Lightest bullet you killed a deer with?

[retrieverman]

Sounds like your hero quote that spreads BS.

When my dad and his friend showed up about a minute after the shot and seen the deer laying there gasping for air they asked me what I shot it with and where was my shotgun.
Being young and my first deer i was excited to get to the deer and left the shotgun against the tree.

I had to go find the tree i was sitting in and the shotgun.
Opened it up and out popped an empty bird shot case.
I got a cussin for that.
They just shot up a deer that refused to die with a 30-30. Nothing left but hamburger meat.

The deer I shot had no blood and we did not know what "downed" it until we skinned it and seen the small blood clot spot on the hide in the neck area. A single hole in the esophagus.

It was put out of it's misery from a follow up shot to the head with a 30-30.

I could never hit crap with that Stevens 20 gauge.
Hunted ducks for 3 years and all flew off.
Finally got to use a 12 gauge and it was my grandfathers A5 that was a game changer.
The trigger had broke on the 20 gauge.

I gave that 20 to a friend years later and he took it to the gunsmith in Moore OK and the smith told him it had a bent barrel!

That made me feel much better about crappy shots.
Ya can't make this stuff up.

If you think I am a liar then that is on you. Not me.

I think I’ve told this story before, but your post reminded me of it. In the late 70’s when I was about 9 or 10, I killed my only banded duck off a spring fed pond on family land south of Jet, and it was a ridiculously long shot that actually got me in trouble with my Dad. I had to walk about 400 yards to get around the pond and out onto a wheat field to get it, and I was shocked when I got to it and saw the band. Back in those days, lead shot was legal for ducks, and I hit it with one pellet out of a full choked Westernfield bolt action 20 gauge with 2 3/4 #6’s.
I still have the gun and wonder how the scrawny kid I was back then carried the heavy thing all day bird hunting.

 

[Shinneryfarmer]

A friend of the family took my nephew on his first deer hunt. His dad not a hunter, him and I had plans the next weekend to go. Anyway the friend didn't have another deer rifle he thought the nephew could handle, not expecting to see anything he gives the nephew a 204 Ruger. They are set up in a blind and a basket buck comes out at 200 yds full frontal view the nephew shoots hitting the buck in the head with a 32 gr bullet (don't remember if solid or hollow point)
The buck drops like a rock, they procede to the deer and there is blood right between the eyes, not much but a little. They return to truck, driving out to pickup deer and about 75yds from the deer it stands up shakes its head staggers a step then runs off. Nephew was disappointed after the high of thinking he just killed his first buck.
Fast forward to the next weekend the family friend kills the same buck on the adjoining property. Upon inspection the 32gr must have glanced off the skull of the buck, no penetration just a little bit of hide gone. I guess it just knocked the buck out for a bit.

 

[retrieverman]

A friend of the family took my nephew on his first deer hunt. His dad not a hunter, him and I had plans the next weekend to go. Anyway the friend didn't have another deer rifle he thought the nephew could handle, not expecting to see anything he gives the nephew a 204 Ruger. They are set up in a blind and a basket buck comes out at 200 yds full frontal view the nephew shoots hitting the buck in the head with a 32 gr bullet (don't remember if solid or hollow point)
The buck drops like a rock, they procede to the deer and there is blood right between the eyes, not much but a little. They return to truck, driving out to pickup deer and about 75yds from the deer it stands up shakes its head staggers a step then runs off. Nephew was disappointed after the high of thinking he just killed his first buck.
Fast forward to the next weekend the family friend kills the same buck on the adjoining property. Upon inspection the 32gr must have glanced off the skull of the buck, no penetration just a little bit of hide gone. I guess it just knocked the buck out for a bit.

That’s a crazy story.
They didn’t notice the buck was still breathing when they walked up on him?!?

I’ve shot pigs multiple times with a 17hmr and had bullets ricochet off the skull.

 

[Shinneryfarmer]

That’s a crazy story.
They didn’t notice the buck was still breathing when they walked up on him?!?

I’ve shot pigs multiple times with a 17hmr and had bullets ricochet off the skull.

Just telling it as it was relayed to me, I asked the same question. I was told there was no signs the deer was still alive. Thinking a BS story I questioned both and their stories were not verbatim but the same.

 

[Shinneryfarmer]

That’s a crazy story.
They didn’t notice the buck was still breathing when they walked up on him?!?

I’ve shot pigs multiple times with a 17hmr and had bullets ricochet off the skull.

Hog skulls are like iron plate.

 

[KurtM]

Front on, I might agree, but side on almost anything will go through a pig's skull. Shot a nice 150# with a subsonic 22 right below the ear at abot 40 yards and it went right on in.

 

[magna19]

If you think I am a liar then that is on you. Not me.

I don't think your a liar. I just think your imagination strays away from the truth quite often. How far does one shoot a deer with a 20 ga load of #6 shot and only hit it with one pellet with enough energy to kill a deer.

 

[dennishoddy]

I still have a partial box of 30-30 accelerators from the late 80’s. My wife killed her one and only deer in the fall of 1989 with one, and if I remember right, they shot really well out of my old Marlin clone rifle.
I actually didn’t know you could buy those sabots, but I just googled them and found them and the seating die on EABCO. I think I might try a 30-30 and 308 accelerator loads.

That's where I found them after a discussion on OSA about the Accelerators. They were not very accurate target shooting style but accurate enough for 200 yards and less deer sized targets in the 30-06.
The 30-30 I want to try them in has a different twist so it will be interesting to see how it turns out, but I'm not expecting any better.

 

[Deer Slayer]

62 grain bonded soft point in .223 harvested 3 so far. 85 grain BT in 6 mm Remington several deer, and several deer with 125grain BT in .308 plus one very dead armadillo.

 

[jackinok09]

85 grain nosler partition in 243 for me. Use it for hogs also when hunting from stand. Custom barreled rifle has so slow of twist it won't stabilize any heavier bullet I've found.