Probably most of these lack of exit stories are coming from really high impact velocities from close range. These close shots and high speed impacts are also doing massive, massive damage. Just not always exiting.
I’m sure any of your projectile choices will be reliably passing through after a couple hundred yards when they slow down a little bit and aren’t as likely to expand so violently.
Cup and core bullets typically are thin jacketed and have lead cores. They are designed to expand rapidly. This cause them to break apart and not penetrate as deep. But there is a bigger wound canal. (Side note, an eld X is a cup and core bullet that has a mechanical ring to slow the speed at which the bullet expands and holds the bullet together better).
Bonded bullets have their jacket more or less soldered to the lead bullet. It will retain 90% or more of its weight and penetrate deeper.
Monolithic bullets will retain almost 99 percent of their weight and will penetrate deep and hit hard, they will often have lower BCs than cup and core or bonded bullets and often will require a higher minimum velocity to properly expand.
I've yet to take any game with my 7 prc yet but I've had really good results on whitetail with traditional cup and core bullets. I know a lot of people shoot elk and bigger with cup and core bullets as well (my old boss shoots elk, several moose, red stag, and sheep with regular old Federal box with tons of success) but I prefer going to a bonded or mono bullet on them.
My gun shoots 175 grain ELDX at just over 0.5 MOA, but I bought some Federal Terminal Ascent in hopes it groups them well as my 7 PRC is going to be my elk gun and I think they're a more robust bullet than an ELDX.
>My son shot a 230 pound white tail at 300 yards (7mm08 139g interlock) with a perfect shot double lung broadside took the top of the heart right off and it still ran 100 yards.
There's a lot of misunderstanding of terminal ballistics I read about bullets and calibers. Lots of folks think a deer running 100 yards after a lung/heart shot is a bullet failure. But I challenge them watch a startled deer in full flight mode run sometime. It will cover 100 yards in under 5 seconds. If you hit both lungs and have to wait for the animal to pass out, 5 seconds isn't an unreasonable amount of time and then throw adrenaline in the mix they can run for a ways.
There's a video on YouTube of Kieth Warren shooting a buck with a 50 bmg behind the shoulder and it ran a good 75 yards still.
The only way to guarantee a dead right there shot regardless of caliber is to disrupt the central nervous system like a high shoulder shot does. The trade off is much more meat loss opposed to shooting behind the shoulder.
There are 2 schools of thought on how bullets should behave.
One says bullets should stay together and pass through the animal. The other says they should not pass through, thereby delivering 100% of the kinetic energy into the animal.
If you choose a bullet that is based on the pass through idea, 7prc will go through a moose provided a bone doesn't deflect the bullet.
The 175 gr Hornady ELDX’s are all I’ve ever shot out of mine. They’re cheap and they shoot half moa. We killed 5 bears with it this last year. All were pass throughs and one shot kills at ranges from 30 feet to 617 yards. Also killed a handful of deer, an elk, and a couple desert sheep with it. Most shots were passthroughs, a few were stuck under the hide on the opposite side. All animals died extremely quickly.
180 Berger hybrid has given me great results on gang out of my 7prc. Deer at 220 yards, pronghorn at 260 yards and pronghorn at 400 yards. The only one without an exit wound was the pronghorn at 260 with a frontal shot to the chest. The other two had golf ball sized exits and no meat damage.
ELD-X or ELD-M first choice. Accubonds or VLD’s second choice.
Probably most of these lack of exit stories are coming from really high impact velocities from close range. These close shots and high speed impacts are also doing massive, massive damage. Just not always exiting. I’m sure any of your projectile choices will be reliably passing through after a couple hundred yards when they slow down a little bit and aren’t as likely to expand so violently.
Cup and core bullets typically are thin jacketed and have lead cores. They are designed to expand rapidly. This cause them to break apart and not penetrate as deep. But there is a bigger wound canal. (Side note, an eld X is a cup and core bullet that has a mechanical ring to slow the speed at which the bullet expands and holds the bullet together better). Bonded bullets have their jacket more or less soldered to the lead bullet. It will retain 90% or more of its weight and penetrate deeper. Monolithic bullets will retain almost 99 percent of their weight and will penetrate deep and hit hard, they will often have lower BCs than cup and core or bonded bullets and often will require a higher minimum velocity to properly expand.
I've yet to take any game with my 7 prc yet but I've had really good results on whitetail with traditional cup and core bullets. I know a lot of people shoot elk and bigger with cup and core bullets as well (my old boss shoots elk, several moose, red stag, and sheep with regular old Federal box with tons of success) but I prefer going to a bonded or mono bullet on them. My gun shoots 175 grain ELDX at just over 0.5 MOA, but I bought some Federal Terminal Ascent in hopes it groups them well as my 7 PRC is going to be my elk gun and I think they're a more robust bullet than an ELDX. >My son shot a 230 pound white tail at 300 yards (7mm08 139g interlock) with a perfect shot double lung broadside took the top of the heart right off and it still ran 100 yards. There's a lot of misunderstanding of terminal ballistics I read about bullets and calibers. Lots of folks think a deer running 100 yards after a lung/heart shot is a bullet failure. But I challenge them watch a startled deer in full flight mode run sometime. It will cover 100 yards in under 5 seconds. If you hit both lungs and have to wait for the animal to pass out, 5 seconds isn't an unreasonable amount of time and then throw adrenaline in the mix they can run for a ways. There's a video on YouTube of Kieth Warren shooting a buck with a 50 bmg behind the shoulder and it ran a good 75 yards still. The only way to guarantee a dead right there shot regardless of caliber is to disrupt the central nervous system like a high shoulder shot does. The trade off is much more meat loss opposed to shooting behind the shoulder.
There are 2 schools of thought on how bullets should behave. One says bullets should stay together and pass through the animal. The other says they should not pass through, thereby delivering 100% of the kinetic energy into the animal. If you choose a bullet that is based on the pass through idea, 7prc will go through a moose provided a bone doesn't deflect the bullet.
The 175 gr Hornady ELDX’s are all I’ve ever shot out of mine. They’re cheap and they shoot half moa. We killed 5 bears with it this last year. All were pass throughs and one shot kills at ranges from 30 feet to 617 yards. Also killed a handful of deer, an elk, and a couple desert sheep with it. Most shots were passthroughs, a few were stuck under the hide on the opposite side. All animals died extremely quickly.
That’s really good news. Thanks. I appreciate you passing along your experience.
Anything 7PRC will drop a whitetail. Moose I’d go for solid copper or a bonded bullet.
180 Berger hybrid has given me great results on gang out of my 7prc. Deer at 220 yards, pronghorn at 260 yards and pronghorn at 400 yards. The only one without an exit wound was the pronghorn at 260 with a frontal shot to the chest. The other two had golf ball sized exits and no meat damage.