Got a call from a friend to come shoot a doe. So, I packed up my boy and my .460 S&W Encore Pistol and headed to his place.

I've hunted here in the past, but it's been a couple years. My friend owns two pastures that he runs horses on. Seems he and his neighbor don't get along well. The boundary fence was falling apart a couple years ago and the neighbors cattle were getting through into my friend's pastures and grazing. He approached the neighbor about splitting the cost of replacing the fence. The neighbor basically told him to pound sand. Well, my friend was tired of losing feed for his horses to the neighbor's cattle, so he replaced the fence himself. After some choice words were exchanged.

Well, seems the deer like to cross that fence as well and feed in the pasture. My friend lets me shoot deer there periodically with the stipulation that they not leave the pasture and jump back into the neighbors property. Doesn't want the issue of having to cross the fence to look for a deer. No problem, I says.

In the past, I have usually just head shot the deer with whatever I've used. From .223 Remington to .280 Remington. This time, I chose to use the .460 S&W Encore and I felt pretty confident that...........with a quartering towards me shot............it would drop one in it's tracks. It had before.

The last deer I shot with this gun was at 123 yards using the 250gr Hornady XTP. This round is supposedly not designed for the velocity the .460 S&W generates. Well, my goal is to disprove that theory. It handled the last deer with aplomb. So, I wanted to shoot one even closer and at a higher impact velocity this time. See if the bullet would fail or not. You know.............for science!!!! I wanted to mimic the last shot I took on a deer with this cartridge.

My boy and I arrived and set up shop under the awning of his shed as there was a cold mist falling. Being in the low 30s, I didn't want to freeze my boy. So, I bundled him up and set him on the downwind side of me. Figured I'd block some of the wind from hitting him. It was a cold wind chill.

About 4:45, a button buck came into the field.



I wasn't about to shoot him with the .460 S&W. That would just be wrong!!! Ha! So, we waited and he eventually returned to the brush. Nothing else happened until around 5:45 when I began to see deer moving through the brush towards the pasture. A couple yearlings entered the field, but the mature does were a little more skeptical and just wandered back and forth on the other side of the fence. Finally, right at 6:00, a big doe jumped the fence and trotted out into the pasture. I looked at my boy and told him I was going to shoot her. Made sure his hearing protection and mine were in place, and waited for her to turn quartering to.

As I watched her, a yearling kept getting behind her on the other side of the fence. I didn't figure the bullet would go through her. But, I didn't want to chance it. So, I waited.........and waited.........and waited. Finally, the yearling moved off and the doe turned just right.

"BOOM!"

This time, I didn't hear the round hit. It was just too loud under the awning. What I DID see..........was the doe's butt hit the ground and and her head followed. She basically sat back and then crumpled forward. Not a twitch after she hit the ground. D-U-N..........done.

That'll work. Two shots..............two folded deer with the .460 S&W. I think we're onto something here! This sucker drops deer like the Hand of God!

With a fist bump and a smile, my boy and I walked across the field to the doe.



I am REALLY starting to like this gun/cartridge combination. It is quite effective and accurate.

Here is where the doe was standing when I shot her.



We took pictures and then loaded her in the truck to head home. There was science to be done.



.460 S&W
Bullet: 250gr Hornady XTP
Muzzle Velocity: 2,388 fps (edited to correct velocity)
Distance to Impact: 93 yards
Angle: Right Side Quartering Towards
Impact Velocity: 1,848 fps (est) (edited to correct velocity)
Distance Traveled After Impact: 0 yards
Entrance


Entrance Under Hide


Entrance Under Shoulder


Now, the last deer I shot, the bullet hit the point of the on side shoulder at the joint. I tried to repeat that, but only nicked the shoulder bone right at the joint. Took a chip out of the bone, but that's about it. Sorry.

Entrance through Shoulder




The haze you see in some of these pictures is the steam coming from the deer's body. It was a little chilly.

Etrance Under Shoulder - Meat Removed


The bullet took out 3 ribs while entering the thoracic cavity. And, made a fist size hole in the process.





Entrance Under Ribs


Entrance Under Ribs - Blood Removed


At this point, the bullet is traveling rearward from the point of the shoulder. It has passed through the shoulder muscle, broken 3 ribs, opened a fist size hole in the chest cavity, completely wiped out the front lobe of the left lung, and exploded the heart. Severing the aorta and ripping open the heart like a pomegranate.









It then punctured the diaphragm.



Passed through the edge of the liver and came to rest in the back portion of the stomach.

Now, in the name of science..............I actually opened up the stomach.................and sifted..........and sifted..........and sifted.........through all the fermenting vegetation and bile. Oh, what a WONDERFUL aroma!!!! Handful after handful, I squeezed through my fingers. Feeling for every piece of lead I could find. But, you know what? I found it. and several tiny pieces of lead. I hope you feel sorry for me. My hands still smell like fermented grass.

I'll spare you the visual of the stomach content. But, here was the general location of the bullet in relation to the body.


It passed through just over 2 feet of deer.

Retained Weight


Combined Weight








I am exceptionally pleased with the bullets performance. It held together for the most part and penetrated well enough for deer sized game. In the process, it caused massive initial damage with the hydrostatic shock and temporary cavity. Visual cues as to this can be seen in both the entrance hole to the chest cavity and the "explosion" of the heart as the bullet passed through.

I am impressed. This is a catastrophic combination on deer. The combination of a wide frontal diameter, high velocity, and softer expanding bullet work together to provide dramatic results.

I like it.

Notice the discoloration of the copper from the short amount of time in the bile of the stomach.

Excellent post. I love the layered analysis of the bullets performance.

Zee,

Great shooting and awesome write-up once again! Your dedication to recover the bullet...inspiring.

I saw similar results driving the 44 cal XTP's hard at the upper end of their velocity window - with terminal results more akin to rifle damage than pistol thanks to rapid bullet upset.

Time for breakfast.

Speed kills.

Great pics, and great write up.

Good shooting and great write up, Zee!

Great shot, pictures and write up!

Congrats and another great postmortem! I was getting same type results running the 250xtp to 1750fps in my FA454. The only difference is; I never recovered a bullet.

I know how you feel about the aroma on the hands. I still get a faint whiff every once in a while...from a week ago!!! Just kid'n, but it does take a LONG while to "wear" the smell off.

Shocking that anyone would quibble about not being exactly on target.

Excellent shot and autopsy.
Of course, all in the name of "science."

Excellent write up! Wonderful from start to finish. Speed kills!

Zee, I am so proud of your being as crazy as I am.

I used to do necropsy/autopsy for a living for a pharmaceutical company but moved on to a new profession.

I still do the same examination on everything I shoot!! It's really the only way to learn terminal effects for anything unless you only need to see DED and don't care about anything else. Awesome job!!

Thank you, Sir.

Terminal performance is infinitely interesting to me. I love to learn the how's and why's.

It makes me a better shooter and Hunter knowing what will happen when a bullet goes a certain place and what I can expect the result to be.

It also dispels myths and half truths. Which, I also enjoy doing.

It's fun to take it one step at a time and see what the bullet does as it passes through the body.

Ballistic gel ain't got nothing on living tissue!

This is all very true. Especially your last statement.

I'm learning the difference in death from a slow cast bullet and a fast expanding bullet. They both work, but the external damage and speed of death are dramatically different.

If you need penetration for large game, cast and weight seem to be key. But, on lighter animals, the seem to be able to soak up the heavy slow bullets a little better as they pass through with little secondary damage caused by temporary cavity and hydraulic pressure.

It's the rapid expansion that causes the increased shock wave and resulting neuro-disruption from the hydrostatic shock. The wave travels through the animal so fast that it disrupts their system and knocks them out. Then, the damage caused to the internal organs kills them before they regain consciousness.

Take this deer for instance. I hit no major bone or any portion of the central nervous system. Yet, the deer collapsed instantly and never even twitched a leg. This tells me that the impact of the bullet basically TKO'd her and the catastrophic damage to the heart and lungs killed her quickly before she regained consciousness.

Amazing stuff.

My hand STILL stinks!!!!

I know that had I taken a broadside shot on either of the deer I've taken with this gun/load combination, that the bullet would have completely passed through the deer. This is expressly why I chose quartering shots in both deer. I specifically wanted to try and stop a bullet inside in order to gather data from it.

So, we basically have the muzzle velocity of a .454 Casull being maintained at approximately 100 yards by the .460 S&W.

That too is very interesting to me. Thank you for the info!!!

Hey, I didn't center the bone! I wanted to center the bone!!! I can't help it if I'm picky!

By the way, I used that same rest I've been playing with all season. Dude, it's worth it's weight in gold!!!

Need to get it out and play at some really long distances to validate it more.

And thank you all for the kinds words. I enjoy doing what I do.

Another great write-up even though it was a bad shot.

Another great writeup. Getting to see terminal performance on game is educational to say the least.

I would like to see a close up photo or two of the weapon used, deminsions of barrel. I have been thinking about a 460 for some time.
This might tip the scales and cause me to call SSK or MGM.

Mike

I impatiently wait on your LR eval of your rest.I want the info NOW

great write up!

great write up!

So far your experiences are revealing how effective (Very Effective) lighter weight expanding bullets are on deer sized game.

Well, light weight is relative. It's still a 250gr bullet. But, light for caliber, yes.

Z - your play - by - play is too cool man. Thanks

No worries.

I finally chronographed the load.

2,388 fps!!!!!!!

So, the ballistics are as follows.

.460 S&W
Bullet: 250gr Hornady XTP
Muzzle Velocity: 2,388
Distance to Impact: 93 yards
Angle: Right Side Quartering Towards
Impact Velocity: 1,848 (est)
Distance Traveled After Impact: 0 yards

That's impressive. No wonder the deer dropped on the spot.

Slightly off topic, but am I the only one who's seeing these posts really stretched out lengthwise?

Mine was and it was only this page. Until just now.

:cuetwilightzonemusic:

the velocity limit-1600 f.p.s. was for revolvers ,because over that limit it starts to erode the forcing cones-that's what the Hornady tech told me-but I think James has pushed it over 1800 fps with his revolvers with no problems-I just play it safe and have mine in the lower 1500's-johnw.

And, I know that it doesn't need to be driven that fast to be effective. This was more and endeavor in "how fast can I push it" and "what will happen when I do".

That's the fun part.