told him the banger loads I gave him were never intended for hunting, other then small and fuzzy critters, and as said, I really wonder about his choices of hunting projectals. Up front I had told him they were for practice or shooting at the coydogs. What was he thinking?????????

On the 6.5, anything even close to a "hunting" quality would never, NO NEVER, even on the worse day, blow up on a rib. Simply would not happen! This is a deer we are talking about here, not a elk or bigger critter.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot