View Full Version : deer with 5.56 Hornady 55 gr VMAX
larger deer: 175 yards
smaller deer: 250 yards.
http://imageshack.us/a/img10/7248/021blr.jpg
nineteenkilo
10-15-12, 09:50
Well done!
How far did they run after being shot? Was this factory-loaded ammunition? Where was each one hit (heart/lungs, neck, gut)? Were there exit wounds?
A little more information would be appreciated, and very helpful. Good job, regardless - exciting stuff.
Thats gotta be Colorado.
God job buddy. Good shooting!
Did you recover what was left of the bullet? Photos?
The 55 and 60 VMAXs are superbly accurate when competently loaded, and devastating in varmints. Shallow penetrators though, with high fragmentation. I'm curious what they did inside your venison.
How far did they run after being shot? Was this factory-loaded ammunition? Where was each one hit (heart/lungs, neck, gut)? Were there exit wounds?
A little more information would be appreciated, and very helpful. Good job, regardless - exciting stuff.
The bigger kid shot the bigger deer at 175 yards. The deer was on a dead run and he hit it square in the hind quarter. The deer did a forward roll and stopped. When we got over to it, it had bled out and died. No exit wound. I have never seen a deer bleed to death from a butt shot before, but this one did.
The smaller kid shot the smaller deer at 250 yards. The deer was walking at the time. Again, an ass shot. The deer ran about 100 yards and laid down in some weeds. The little guy walked up to about 10 yards and finished the deer off with a neck shot. No exit on the opposite side from the hind end shot. The neck shot had an exit wound about 3" or so in diameter.
Both hind quarter shots showed lots of meat damage. Maybe not as much as a .270, but more than I would have expected from a 5.56 at intermediate range.
The ammo was Hornady factory loads 55 grain VMAX bullet. Although not an optimal choice, it seems to be doing the job.
I fired some handgun bullets in the chest of the larger deer and my friend is supposed to give them to me when he finished the butchering. I hope to have some expanded handgun bullets to show.
The 55 and 60 VMAXs are superbly accurate when competently loaded, and devastating in varmints. Shallow penetrators though, with high fragmentation. I'm curious what they did inside your venison.
Two years ago my son used the 55 VMAX on a chest shot on a deer and as I recall, it got close to a foot of penetration with a fragment. But the bullet fragmented early on so the wound channel was not as significant as one would hope.
Comments in red.
The bigger kid shot the bigger deer at 175 yards. The deer was on a dead run and he hit it square in the hind quarter. The deer did a forward roll and stopped. When we got over to it, it had bled out and died. No exit wound. I have never seen a deer bleed to death from a butt shot before, but this one did. Wow, impressive!
The smaller kid shot the smaller deer at 250 yards. The deer was walking at the time. Again, an ass shot. The deer ran about 100 yards and laid down in some weeds. The little guy walked up to about 10 yards and finished the deer off with a neck shot. No exit on the opposite side from the hind end shot. The neck shot had an exit wound about 3" or so in diameter. Man, these little guys can shoot :)
Both hind quarter shots showed lots of meat damage. Maybe not as much as a .270, but more than I would have expected from a 5.56 at intermediate range.
The ammo was Hornady factory loads 55 grain VMAX bullet. Although not an optimal choice, it seems to be doing the job.
I fired some handgun bullets in the chest of the larger deer and my friend is supposed to give them to me when he finished the butchering. I hope to have some expanded handgun bullets to show. Will be neat to see what kind of effect the target had on the bullets. Keep us posted.
My older son started shooting at age 4.5, has about 20,000 rounds down range, and has shot 2 antelope, 3 deer, rabbits, and prairie dogs. My younger son started shooting at age 3.5 and has about 3000 rds down range. He has shot rabbits and prairie dogs, but this was his first big game animal. Neither of them really understood how to use sights properly until they were closing in on age 6.
Snake Plissken
10-16-12, 13:22
Those are 55 gr VARMINT bullets that on a great day might do 7"-8" of penetration. That is an incredibly irresponsible choice in ammunition for hunting deer, and even more so at 175 yards plus. You should know better.
jonconsiglio
10-16-12, 13:53
That's great. I've recently switched over to 70gr TSX as my hunting bullet of choice.
Beautiful pup, what breed is he/she?
The dog is an English mastiff. He only got to sit in the car, but that is better than staying home.
The butchering is done and no 5.56 were recovered.
Two .45 acp Gold Dots were fired onto the larger deer after the above photo was taken. Photos of those bullets are at this link:
http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?p=1418720#post1418720
Those are 55 gr VARMINT bullets that on a great day might do 7"-8" of penetration. That is an incredibly irresponsible choice in ammunition for hunting deer, and even more so at 175 yards plus. You should know better.
I really wish that they would legalize .223/5.56 for hunting in my state. But you make a good point, there are good and poor bullet choices in this caliber for taking deer. The people who make decision about the law either don't know about the better medium game bullets out there, or are worried about folks using the wrong bullets which in this case ended well but if good luck hadn't been on their side there would be wounded deer running off. Course they could also just be biased against black rifles.
trackmagic
10-18-12, 14:25
I've got some black hills 75gr hollow points I've been using (5.56) any thoughts on those?
I really wish that they would legalize .223/5.56 for hunting in my state. But you make a good point, there are good and poor bullet choices in this caliber for taking deer. The people who make decision about the law either don't know about the better medium game bullets out there, or are worried about folks using the wrong bullets which in this case ended well but if good luck hadn't been on their side there would be wounded deer running off. Course they could also just be biased against black rifles.
They are legislating the lowest common denominator. There is difference between calibers and ammo you can use, and ammo you should use. Enough will make bad choices that the rest have to suffer for it.
Looks like you guys had a great time, but you were lucky. I'm happy that your kids killed deer. But it sounds like some more range time is in order, espeically with 200 yard shots in whatever position you hunt in.
How was your blood trail on the second deer?
I've got some black hills 75gr hollow points I've been using (5.56) any thoughts on those?
That's their Heavy Match hollowpoint right? Then no, it's not designed for medium game. Check out one of the loads in the ammunition section for duty .223/5.56 use.
Skintop911, I understand your point and that is the situation, just grumbling about it. There's another game law that says you can hunt big game with a handgun as long as it is .23 or larger and has a minimum of 350ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle. So, one can use a 9mm but not a .223/5.56.
Oh well, I hope it changes soon. Where I hunt whitetail, shots are less than 100yards. My S&W M&P15A is more accurate @100yds with Fed 62gr Fusion than my .243 Rem 700 Varmint or .308 Savage Accustock both with hunting ammo, with much less recoil and the collapsible stock is great with hunting cloths on.
The bigger kid shot the bigger deer at 175 yards. The deer was on a dead run and he hit it square in the hind quarter. The deer did a forward roll and stopped.
The smaller kid shot the smaller deer at 250 yards. The deer was walking at the time. Again, an ass shot. The deer ran about 100 yards and laid down in some weeds.
What kind of blood trail did these ass shots leave? In my experience with 55gr. V-Max and 55gr. Ballistic tips I get very little blood even with double lung pass through shots.While 55 gr. "varmint" bullets do work they are a horrible choice. I've had deer run 60-80 yards or so and it was a bitch finding them. I hunt dense woods, nothing like what I see in the background of your photo.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a prime example of piss poor hunting practices? I bit my tongue for a while but WTF? You should NEVER take your kids out Ass shooting deer with Varmint bullets!! Then you cook off rounds into dead deer at point blank to conduct a pointless experiment? WTF?? Seriously? A ricochet in the nuts would have taught all in attendance a much better lesson.
Any other time people on this sight take themselves pretty serious. We seem to have no problem trying to un**** each other when bad judgement is being used. Why the free pass here? In fact people have made nice shot comments. I know they are young kids, butt(pun intended) both of those shots were ill advised and it was "blind ass" (pun2) luck they hit anything. the shots were 18"-20" inches off. Stuff like this is way out of line. And why young hunters need Supervision and not an audience.
Spot on. I guess a question of ethics is more of a don't-touch topic than gear or training.
What kind of blood trail did these ass shots leave? In my experience with 55gr. V-Max and 55gr. Ballistic tips I get very little blood even with double lung pass through shots.While 55 gr. "varmint" bullets do work they are a horrible choice. I've had deer run 60-80 yards or so and it was a bitch finding them. I hunt dense woods, nothing like what I see in the background of your photo.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a prime example of piss poor hunting practices? I bit my tongue for a while but WTF? You should NEVER take your kids out Ass shooting deer with Varmint bullets!! Then you cook off rounds into dead deer at point blank to conduct a pointless experiment? WTF?? Seriously? A ricochet in the nuts would have taught all in attendance a much better lesson.
Any other time people on this sight take themselves pretty serious. We seem to have no problem trying to un**** each other when bad judgement is being used. Why the free pass here? In fact people have made nice shot comments. I know they are young kids, butt(pun intended) both of those shots were ill advised and it was "blind ass" (pun2) luck they hit anything. the shots were 18"-20" inches off. Stuff like this is way out of line. And why young hunters need Supervision and not an audience.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. Use the right caliber & bullet for the game and anticipated ranges. Don't take shots you can't make, like running deer at 200+ yards. Teach your kids NOT to do irresponsible shit like this. Dumb ass luck that these deer went down at all.
Wonder how they would work on deer. I just ordered 1000 to load up. Seems like they are good for small ga deer, at a very close range. Kinda messed up to hit on the run at 100+ yds. I was taught to never shoot the runners, unless I wanna hike for a while.
There was blood all over the place with the bigger (first) deer, but not with the 2nd.
I have used 68 gr Hdy match and 77 gr Sierra match on deer without god results.
And of course the kids need more range time. They need years more experience. As for me, I pretty much retired from hunting except for guiding the kids.
Snake Plissken
10-18-12, 22:28
There was blood all over the place with the bigger (first) deer, but not with the 2nd.
I have used 68 gr Hdy match and 77 gr Sierra match on deer without god results.
And of course the kids need more range time. They need years more experience. As for me, I pretty much retired from hunting except for guiding the kids.
Again, wrong bullet choices. HPBT bullets such as the Hornady 68 gr HPBT and Sierra 77 gr SMK HPBT are absolutely not designed for hunting. Low penetration, low weight retention, and very demanding on velocity to exhibit fragmentation necessary to do more than a hole punch in tissue.
Of course your kids need more range time. It's called not taking them hunting until you've learned better. Many of us around here hunt deer and it's frustrating to see someone going out blasting deer in the rump with varmint rounds only to try and defend it later on.
Oh and after you've put the deer out of its misery you plug it with handgun ammunition to see how it looks? :nono:
I have used 68 gr Hdy match and 77 gr Sierra match on deer without god results.
Another poor bullet choice. Next time use a heavy SP.
HPBT bullets such as the Hornady 68 gr HPBT and Sierra 77 gr SMK HPBT are absolutely not designed for hunting. Low penetration, low weight retention, and very demanding on velocity to exhibit fragmentation necessary to do more than a hole punch in tissue.
My experience is that the 68 gr Hdy match is a very hard bullet that doesn't even open up on a deer when a broadside shot is presented. Penetration is all the way through.
The 77 grain Sierra performs similarly, going deep, but only opening a little, so the wound channel is narrow.
The 55 gr Hdy is a better killer than the 68 or 77 gr in my experience.
Oh and after you've put the deer out of its misery you plug it with handgun ammunition to see how it looks? :nono:
Why do you object to that?
I have acquired some Speer 64 gr Gold Dot ammo to try out on an upcoming doe antelope hunt.
http://www.kiesler.com/shop/ProductImages/gd223lg.jpg
Snake Plissken
10-19-12, 11:37
64 gr Gold Dot is pretty good. I had bought a bunch as pulled components from an ATK reseller last year and I've liked them. Sadly I can't find anymore of them (was less than ten cents a bullet shipped).
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.