Just wanted to brag a bit…
Another succes in the books, for our whitetail season, for my oldest son, and for the 135gr .308" Apex Outdoors Afterburner.
This morning my 13yo boy made a great shot with my coaching and help. A group of does popped out of the woods about 120 yards from us, with a smaller buck, and immediately started jogging away from us to a different part of the field. We watched them for a bit, knowing they were now 500 yards or more away. Then two more bigger bucks came out along with a couple more does. One was definitely looking pretty good through the scope and binos. It was becoming obvious they weren't coming back our way, so we made a decision to take the long shot. It didn't seem like there was much wind at all so we ranged him (right around 500 yards), did the math, and told him exactly where to aim and to hold 2.5mils and send it when he's ready.
Well, could have used just a bit of wind hold it turned out, or maybe just nerves, but I'm not mad at all. Impacted broadside at the base of his neck, just at the leading edge of his shoulder. Severed the main arteries, filling him full of blood and pumping it out everywhere. He made a wobbling big circle and piled up. It was a quick bleed out. Exited pretty much the same spot on the offside. One lung had a bit of blood in it, so he was starting to drown in his own blood, and there was blood all the way down his esophagus to his stomach.
So it ended impacting at around 1946fps, which is finally in the area I wanted to test these bullets the most, plus by not hitting any bone it ended up as a lower impact resistance shot too. I searched and searched, reaching fingers all around and through the wound channel, but was unable to find any pieces of petals. The hole was over 2" diameter in places though, and there just wasn't any evidence of penciling, so I'm confident it did expand, but everything punched right through. The wound channel started small, got bigger, then small again- which is indicative of how this bullet is designed to perform.
So that ends up actually being a pretty good test. I'm confident hitting shoulder would have just resulted in destroyed organs and an exit out the back like the other two examples I've seen/had firsthand (plus one other neck shot for a total of 4 kills with this bullet).
This was the last Afterburner I had too. The rest were used for load development and some sent to a friend for gel testing. We could have definitely switched over to the 195gr TMKs I had with us and dropped a bunch of does, but our freezer is full still from last year and now this year lol. So we decided to count our blessings and call it a season. Plus my youngest told me he thought we should let the other buck we saw get a bit bigger for next year lol. Proud dad moment with him thinking of conservation.
I have to say, I've been pretty impressed with this bullet for a copper variety. If you need or just want a copper hunting bullet, I'd definitely recommend trying these. I'm confident too that Mark would work with anyone too on any issues they may encounter.
I'm not running to switch everything to this bullet, but if I hunted a place where I had to use non lead, these would be right up there with DRTs.
The shooter
Lung with blood in it
Wound channel
Entrance
Exit
Looking back at the blind from where he was shot
Both my boys with him
His final stumble. He expired over the spot on the right.
Another succes in the books, for our whitetail season, for my oldest son, and for the 135gr .308" Apex Outdoors Afterburner.
This morning my 13yo boy made a great shot with my coaching and help. A group of does popped out of the woods about 120 yards from us, with a smaller buck, and immediately started jogging away from us to a different part of the field. We watched them for a bit, knowing they were now 500 yards or more away. Then two more bigger bucks came out along with a couple more does. One was definitely looking pretty good through the scope and binos. It was becoming obvious they weren't coming back our way, so we made a decision to take the long shot. It didn't seem like there was much wind at all so we ranged him (right around 500 yards), did the math, and told him exactly where to aim and to hold 2.5mils and send it when he's ready.
Well, could have used just a bit of wind hold it turned out, or maybe just nerves, but I'm not mad at all. Impacted broadside at the base of his neck, just at the leading edge of his shoulder. Severed the main arteries, filling him full of blood and pumping it out everywhere. He made a wobbling big circle and piled up. It was a quick bleed out. Exited pretty much the same spot on the offside. One lung had a bit of blood in it, so he was starting to drown in his own blood, and there was blood all the way down his esophagus to his stomach.
So it ended impacting at around 1946fps, which is finally in the area I wanted to test these bullets the most, plus by not hitting any bone it ended up as a lower impact resistance shot too. I searched and searched, reaching fingers all around and through the wound channel, but was unable to find any pieces of petals. The hole was over 2" diameter in places though, and there just wasn't any evidence of penciling, so I'm confident it did expand, but everything punched right through. The wound channel started small, got bigger, then small again- which is indicative of how this bullet is designed to perform.
So that ends up actually being a pretty good test. I'm confident hitting shoulder would have just resulted in destroyed organs and an exit out the back like the other two examples I've seen/had firsthand (plus one other neck shot for a total of 4 kills with this bullet).
This was the last Afterburner I had too. The rest were used for load development and some sent to a friend for gel testing. We could have definitely switched over to the 195gr TMKs I had with us and dropped a bunch of does, but our freezer is full still from last year and now this year lol. So we decided to count our blessings and call it a season. Plus my youngest told me he thought we should let the other buck we saw get a bit bigger for next year lol. Proud dad moment with him thinking of conservation.
I have to say, I've been pretty impressed with this bullet for a copper variety. If you need or just want a copper hunting bullet, I'd definitely recommend trying these. I'm confident too that Mark would work with anyone too on any issues they may encounter.
I'm not running to switch everything to this bullet, but if I hunted a place where I had to use non lead, these would be right up there with DRTs.
The shooter
Lung with blood in it
Wound channel
Entrance
Exit
Looking back at the blind from where he was shot
Both my boys with him
His final stumble. He expired over the spot on the right.
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