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Charles Turner

I shot 3 fallow bucks with a 168gr Berger VLD last weekend with 3 different POIs, and thought I'd share the results. Shots were fired from a Blaser R93 at 2960fps. I checked all bullets with a drawing pin for hollow point depth before loading, I also rotate the pin in the HP to slightly widen or uniform the me plat. The bucks were shot in the neck, shoulder and lungs respectively.

The first was a mature rutting buck (rut seems to have started early) shot in the neck at about 50 yards. Mature rutting fallow bucks have very thick necks, but I was surprised to find that the bullet did not exit. I did however inadvertently shoot through a branch just in front of the buck. This must have initiated bullet expansion, as evidenced by the large entrance hole visible behind the ear below.



The buck died instantly, and had a shattered jaw. I didn't take a pic of the internal damage, after gralloching it was hard to really see anything. The buck weighed 145lb in the larder (no gralloch, head or legs).

The 2nd buck was shot in the shoulder at about 100 yards. He dropped to the shot and expired quickly. Again the bullet did not exit, however this time the enhance wound was practically inviable, I gave up looking after a while. After gralloching it was evident that the front shoulder was broken and the internals scrambled. The bullet only left bruising on the off side of the ribs.


on side shoulder


off side

Again this was a mature buck, it weighed 150lb in the larder.

The third buck was a pricket and was shot behind the shoulder at about 100yrds, and weighed 90lb in the larder. The pricket was aware of my presence and ran about 20yrds after the shot. The bullet showed good expansion and exited.

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Exit

As you can see the bullet hit a rib on the way in, creating a larger hole than the exit.

Over all I was happy with the performance, and whilst these were all at close range they show rapid expansion and kill quickly. I'd happily use them at longer distance. I'll use them again in a couple of weeks when the rut should be in full swing.