Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Is a pass through necessary, beneficial?

A bullet fired from a 30-06 that hits a broadside deer behind the shoulder and doesn't pass through would definitely cause me to reconsider my bullet choice. This same bullet "could" blowup in a shoulder and not reach the vitals, resulting in an un-recovered deer.

With that being said I'm not a fan off bullets that pass completely through with minimal damage (i.e- 270 cal 110 gr Barnes TSX or 140gr Fail Safes). I shot both of the these when they first came out and and when placed behind the shoulder, they caused minimal internal damage with small entry and exit wounds which resulted in poor blood trails and deer running farther than they would if shot with a bullet designed to expand more.

For whitetails, I prefer a bullet that will penetrate relatively deep will expanding fairly well. After shooting 100+ with various bullet designs, I've decided bonded bullets such as Fusions and Coreloks are hard to beat for whitetails. Accubonds and Partitions are good choices as well. I can't think of a circumstance where an SST would result in a deer being recovered that would not also be recovered if shot with a bonded bullet. But I can think of several circumstances where a bonded bullet would result in a recovered deer whereas the SST "may" not.

I put SST's (ballistic tips) in the same category as Rage Broadheads. They perform extremely well most of the time but their downfall is less than desirable penetration under circumstances. I prefer to shoot something that is also lethal under less than ideal conditions, even if that means having to track a deer 20 or 30 yards farther when shot under ideal conditions with perfect shot placement.