Lost a whitetail East of Hunters, Washington

[hunter399]

It wasn't a Cartwright buck size was it.
Cause ya something like that might be life changer.

[Romulus1297]

Aim for the neck whitetail love to run after their heart explodes

[Rugsnfeathers]

Aim for the neck whitetail love to run after their heart explodes

Exactly what happened to mine Monday last week.  I shot that old 6 x 5 whitetail broadside at 35 yds and the tough mudder still ran downhill about 100 yards and without a drop of blood.   It took a while for me and my buddy to find him.  The only thing that allowed us to stay on track was his kick-ups, then it disappeared, and we knew we were not far from his resting place.  When I opened him up, my 300 WM Nosler punched a 3" hole in the entry and roto-rootered just about everything inside with no exit hole.  It was a bloody mess upon opening.  The heart was buzsawed. 

[Kvw4x4]

So I was able to take some shots, I held my cross hairs on the Red Cross in pictures at the 315 yard mark,  You can see my 3 shot placements,  consistent but very low on body assuming the body width is good.  I was dealing with a little left to right wind too..

[Ridgeratt]

Is your rendition of the deer to scale?

[Kvw4x4]

Is your rendition of the deer to scale?

It was pretty close,  I think I gave it a 19” body height,

[buckfvr]

What caliber/load, and rangefinder ?

[jrebel]

What caliber and ammo / bullet weight?  Reloads or Factory? 

[Kvw4x4]

Hornady 143 eld-x factory loads, 6.5 creedmoor, vortex 1800 rangefinder,  on another  note,  I only ever shot 1 buck with this gun. Maybe 3 years ago. 100 yard shot. He went about 50 yards and died.  But there was no exit wound.  Just a small entrance wound.  It was a heart shot once we starting gutting it.

Makes me question the Power a bit.

[jrebel]

Hornady 143 eld-x factory loads, 6.5 creedmoor, vortex 1800 rangefinder,  on another  note,  I only ever shot 1 buck with this gun. Maybe 3 years ago. 100 yard shot. He went about 50 yards and died.  But there was no exit wound.  Just a small entrance wound.  It was a heart shot once we starting gutting it.

Makes me question the Power a bit.

1.  I've seen those ELD-X blow up on bone.  300 WM 212 grain ELD-X to a bears shoulder.....bear lived and bullet never penetrated past the shoulder.  I've got pics of the bear the next spring with hair patch missing and still very healthy.  I won't shoot ELD-X bullets for that reason....a lot of guys love them, but a lot of guys also lover bergers...LOL   

2.  If you have 18-19" of drop at 300 yards, you are not sighted in at 200.  You shouldn't have more than about 9" of drop if that's the case.  If you were sighted in at 100 yards I would expect you to have less than 12-13 inches of drop at 300.  This is of course all dependent on your setup / barrel length, ect......though one thing is for sure....18 to 19" of drop would at 300 with a zero of 200 is way to much.   I would recheck your zero. 

[HooknoseHunter]

Hornady 143 eld-x factory loads, 6.5 creedmoor, vortex 1800 rangefinder,  on another  note,  I only ever shot 1 buck with this gun. Maybe 3 years ago. 100 yard shot. He went about 50 yards and died.  But there was no exit wound.  Just a small entrance wound.  It was a heart shot once we starting gutting it.

Makes me question the Power a bit.

1.  I've seen those ELD-X blow up on bone.  300 WM 212 grain ELD-X to a bears shoulder.....bear lived and bullet never penetrated past the shoulder.  I've got pics of the bear the next spring with hair patch missing and still very healthy.  I won't shoot ELD-X bullets for that reason....a lot of guys love them, but a lot of guys also lover bergers...LOL   

2.  If you have 18-19" of drop at 300 yards, you are not sighted in at 200.  You shouldn't have more than about 9" of drop if that's the case.  If you were sighted in at 100 yards I would expect you to have less than 12-13 inches of drop at 300.  This is of course all dependent on your setup / barrel length, ect......though one thing is for sure....18 to 19" of drop would at 300 with a zero of 200 is way to much.   I would recheck your zero.

+1 on this, I had a 178gr ELDX out of a .300 win Mag blow up on a mule deer shoulder a few years ago. Roughly 300-350 yard shot.  I was able to get him with a few more shots but it made me change my thinking on the ELDX. Went back to Speer Grand Slams and haven’t had an issue.

[buckfvr]

Power isnt the problem, questionable zero and not being completely aware of other details like actual velocity and bullet drop are.  I have 2 6.5 CMs and am very certain of their specifics. 

My thought is you shot low to the point your shot did not penetrate the body cavity and was not a mortal wound.     

[Sakko300wsm]

Hornady 143 eld-x factory loads, 6.5 creedmoor, vortex 1800 rangefinder,  on another  note,  I only ever shot 1 buck with this gun. Maybe 3 years ago. 100 yard shot. He went about 50 yards and died.  But there was no exit wound.  Just a small entrance wound.  It was a heart shot once we starting gutting it.

Makes me question the Power a bit.

1.  I've seen those ELD-X blow up on bone.  300 WM 212 grain ELD-X to a bears shoulder.....bear lived and bullet never penetrated past the shoulder.  I've got pics of the bear the next spring with hair patch missing and still very healthy.  I won't shoot ELD-X bullets for that reason....a lot of guys love them, but a lot of guys also lover bergers...LOL   

2.  If you have 18-19" of drop at 300 yards, you are not sighted in at 200.  You shouldn't have more than about 9" of drop if that's the case.  If you were sighted in at 100 yards I would expect you to have less than 12-13 inches of drop at 300.  This is of course all dependent on your setup / barrel length, ect......though one thing is for sure....18 to 19" of drop would at 300 with a zero of 200 is way to much.   I would recheck your zero.

This!

[tgomez]

So I was able to take some shots, I held my cross hairs on the Red Cross in pictures at the 315 yard mark,  You can see my 3 shot placements,  consistent but very low on body assuming the body width is good.  I was dealing with a little left to right wind too..

Looks like you hit the deer extremely low if this was the case. Need to check your zero again. You might even be low at 100 yards. I don't know the terrain which you hunt in, but I like a 200 yard zero.

[Kvw4x4]

I had my gun zeroed at 200 before I left hunting, 

I checked my zero later today.  About 6-7” low and 2-3” to the right. So somewhere somehow something happened to my scope, bummer