Hunting & Fishing Muzzle loader fluke?

[DieselTuun]

I'm new to muzzle loader and black powder hunting, however in my area its muzzle loader or shotgun and muzzle loader season is significantly longer than shotgun. Anyhow, I had my first hunt on our new property and it was successful! Got a pretty nice size doe, she walked right to me! To give a quick lay of the land, we live on a kind of peninsula with about a 60-70 foot deep ravine on three sides. At the rear, where I shot the doe, there is a gully that has a good, food and water source with a lesser slope which is where I sat about halfway down.

My muzzle loader is a Thompson center impact and was loaded with 100gr blackhorn 209 and topped with a 250gr hornady sst sabot. The doe walked in front of me no farther than 10 yards and as I lifted my rifle turned her head to me. My shot hit her just below her right eye. Once I hauled her up the hill (damn gravity!) And began to process her I noticed there was no exit wound!

Now I've never shot a deer in the head, but from other experience I figured the heavy 45 cal bullet would have pretty much gone straight through but nope. And that makes me wonder if the bullet is enough for reagular boiler room shots or if I should switch. I see lots of other people have no issues with the load combo I used, but my experience was not the most comforting.

 

[roggom]

I have not used the SST ML but they are designed for rapid expansion. Your load is approx 1900 fps and 2k foot pounds at the muzzle . 1540/1300 at 100Y. Punching through a boney cavity, it might have just lodged against the back of the skull. I would not have an issue using this load on deer out to 150Y. Did you recover the bullet or was it totally fragmented?

 

[DieselTuun]

I did not recover it, I was under the gun, the wife did not want a deer carcass hanging in the yard for a party we had. And I really didn't think about it until after the fact and the skin and carcass were at the dump.

I guess I just expected a fairly large exit due to the large slug, and close range.

Thank you for the response!

 

[roggom]

Might want to experiment with some plywood and gallon jugs of water, but I think the SSt performed as it should. Penetrate and expand for good shock. most guys dont like the sst in centerfire because they pretty much explode when they hit bone. If your bullet went in and stayed, then all of the energy transferred there and thats what it should have done.

 

[DieselTuun]

I do agree, that the bullet transferred all of its energy, I guess my expectation was, due to the size of the head vs the chest/shoulder area, the bullet would have exited the head if it was to have enough penatratrion to the vitals. However the more I think of it, the eye socket and skull are pretty thick in that area and if the bullet did get to the opposite side of the skull then that would be about the depth of the heart/lungs.

I suppose I was expecting .308 type of results from the front stuffer. Which is my fault. I just haven't had any experience with them and want to make sure when I shoot one broadside it will be an ethical kill and I won't just wound the animal.

 

[260284]

My son shot a small buck at 20 yards with a 30/30 a few years back. It turned right when he pulled the trigger. Hit it right below the base of an antler. We never found the bullet or an exit. 150 gr Remington

 

[DieselTuun]

Huh, well I'll say I over reacted. Good to go, I'm happy I don't need to change loads cause this one is pretty accurate!