This is a follow-up to range tests I made back in the summer using member 'oldnamvets' custom .40cal x 200grn R.E.A.L. bullet. Took a deer with it this afternoon. Load was 70grns Goex 2F, .40cal lubed felt OP wad, .40cal x 200grn bullet, and a .50cal lubed felt wad I wedged in on top of the bullet to ensure it stayed on the powder.
Bullet did not make a full body pass through with that mid-range powder charge.
CONDITIONS:
I sat down at 3:45pm near the mouth of a downhill sloping ravine that intersects a huge erosion ditch down in a 'bottom'...the ditch still has a line of trees along it left over from the clear-cut 2 years ago and I'd found a deer trail winding through them in the past.
At 4:45pm I noticed movement out front and it was the back of a lone deer moving along on the other side of a big poplar tree that had just recently been pushed over, probably by hurricane Sandy. Suspecting a buck, I whistled and sure enough the deer stopped and up comes a head with a respectable rack. I couldn’t see his heart because of the horizontal tree trunk but I could see his shoulder just above it and realizing when he started walking again and ran out of tree trunk he’d be in thick stuff and I wouldn’t have a shot at all, so I had to act.
I figured penetration wouldn't be a problem at only 40-50yds with the .40cal x 200grn R.E.A.L. projectile I was testing so I decided on the high shoulder shot like I would have taken with a .30-30/170grn slug...shot him just over the top of the tree trunk and he dropped dead in his tracks.
Good healthy, heavy bodied deer and the .40cal x 200grn R.E.A.L. bullet definitely makes the smallish .40cal a more viable big game rifle.
Bullet did not make a full body pass through with that mid-range powder charge.
CONDITIONS:
I sat down at 3:45pm near the mouth of a downhill sloping ravine that intersects a huge erosion ditch down in a 'bottom'...the ditch still has a line of trees along it left over from the clear-cut 2 years ago and I'd found a deer trail winding through them in the past.
At 4:45pm I noticed movement out front and it was the back of a lone deer moving along on the other side of a big poplar tree that had just recently been pushed over, probably by hurricane Sandy. Suspecting a buck, I whistled and sure enough the deer stopped and up comes a head with a respectable rack. I couldn’t see his heart because of the horizontal tree trunk but I could see his shoulder just above it and realizing when he started walking again and ran out of tree trunk he’d be in thick stuff and I wouldn’t have a shot at all, so I had to act.
I figured penetration wouldn't be a problem at only 40-50yds with the .40cal x 200grn R.E.A.L. projectile I was testing so I decided on the high shoulder shot like I would have taken with a .30-30/170grn slug...shot him just over the top of the tree trunk and he dropped dead in his tracks.
Good healthy, heavy bodied deer and the .40cal x 200grn R.E.A.L. bullet definitely makes the smallish .40cal a more viable big game rifle.
