Good afternoon esteemed Africa hunters,
In the great state of Utah, I've managed to draw a mule deer tag for my preferred area with fewer than the normal requisite number of points, only because they've increased the number of tags for that area. It appears that my lovely early teenage twin daughters have also drawn tags, as well as my two sons. There will be a lot of deer meat in the freezer this year. Since the need for meat will be diminished this year, whether or not I shoot a deer has become less important. More important is how I shoot a deer.
Traditionally I've used my 7mm mag, 30.06, 30-30, or whatever rifle fit the profile of a "deer rifle". One of my frustrations with using many of these rifles is the amount of meat that can get wasted from good shock/expansion characteristics from lightning speed bullets, sometimes damaging an entire quarter of the deer or more. It's an argument for a different day, but it seems a lot of the modern high speed cartridges with good expanding projectiles can leave an excessively huge sized exit wound--way more than necessary for an ethical kill at the expense of damaged meat.
I turn to you, my fellow Africa hunters, many of which know way more about terminal ballistics than myself including one Canadian who is accused of having written a book titled "I know everything" (who's opinion I have come to highly value and who's posts I enjoy reading). I am planning to use my .45 long colt rifle to hunt deer with this year, and I am thinking of using a flat point 300 grain solid copper bullet made by Lehigh Defense. The preferred, but not required, bullet material for the area I hunt in is non-lead due to a threatened condor species. I do my part to help preserve the species, and I generally prefer solid coppers anyway, usually the TSX variety made by Barnes. There aren't very many non-lead .452 diameter bullets options available. The aforementioned Lehigh Defense bullet would have zero expansion, so shot placement is obviously important but shouldn't be a problem for me as most shots are 100 yds or less. I know plenty here would balk at the low energy of the .45 colt, however, it would be loaded in the "Ruger only" 30,000 psi loads. I estimate around 1200-1300 fps and a tad over 1000 ft/lbs at the muzzle.
The questions I have then are: first, am I wrong in believing that a solid non-expanding flat point bullet pushed at lower velocities will destroy less meat, and second, will the comparatively larger diameter of the .45 colt bullet compensate for the lack of expansion and offer an ethically fast enough kill assuming the shot is well placed?
Thank you
In the great state of Utah, I've managed to draw a mule deer tag for my preferred area with fewer than the normal requisite number of points, only because they've increased the number of tags for that area. It appears that my lovely early teenage twin daughters have also drawn tags, as well as my two sons. There will be a lot of deer meat in the freezer this year. Since the need for meat will be diminished this year, whether or not I shoot a deer has become less important. More important is how I shoot a deer.
Traditionally I've used my 7mm mag, 30.06, 30-30, or whatever rifle fit the profile of a "deer rifle". One of my frustrations with using many of these rifles is the amount of meat that can get wasted from good shock/expansion characteristics from lightning speed bullets, sometimes damaging an entire quarter of the deer or more. It's an argument for a different day, but it seems a lot of the modern high speed cartridges with good expanding projectiles can leave an excessively huge sized exit wound--way more than necessary for an ethical kill at the expense of damaged meat.
I turn to you, my fellow Africa hunters, many of which know way more about terminal ballistics than myself including one Canadian who is accused of having written a book titled "I know everything" (who's opinion I have come to highly value and who's posts I enjoy reading). I am planning to use my .45 long colt rifle to hunt deer with this year, and I am thinking of using a flat point 300 grain solid copper bullet made by Lehigh Defense. The preferred, but not required, bullet material for the area I hunt in is non-lead due to a threatened condor species. I do my part to help preserve the species, and I generally prefer solid coppers anyway, usually the TSX variety made by Barnes. There aren't very many non-lead .452 diameter bullets options available. The aforementioned Lehigh Defense bullet would have zero expansion, so shot placement is obviously important but shouldn't be a problem for me as most shots are 100 yds or less. I know plenty here would balk at the low energy of the .45 colt, however, it would be loaded in the "Ruger only" 30,000 psi loads. I estimate around 1200-1300 fps and a tad over 1000 ft/lbs at the muzzle.
The questions I have then are: first, am I wrong in believing that a solid non-expanding flat point bullet pushed at lower velocities will destroy less meat, and second, will the comparatively larger diameter of the .45 colt bullet compensate for the lack of expansion and offer an ethically fast enough kill assuming the shot is well placed?
Thank you
