Have you ever had a bullet fail?

[The Big Game Hunter]

When I say "bullet failure", I'm not referring to a situation where someone recovered a bullet out of an animal they cleanly killed and it simply did not look like they expected it to. Nor am I referring to a situation where a hunter merely found the bullet core and jacket separated on the offside hide of a dead animal.

No, I’m looking for verifiable instances where the hunter made a good shot on an animal that should have killed it, but that did not occur due to wildly unexpected bullet performance. For instance, this could be in the form of a bullet failing to penetrate deep enough to reach the vitals or by a bullet failing to expand or upset in a manner appropriate to cause sufficient damage to the vitals of the animal for a rapid kill.

Furthermore, this story must involve a recovered animal where the hunter was able to examine what happened afterwards and determine with certainty the bullet did indeed fail to perform.

If you have a story you think fits the bill, please share it with us here or send me a PM. We’d love to see photos if you have them as well. Be sure to include all the pertinent details: cartridge and bullet, type of animal, shot distance, shot angle, what the bullet did, how the animal reacted, how far it ran afterwards, etc.

I’ve already compiled a bunch of stories along these lines that I recently shared in a podcast you can listen to on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube at the links below. I’ve continued to receive submissions from other hunters who listened to that episode and I may do another show along these lines in the future.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/349-the-ugly-truth-about-bullet-failures/id1462591474?i=1000680107812
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5LWWzBwvFjVBVxx0VIx6KY

[huntindoc]

glad for the topic.
I had not killed anything for a couple years and my wife called me a vegan.  Hurtful.  I called my buddy and he took me to some ground just to fill the freezer.
I was carrying my 243 which I've had literally for 40 years.  Killed a bunch of stuff, shoots well and I am very confident with it.  I had Federal Fusion off the shelf, it had been well sighted in. 
We line up on a 3 yr old white tail buck.  Early rut, the buck is crossing an alpha field.  We watch him to 240 yards.  He stops, I've got a dead rest and pulled the trigger.  Buck hunches, runs off.  No blood, no deer!  Buddy (long time guide) asked me where I hit him, and I replied he was watching through the glass!  I swore I hit him right on behind the shoulder!  He agreed.  We looked for 4 hours.  Nothing.
Later in the evening, another buck at 235 yards broadside.  Same age buck broadside.  Shot again, and the buck hunched, just turned sideways and wagged his tail.  Stood for 3 or 4 min.  I shot again at a very sharp angle quartering away.  Buck laid down, did not die for 5 min.  Very weird.  The two shots were 3 inches apart, both should have been immediately fatal. 
We skinned the deer out, and the second bullet fell off the outside of the rib!  Barely dented, and it did not penetrate/ break the rib.  The first bullet was recovered in the off side rib, having luckily gone between the ribs on the fore side.  As we were loading the dead deer, the first deer from the AM was rutting does in the same field, only minimal limp, and no apparent skin/ muscle injury. 
Have a bunch of hand loaded rounds now, no further Federal Fusion for me other than at paper.  Would not have believed  if it did not happen to me!

[elkslayer069]

338 rum 250 grain Berger otm at 2950 fps. It was a quick off hand running shot at around 120 yards. This is the entrance hole. I can remember it in slow motion swell up like a basketball and then burst open. Deer dropped to the ground jumped up and took off down the canyon. 600 yard chase ensued with another shot to close the deal. The bullet never made it passed the shoulder blade. The final shot was to the neck which can kind of be seen in the photo. I’ve shot a lot of animals (deer, elk and bears) with that combo and usually find the jacket and chunks of lead under the hide on the off side if it didn’t pass all the way through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[birddogdad]

have had some interesting adventures...

have had brenneke slugs go in square broadside shoulder and chase spine to rear of deer
taken a 7mag bullet out of spine of elk from previous shot by someone beyond effective range
have had fast shooters never make down range in wet conditions, burn up in flight
have had brush disrupt flight on occasion even split and have two entry points


lots can happen out there!

[The Big Game Hunter]

have had some interesting adventures...

have had brenneke slugs go in square broadside shoulder and chase spine to rear of deer
taken a 7mag bullet out of spine of elk from previous shot by someone beyond effective range
have had fast shooters never make down range in wet conditions, burn up in flight
have had brush disrupt flight on occasion even split and have two entry points


lots can happen out there!

Tell me more about that 7 Mag bullet you recovered from an elk!

[MeatMissile]

I shot a broadside 5x5 Rosie with a 180gr Nosler Partition handload that averaged just over 2800 fps.  Dropped like someone turned the lights out.  I found a scarred knot high on the shoulder structure and inside it was some copper fragments and blue plastic.  At the time, the only blue tipped bullets I could think of were .25 caliber Nosler Ballistic Tips.

[The Big Game Hunter]

I shot a broadside 5x5 Rosie with a 180gr Nosler Partition handload that averaged just over 2800 fps.  Dropped like someone turned the lights out.  I found a scarred knot high on the shoulder structure and inside it was some copper fragments and blue plastic.  At the time, the only blue tipped bullets I could think of were .25 caliber Nosler Ballistic Tips.

Wow, that's very interesting. About what year did this take place? Are you thinking the previous hunter made a good shot, but the bullets failed to penetrate the body cavity? Or was that previous shot poorly placed?

[The Big Game Hunter]

glad for the topic.
I had not killed anything for a couple years and my wife called me a vegan.  Hurtful.  I called my buddy and he took me to some ground just to fill the freezer.
I was carrying my 243 which I've had literally for 40 years.  Killed a bunch of stuff, shoots well and I am very confident with it.  I had Federal Fusion off the shelf, it had been well sighted in. 
We line up on a 3 yr old white tail buck.  Early rut, the buck is crossing an alpha field.  We watch him to 240 yards.  He stops, I've got a dead rest and pulled the trigger.  Buck hunches, runs off.  No blood, no deer!  Buddy (long time guide) asked me where I hit him, and I replied he was watching through the glass!  I swore I hit him right on behind the shoulder!  He agreed.  We looked for 4 hours.  Nothing.
Later in the evening, another buck at 235 yards broadside.  Same age buck broadside.  Shot again, and the buck hunched, just turned sideways and wagged his tail.  Stood for 3 or 4 min.  I shot again at a very sharp angle quartering away.  Buck laid down, did not die for 5 min.  Very weird.  The two shots were 3 inches apart, both should have been immediately fatal. 
We skinned the deer out, and the second bullet fell off the outside of the rib!  Barely dented, and it did not penetrate/ break the rib.  The first bullet was recovered in the off side rib, having luckily gone between the ribs on the fore side.  As we were loading the dead deer, the first deer from the AM was rutting does in the same field, only minimal limp, and no apparent skin/ muscle injury. 
Have a bunch of hand loaded rounds now, no further Federal Fusion for me other than at paper.  Would not have believed  if it did not happen to me!

Jeez, that's interesting. So, the first shot on the second deer went between the ribs on the off side? What did it look like? The second bullet on the second deer didn't penetrate, but didn't appear to have expanded/upset at all?
And you're surmising the shot on the first deer behaved the same way and that deer likely survived?

[huntnnw]

Years ago while bear hunting I glassed up a bear almost straight down below me. I got set up and took a 400 yard shot broadside but shooting almost straight down off a cliff and bear dropped and was outta sight immediately. I made my way down to where it was and found some drops of blood. It was then I realized the bear was alive as I could hear it walking very slowly in some very thick brush. I continued tracking and lost all blood and didn’t hear it anymore. After spending hours I gave up and was baffled to what happened. I continued to bear hunt for 2.5 more days still wondering what happened and a bear appeared at about 200 yards and I noticed it had a slight gimp to his walk as it fed. At the time I really didn’t think much of it was just in a hurry to get set up and shoot. I shoot bear and it drops and rolls down the hill. I get down to bear and roll it over and notice a hole in the top of his back that’s bigger than a fist and you could see his lungs thru the hole. I was baffled as I couldn’t have hit him there from my shot . It dawned on me that was the bear I shot 2 days prior ! Upon further examination I found the bullet hole from where I had just now shot him as it was a perfect pass thru. I wish I had a cellphone to take pics of what had happened. It appeared the bullet grenaded on impact of part of the spine and it never penetrated and if it had not blown up it would went right thru lungs killing bear. I found tons of bullet frags all over the bone and meat .Was shooting a 300 win mag with federal trophy bonded bear claws 180 gr.

[boneaddict]

My Dad (Idabooner) told the story of his cougar, when he was down in a stump hole face to face with it and he was shooting it in the head with his 22 mag.   the bullet would enter the skin, hit the muscle and travel the least resistance under the skin and exit the other side without penetrating the hard muscle.   

Fast forward 15 years and my Brother was attacked by a cougar.  He shot it in mid air, the cat landed, and bit into a root, still alive.  My brother plugged it again with his .270  and it did the exact same thing.   First shot killed the cat.   


Is that along the lines that you are thinking?

[C-Money]

Wife had the front lead half of a nosler partition separate from the base on a mule deer. base and copper jacket in tact, copper jacket peeled back like a classic mushroom. The lead was nowhere to be found. After discussion on here about it, most figured it was not a failure, but worked as designed. I like Nosler and will shoot the Accubond. I'll claim the Hornaday Interlock as king of big game bullets with most consistent performance and weight retention for what my family has found.

[boneaddict]

THose are the two bullets we pretty much exclusively used and use to this day in our whole family.     My brother dabbled with Sierras

[JohnVH]

We've had mixed results with barnes ttsx, when you push them too fast, the pedals fall off and it just punches holes instead of making a wound channel.  Here is one I recovered, but others I know have had animals get away. I'm tempted to switch to a heavier bullet so it will go slower in hopes this wont happen anymore.

[jrebel]

We've had mixed results with barnes ttsx, when you push them too fast, the pedals fall off and it just punches holes instead of making a wound channel.  Here is one I recovered, but others I know have had animals get away. I'm tempted to switch to a heavier bullet so it will go slower in hopes this wont happen anymore.

John, have you found any of the pedals?  If so are they still large pedals or are they fragmenting?  I only ask, because the mono's I am shooting are designed to shed the pedals and the pedals do a tremendous amount of damage to the vitals.  I'm not familiar with the Barnes bullets performance on game, but have seen a few youtube videos that had less than desirable results.  One that strikes me was a California blacktail that took three shots to kill and the first shot should have killed it. 

[JohnVH]

We've had mixed results with barnes ttsx, when you push them too fast, the pedals fall off and it just punches holes instead of making a wound channel.  Here is one I recovered, but others I know have had animals get away. I'm tempted to switch to a heavier bullet so it will go slower in hopes this wont happen anymore.

John, have you found any of the pedals?  If so are they still large pedals or are they fragmenting?  I only ask, because the mono's I am shooting are designed to shed the pedals and the pedals do a tremendous amount of damage to the vitals.  I'm not familiar with the Barnes bullets performance on game, but have seen a few youtube videos that had less than desirable results.  One that strikes me was a California blacktail that took three shots to kill and the first shot should have killed it.

I dont remember finding the pedals in this deer, it was under 100yds, and the bullet is going almost 3400. 

Here is a pic from the next deer the next year, same bullet same gun, but at 250+yds.