Recently, many people are advocating for shooting smaller than traditional cartridges for a given game species. This argument is not without merit, and I wrote an article about the benefits of shooting smaller cartridges for big game. I myself have hunted big game with the 223 Remington and did not have any issues. However, while moose hunting this season I came across an interesting example of when being shooting a smaller cartridge selection can fail.
The Setup
In the area we were hunting, the moose had begun rutting and were responsive to calls. Moose often gather around small lakes and marshes during the rut. This helps them locate other moose. We had identified one such lake and were set up about an hour before daylight, ready for the morning hunt.
About half an hour into daylight we heard voices coming from in the timber behind us. Annoyed that another hunter was walking into our hunt well into the morning, I left my hunting partners to go talk to them. I spoke with a gentleman who said he was there looking for a bull that he had shot the night before at around 350 yds. He reported hitting it in the shoulder, and following a short blood trail before losing it in the timber behind our setup. I told him where we had been set up and he went back to looking for the moose, albeit a bit more quietly. He searched for another hour before giving up and leaving.
The Shot
Several hours after the man had left we called a bull to the edge of the lake. The bull was grunting and walking and by all accounts appeared healthy. My hunting partner put it down with two rounds from his 308 Winchester at 177 yards. To our surprise, when we approached the moose we found an additional bullet hole on the shoulder of the moose with a small amount of dried blood.
Next, we began skinning out the bull. We recovered both of my hunting partners bullets on the offside hide. Additionally, we found the base and fragments of a 6mm diameter bullet in the front shoulder. The bullet had hit the shoulder but had fragmented and failed to penetrate into the vitals. There was a good deal of bloodshot on the shoulder but the bullet had not damaged the heart or lungs at all.
Conclusions
Importantly, every cartridge/bullet combination can fail. Also, there is a wealth of evidence showing that smaller cartridges do work in many situations on larger game. That said, it is rare to actually recover an animal and see what happened when a bullet does fail. Furthermore, people are much less likely to post their failures online vs their success stories.
Personally, my main takeaway from this is that bullet choice matters. As I discussed in my article on using a smaller cartridge selection, heavy for caliber bullets have more lead to fragment and have higher sectional densities. Additionally, their higher BCs allow them to hold onto velocity better. I speculate that a light for caliber non-bonded bullet in a small diameter led to this failure. Light for caliber bullets will penetrate less and don’t have as much lead allowing them to fragment while still retaining enough penetration to ensure a kill.
Closing Thoughts
Cartridge selection debates have been going on for decades and aren’t disappearing anytime soon. However, if you do choose a smaller cartridge, recognize that bullet selection matters. For those who are willing to do the research, there are modern bullets that increase the capabilities of these cartridges. For hunters that want to buy a box of ammo at the local hardware store and go hunting, stick to a traditional choice.