Quote:
Originally Posted by Scot E
you are one of the first I have heard of to use the 285 Hornady on game. How was the terminal performance? Expansion, pass throughs, weight retention?
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To be honest, I was so excited to have broken my personal long range kill record that I forgot all about that until it was too late.
That said, the 285 did well, considering where my shots landed.
The first shot hit about 4" up from the bottom of the brisket, right behind the shoulder. This was a complete pass through. It left 2 nasty holes which turned the bottom half of the deers lungs into hamburger. Didn't knock it down, sailed right through. Obviously there isn't much there where the bullet hit.
Second shot I didn't apply enough lead, and hit it in the hind quarter. This went in and didn't come out. Never did find the bullet. Was probably in the guts that got ripped out. Either that, or it passed through and didn't leave much of an exit. Not sure about this one. The hole through the hind quarter was big enough that you could have pushed a baseball through it, without much effort. It missed all major bones however, so again, not much conclusion to draw other than it penetrated deep, and left a catastrophic wound channel.
Third shot hit high above the diaphragm, entering the spine, and exiting half way down the side. It absolutely shredded the spine bones, and left a baseball sized exit hole coming out the other side.
This was the first long range hit I've put on a deer with them. Based on what I've seen, I'll use them again. They are
extremely accurate and carry enough payload to get the job done at range. I shot 300 scenars and 300 SMK's for a while, but they are just too heavy to get the performance I want out of my 338LM. I'm sending these 285's at 2800fps out of a 26" barrel, using 93gr of retumbo. Very happy with the combo.
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