I shot mine with the .308 MX and a 160gn FTX. He was dead before the second shot, but I put another one in him anyway before he hit the ground. The first was a longwise shot in the chest and it went right through his heart and the rest of him. The second was broadside and even though it missed hitting bone we still found the slug under the far hide. Perfectly mushroomed and mostly intact, but it failed to fully penetrate.
First deer I took with that round was, iirc, nigh on 30-40 yards broadside. 12 pointer, old and grizzled, bout 200 on the hoof and not rutting.
I let one fly from your run of the mill Marlin 336, scoped, and smacked said deer level and maybe 3 inches back from shoulder crease. He hopped, hunched, and ran 50 yards before falling into a crick. What I witnessed was the most graphic blood trail to date.
Getting out of my stand, I noticed blood where the deer was standing, but closer than he was in relation to my location. There was blood head-high on saplings and shards of bone and meat fragments at the site of the shot. I watched the deer fall, knew he was dead, but I inspected the next 50 yards of blood trail regardless. It was a massive loss of blood on both sides of the trail from entry and exit trauma, with a few bits of lung. Getting the deer on level ground, I field dressed. The ribs were mush around the bullet holes (pass through), and shards of bone were floating around in the upper chest cavity. Entry hole was roughly .45 cal, exit was half dollar sized. I'd never seen that kind of devastation, nor a bullet that expanded that rapidly while still passing through. Why? I've no clue, it's beyond me.
It's a good round, but I recall that event anytime the LE is mentioned. I've shot and seen others shot with it with nominal performance expected. Just never as close as the first I'd taken with it, and never with the same, devastating results.
Edit: there were, however, bits of jacket it that bucks hide, but none in the cavity or wounds.
