CVA 50cal punch

I picked up a CVA a year ago, and was able to take a doe last week with it for the first time. I dont really know much about them, but I really like them. The doe I shot was fairly small and the bullet didnt even travel through her. I shot her in the neck at 49 1/2 yds, and figured it would have passed through..??
I'm shooting 100grains of powder with a hollow point

A 50 yard neck shot and didn't pass thru...think I'd try another brand bullet.

Pass through shots are for archery, not firearms. The bullets intended action is to expend all of it's energy within the target. Too many nimrods watch too much TV and equate pass through as the perfect performance. The argument of pass through leaving a better blood trail is weak, some hunters couldn't follow a blood trail sprayed by a hose, learn how to track and place every shot into the kill zone. If a bullet is placed correctly and performs as designed, the likely hood of losing a deer is minimal. More deer are lost to bad shots and bad hunters than bad bullet performance.

Plus 2

agreed... pick your shots carefully, if its not good don't take it, the deer will come back, maybe not tomorrow or the next day but it will be back, that is why it is called hunting not shooting.

Most of the deer I shoot with my .50 Hawken have two big holes. I don't use those saboted pistol bullets, though, just a solid chunk of lead.

polaris30144 said:

Pass through shots are for archery, not firearms. The bullets intended action is to expend all of it's energy within the target. Too many nimrods watch too much TV and equate pass through as the perfect performance. The argument of pass through leaving a better blood trail is weak, some hunters couldn't follow a blood trail sprayed by a hose, learn how to track and place every shot into the kill zone. If a bullet is placed correctly and performs as designed, the likely hood of losing a deer is minimal. More deer are lost to bad shots and bad hunters than bad bullet performance.

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I could not disagree more. I want the bullet to pass through whenever possible. The blood trail excuse is all that is needed. Sometimes they bleed only a little with a pass through and not at all when the bullet blows up in them. I am switching from a very popular bullet because they blow up every time and the deer run off. They die, but they run off.

Hollow Points are designed to do just that. Blow Up on impact. Use a solid point bullet. I use the Platinum Power Belts in 270 grain. 8 out of ten times I get a pass through. but if I hit it in the shoulder that deer isn't going anywhere.

NCHillbilly said:

Most of the deer I shoot with my .50 Hawken have two big holes. I don't use those saboted pistol bullets, though, just a solid chunk of lead.

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Those solid chunks of lead have been killing deer for a long time.

Bowyer29 said:

I could not disagree more. I want the bullet to pass through whenever possible. The blood trail excuse is all that is needed. Sometimes they bleed only a little with a pass through and not at all when the bullet blows up in them. I am switching from a very popular bullet because they blow up every time and the deer run off. They die, but they run off.

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You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but in 50 years of hunting my opinion is based on observed inadequacies of hunters not bullets. If more hunters learned to "hunt" and not just shoot, there would be less lost deer. Ambushing a deer from a tree stand is an offshoot of archery hunting adapted by gun hunters that try to emulate the whole archery thing, including pass through shots as being ideal. The premise of the "killing power of a bullet" is to expend all of it's energy inside of it's intended target, not waste it downrange after passing through. I have lost deer and can tell you it wasn't the bullets fault ever, it was mine for not placing the shot properly. As I have gained experience and patience with passing years, I have learned to only take high percentage shots since I am not hunting to feed an ego any longer and I am not "desperate" to kill a deer. The true experts on hunting and bullet performance have been writing for years about single hole dead deer. If you place any modern rifle bullet in an animal correctly, the animal doesn't run off to die. The Nimrods on TV spouting heart shots do a disservice to the average hunter by taking those shots(makes for more dramatic TV). A heart shot animal will always run longer distances before dropping, but a lung or shoulder shot animal usually always drops within sight. I have rarely heard a hunter admit to making a bad shot, it almost always is the gun/bullet's fault.

You got that right Polaris.

You fella's can keep right on using those modern bullets. I'm gonna stick with the patched roundball in my traditional rifles and cast bullets in my cartridge rifles. They do pass thru at the ranges I shoot but the deer end up just as dead.

quigleysharps4570 said:

You fella's can keep right on using those modern bullets. I'm gonna stick with the patched roundball in my traditional rifles and cast bullets in my cartridge rifles. They do pass thru at the ranges I shoot but the deer end up just as dead.

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A blind man can track a deer on snow.......J/K. If you are happy with the results you get, then great. There are dead deer from pass through shots, but the ideal bullet performs differently. If patched round balls were ideal, there would never have been any advancements in firearms technology for 150 years(you can't improve perfection). There are many types of firearms and bullet combination's that will kill deer, but some do it better than others. Opinions on what works best can be formed from limited to no first hand experience, but from urban legends and watching too much TV. Probably more deer have been killed with a 30-30 or .22LR than any other calibers and rarely do they provide pass through penetration and the deer are recovered because of "hunting" skill, not bullet pass through. If what you are using works for you, fine, but don't paint with such a broad brush that you advise new hunters as your way is the "best" way. Any .50 Caliber bullet of almost any design will kill a deer if the shot placement is correct. Deer aren't mystical lead absorbing beasts, they are killed by the thousands each year with a pointed stick, they are relatively easy to drop with proper shot placement. Deer don't run far with jellied lungs, but can run long distances with a blown out heart. Watch the "hunting" shows where they shoot lung/shoulder shots and they drop immediately, then watch when they heart shoot and the deer runs off before dying. I have killed a pile of deer with a .44 magnum with 200 grain JHP and the same bullet will work just as well if powered by black powder as with smokeless and I have never had a pass through nor have I wanted one.

polaris30144 said:

A blind man can track a deer on snow

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That same blind man don't have to be out in it very long either.