77 gr Sierra SMK’s deer hunting

I shot them with some 140 hybrids. Should have used some Remington core lokt to kill them even deader.
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I shot them with some 140 hybrids. Should have used some Remington core lokt to kill them even deader. View attachment 8264219
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I probably haven't killed near as many deer as some here but I've killed more deer with a 55gr core-lokt than anything. Fired out of a 22-250 though. I always shot high shoulder because I knew I was under gunned. Bang flop every time. Most of the time I got complete pass through. Admittedly, the deer are not real big here in southeast TX.
 
A couple more 77 grain 5.56 kills fired from 10.5” and 14.5” barrels.

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But now that I know “bone crushing” is what gets the job done I’m working up a new load so I can take the sloppiest possible shots and still be an ethical hunter:

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It’s not super accurate but leg shots should be fine because “bone crushing”. Wish me luck, gents!
 
A couple more 77 grain 5.56 kills fired from 10.5” and 14.5” barrels.

View attachment 8264257View attachment 8264258

But now that I know “bone crushing” is what gets the job done I’m working up a new load so I can take the sloppiest possible shots and still be an ethical hunter:

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It’s not super accurate but leg shots should be fine because “bone crushing”. Wish me luck, gents!

How did you get close enough without wearing $650 worth of 4D camouflage?
 
Hornady podcast talked about this.. People are very uncertain when it comes to hunting, especially with bullets and guns. This is where myths, superstitions and traditions shape how people behave.

TMK has, regardless of how it originally was supposed/designed, a textbook penetration. Not only that, but it is very reliable also.

Add to this the hunting culture of the past century where the calibers just kept getting bigger and bigger. But last 40-20 years have seen great leaps in bullet design and manufacturing, along with barrels being better made.

Hornady also said that there are things that the copper bullets cannot do but the goverments are everywhere driving for copper bullets and so they have to have them in their portfolio, although they have redeeming qualities. For the casual hunter the new shiny bullet from new package might just instill some faith in the next hunt.

Hunting culture is in big break through over here, older hunters have a rep of slightly bad gun handling, inaccuracy and they dislike using mil fatigues and guns for hunting among many other ..grievances.. In some cases the generation gap is too big and the kids rather stay out if it altogether or make their own clubs.

@DeathBeforeDismount
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What I love the most is people are actually showing verifiable evidence of this bullet working, yet a certain “man” keeps arguing and showing no evidence of his own to back up his “claims”.

Sounds about par for the course for the same individual time and time again.
 
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Would I want to hunt elk with a .223/ 5.56 using a 77 TMK? Probably not. But I've been impressed with the terminal performance pictures and accounts of the 77 TMK and other bullets. congrats to the OP. Nice buck and awesome rig! I clear the tips for the Barnes Match Burners, SMK's, and Berger I use. I generally use a 0.021-0.025" bit.

Thank you,
Been meaning to look and see what I actually use after reading your post. It’s a #64 or .036” bit to clean the tips and ever so slightly enlarge the opening of mine.
 
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A couple more 77 grain 5.56 kills fired from 10.5” and 14.5” barrels.

View attachment 8264257View attachment 8264258

But now that I know “bone crushing” is what gets the job done I’m working up a new load so I can take the sloppiest possible shots and still be an ethical hunter:

View attachment 8264259

It’s not super accurate but leg shots should be fine because “bone crushing”. Wish me luck, gents!

You really look like you need a hunting partner. If you ever feel you will have a hard time filling those tags just hit me up! I promise to only bring my 223 too if it’ll help 😁
 
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I shot them with some 140 hybrids. Should have used some Remington core lokt to kill them even deader. View attachment 8264219
Savage rifles can't shoot, let alone kill deer. You are a fraud. Nice photoshop! :ROFLMAO:

ETA: Forgot the the smiley face for just joking. I am surprised I didn't crack the fucking website!
 
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No one ever said .223 won't kill deer in fact go back and I said it's great on deer.

A 140 lb deer and a 1000 lb elk are not the same thing.

Don't let facts get in the way of your bullshit hyperbole. Some of you would make great Democrat politicians.

Elk are slab sided, meaning from top of back to bottom of chest they are much bigger than a mature deer, but width wise, Not that much wider than a mature muley or whitetail. And the mythical elk shoulder is just that… a myth. Have you looked at a boned out elk scapula? It’s about as thick as cardboard.

Bullet selection and shot placement are much more important than caliber and energy. A fragmenting/tumbling 77gr .223 creates one hell of a wound channel.
 
Every year, it is the same tiresome discussion. I won't get into the subject matter itself, but let me suggest something in the category of data collection.

The premise is, that contrary to manufacturer recommendations, a light, fast, small caliber, thinly jacketed bullet is adequate for trophy bull elk and other big game.

But is a sample size of one, or two, or three animals meaningful to support the argument? Of course not.

Small sample sizes increase the margin of error in a study. They reduce the confidence level in a study. At best, what we see here are anecdotal examples.

Additionally, positive evidence supporting the premise must be balanced by negative evidence, yet we see none. Where are the stories of these bullets striking animals and not resulting in a humane kill? Is the study valid and reliable if all the data points are positive ones? Of course not. Is it possible that those who brag about their humane kills have also recorded inhumane wounding? Of course it is. And what was that ratio of humane kills to inhumane wounding?

Similarly, people brag about their winning stock picks. But they never confess their losers

So, let the discussion proceed. Let the mud fly. But keep in mind that small sample sizes and biased data collection reduce the statistical power of the study.
 
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Every year, it is the same tiresome discussion. I won't get into the subject matter itself, but let me suggest something in the category of data collection.

The premise is, that contrary to manufacturer recommendations, a light, fast, small caliber, thinly jacketed bullet is adequate for trophy bull elk and other big game.

But is a sample size of one, or two, or three animals meaningful to support the argument? Of course not.

Small sample sizes increase the margin of error in a study. They reduce the confidence level in a study. At best, what we see here are anecdotal examples.

Additionally, positive evidence supporting the premise must be balanced by negative evidence, yet we see none. Where are the stories of these bullets striking animals and not resulting in a humane kill? Is the study valid and reliable if all the data points are positive ones? Of course not. Is it possible that those who brag about their humane kills have also recorded inhumane wounding? Of course it is. And what was that ratio of humane kills to inhumane wounding?

Similarly, people brag about their winning stock picks. But they never confess their losers

So, let the discussion proceed. Let the mud fly. But keep in mind that small sample sizes and biased data collection reduce the statistical power of the study.
200+ pages of evidence

 
200+ pages of evidence

Thanks. Been reading those pages for about 5 years now.
 
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Every year, it is the same tiresome discussion. I won't get into the subject matter itself, but let me suggest something in the category of data collection.

The premise is, that contrary to manufacturer recommendations, a light, fast, small caliber, thinly jacketed bullet is adequate for trophy bull elk and other big game.

But is a sample size of one, or two, or three animals meaningful to support the argument? Of course not.

Small sample sizes increase the margin of error in a study. They reduce the confidence level in a study. At best, what we see here are anecdotal examples.

Additionally, positive evidence supporting the premise must be balanced by negative evidence, yet we see none. Where are the stories of these bullets striking animals and not resulting in a humane kill? Is the study valid and reliable if all the data points are positive ones? Of course not. Is it possible that those who brag about their humane kills have also recorded inhumane wounding? Of course it is. And what was that ratio of humane kills to inhumane wounding?

Similarly, people brag about their winning stock picks. But they never confess their losers

So, let the discussion proceed. Let the mud fly. But keep in mind that small sample sizes and biased data collection reduce the statistical power of the study.

Well I have this of a hunters sons Buck shot front of the shoulder with a Mono metal expanding bullet, just a week ago. Three hours later my dog tracked & caught wounded deer so we could ethically dispatch it.
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Well I have this of a hunters sons Buck shot front of the shoulder with a Mono metal expanding bullet, just a week ago. Three hours later my dog tracked & caught wounded deer so we could ethically dispatch it.
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Well, a shot placed front of the shoulder isn't a great place to expect a quick kill. There's not much there in the vitals department. Any bullet could have resulted in that.
 
You don't need a perfect shot with something like a 300wm or 338.
Maybe that theory will carry over into PRS shooting for you? Just shoot an obscenely large caliber and you will get credited for more hits cause it was “close” enough.


Seems logical to me
 
My grandfather (RIP) killed A LOT of animals with his .22

Everything from squirrels to bobcats to a mountain lion. Granted he died in '88 when times were simpler
Aren’t most hunters that are using hounds to tree cats using small caliber rounds still? Mostly 22 or 22mag to prevent messing up the fur that bad correct?
 
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Oh that was your point? I swear you were shitting on copper monos. My bad.

No I thought mentioning shot placement being most important explained importance of any caliber/bullet. All good
And yes I shoot mono’s as well, I like light and fast with them. I hot rod these to about 3500 fps in a light weight custom 264 wm.
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Then Murphy makes you fuck up and blow their jaw off and they die from starvation.
This Murphy guy sounds like a huge prick.

To add my $.02, I’ve been hunting with Amax bullets for four years.
So far, so good.

As mentioned many times over, it’s shot placement that matters most.

If viable, I’ll take a head/neck shot. The ones I have taken were in the prone position, allowing for Murphy to stay his ass out of the woods.
 
No I thought mentioning shot placement being most important explained importance of any caliber/bullet. All good
And yes I shoot mono’s as well, I like light and fast with them. I hot rod these to about 3500 fps in a light weight custom 264 wm. View attachment 8264749
TTSX are some tuff constructed muthers appropriately matched for tuff muther hogs!
20 something years ago I was using M855 and 77SMK on hogs. Sometimes they would drop on the run with one shot. (Shot placement) Sometimes they would run like nothing happened (cartridge/cal/bullet construction) only to be found 1/2 mile away with blood coming out every natural orifice, plus 5 more 5.56 holes. So, I switched to a 308 with 155 Amax and the results were fucking night & day! Hit off the kill switch or the vitals, and the hog would at least sit is ass down or pause for a follow up to take its ass out. Well, fuck there I go coffee posting going offt-tehe rails talking about an entirely different critter!
 
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This Murphy guy sounds like a huge prick.

To add my $.02, I’ve been hunting with Amax bullets for four years.
So far, so good.

As mentioned many times over, it’s shot placement that matters most.

If viable, I’ll take a head/neck shot. The ones I have taken were in the prone position, allowing for Murphy to stay his ass out of the woods.
AMAX are the mudder phucking bomb.
 
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Well, a shot placed front of the shoulder isn't a great place to expect a quick kill. There's not much there in the vitals department. Any bullet could have resulted in that.
Incorrect. It is a CNS shot. Spines them. It is all I shoot and have shot since I was a kid other than a just a few times. I kill 6-8 deer and damn near as many hogs each year. Shoot them In front point of the shoulder/base of neck and they will drop without taking a step even with small cartridges like .222 rem and a 30carbine.

I would like to see where that bullet actually hit that the deer didn’t hit the ground dead. I bet really low in the neck aka flesh wound. Obviously anything can and does happen so there is that.

Red marks the spot.
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Incorrect. It is a CNS shot. Spines them. It is all I shoot and have shot since I was a kid other than a just a few times. I kill 6-8 deer and damn near as many hogs each year. Shoot them In front point of the shoulder/base of neck and they will drop without taking a step even with small cartridges like .222 rem and a 30carbine.

I would like to see where that bullet actually hit that the deer didn’t hit the ground dead. I bet really low in the neck aka flesh wound. Obviously anything can and does happen so there is that.

Red marks the spot.
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The shot and the deer in question wasn't hit in the spine now was it? If it were, it wouldn't have traveled so far to need dogs to track it now would it?
 
The shot and the deer in question wasn't hit in the spine now was it? If it were, it wouldn't have traveled so far to need dogs to track it now would it?
I believe I mentioned that in the post you quoted. That deer likely wasn’t shot in front of the shoulder where I pointed to. If it were, which I doubt, it is just one of those things that can happen I suppose. I alluded to that as well in the same post.
 
I like to spine them too, expect it seems to do the job by following the leg straight up to top of shoulder and let fly. Larger area of incapacitation round dem parts.
High shoulder ruins backstrap and front of shoulder ruins quit a bit of neck meat. Both should send the animal, any animal, straight down. I added a photo in my post of a doe I shot. She fell so fast that the top of her head slapped her back.
 
High shoulder ruins backstrap and front of shoulder ruins quit a bit of neck meat. Both should send the animal, any animal, straight down. I added a photo in my post of a doe I shot. She fell so fast that the top of her head slapped her back.
Nah, just the temporary wound cavity/bubble fucks them up.
That doe hit area is new to me. What was the cartridge?