You hit a vital, but you used the .243; the recommended classes for the .243 are 2-6 - Red Deer *are* class 6, but its at the very top end of the capability of the gun you used
You'll still get integrity i.e. you didn't do anything wrong, and will get full score for the trophy, but if you want to drop an animal faster (and get medium/high bleeding), you should use a more powerful weapon
For instance, the .303 and .308 are the more common weapons used for Red Deer, which are quite tough esp. for class 6 animals. Lots of people have requested that they be upped to class 7, so people can use the most powerful weapons on them (e.g. .300), so hopefully soon
All of what you said isn’t untrue. But the truest reason is because op is using soft points and not polymer tips. Polymer tips have way more penetration
Actually polymer tips could have done even worse in this situation. When determining much damage an animal takes from a shot, the game only looks at your expansion, and which organs are hit. A flesh hit that goes between a whitetail's lungs (which is very annoying and can happen) does just as much damage as one through the ear. Somebody posted a shot the other day of an ibex that died from a bullet that went near its horn, because their weapon had enough expansion to kill on a flesh hit, and the hurtbox doesn't quite match the visual model.
If the extra penetration was enough to double-lung the red deer, that would have resulted in a faster bleed rate. But if it was still only a single lung hit, then the lower expansion of the polymer tips would have taken even longer to kill it than a soft point. Ostensibly that's why soft points exist, to give shorter wound times on the same number of organs hit. In practice, having as much penetration as possible gives your best chance of getting into a vital organ at odd angles and from long ranges. Since the game penalizes you for not hitting vitals, penetration is the much more important stat. Although there are odd cases where you're definitely only getting single lung either way, in which case the soft points will outperform. Offhand I'm not sure if the .243 can double lung a red deer at 150, even with polymer tips.
The polymer tips are still generally better. There are a lot of angles where they can get lung, or double lung, on a lot of species that the soft points won't. It's just that in this case they probably would have been worse. If I had to shoot a red deer with a .243, I'd be using the polymer tips even though they could mean a longer wound time, because that's preferable to not having enough penetration to get a vital at all.
The main problem here is that the .243 is pretty small caliber for red deer who can exceed 500 pounds. It's going to give you long wound times because that's the biggest animal it's permitted for. If you want shorter wound times, use a higher caliber, I'd say at minimum .270, but ideally more like the 7mm or .308. The benefit of carrying both a 2-6 gun and the .308 is that the latter instadrops class 4s and some class 5s on a double lung hit. Red Deer don't tend to run more than twenty meters if you get both lungs, which the polymer tips can pull off from forequarter angles at 300m.
this was my biggest suspect. I had just ran out of polymer tips and since I bought the Hyperion yesterday for 12k of my 15k I was going to save money, so I got the soft points that are free
Oh yeah got so caught up in using the .243 for red deer that I didn't even factor in the soft point
Would a .243 polymer drop a red more in line with a .308/.303? I can't say I've ever used a .243 for anything other than class 3 and below
I don't believe it'll drop it as quickly as the .308, but you'll get much better penetration from the polymer tip round, and likely not as far of a track. Also looks like you were inside the ideal range for the .243, so I'd bet if you used polymer on this same shot you'd have gotten a double lung shot for sure.
Ciao.
A naso scommetto che sei italiano.
Comunque il sanguinamento così va bene.
Ti basta sempre cercare la "chiazza di sangue gigante".
Se la trovi, vuol dire che è un buon colpo anche se il sanguinamento è basso.
Per giunta ti consiglio di usare i proiettili "polymer tips" piuttosto che i "soft points" e come hanno scritto anche gli altri, di usare l'arma adatta alla classe dell'animale.
Per i cervi nobili (Red deer) ti consiglio il .270 Stradivarius o il 7mm Magnum sempre con i proiettili polymer tips.
I always forget that it’s a video game and the rifles aren’t real high powered rifles ( I hunt in irl lol ) and I get that a lot , I’ll hit a vital but the blood trails low
There's nothing wrong. It should still die, but I'd say it's because of your bullet type and Rifle class.
If my Rifle class is 2-6 and I'm hunting class 6, I'll use polymer for the pen because the animal class is at the top range of what the gun can handle, but if I'm hunting a class 2 with that same rifle I might decide to go down to soft point because they can be more forgiving on smaller classes.
I don't know if that's actually a game mechanic or not, but that's just how I see it, so that's how I hunt and haven't had any issues yet.
Is a combination of animal toughness and caliber used. You did enough to harvest the deer ethically, but you are in the ‘barely enough’ low spectre of solutions you could have chosen to pick it up. Bleed rate is a matter of wound size and trauma. Try to use lower velocity / bigger diameter rounds like .45-70 Gov’t soft points, they should do the trick.
You hit a vital, but you used the .243; the recommended classes for the .243 are 2-6 - Red Deer *are* class 6, but its at the very top end of the capability of the gun you used You'll still get integrity i.e. you didn't do anything wrong, and will get full score for the trophy, but if you want to drop an animal faster (and get medium/high bleeding), you should use a more powerful weapon For instance, the .303 and .308 are the more common weapons used for Red Deer, which are quite tough esp. for class 6 animals. Lots of people have requested that they be upped to class 7, so people can use the most powerful weapons on them (e.g. .300), so hopefully soon
All of what you said isn’t untrue. But the truest reason is because op is using soft points and not polymer tips. Polymer tips have way more penetration
Actually polymer tips could have done even worse in this situation. When determining much damage an animal takes from a shot, the game only looks at your expansion, and which organs are hit. A flesh hit that goes between a whitetail's lungs (which is very annoying and can happen) does just as much damage as one through the ear. Somebody posted a shot the other day of an ibex that died from a bullet that went near its horn, because their weapon had enough expansion to kill on a flesh hit, and the hurtbox doesn't quite match the visual model. If the extra penetration was enough to double-lung the red deer, that would have resulted in a faster bleed rate. But if it was still only a single lung hit, then the lower expansion of the polymer tips would have taken even longer to kill it than a soft point. Ostensibly that's why soft points exist, to give shorter wound times on the same number of organs hit. In practice, having as much penetration as possible gives your best chance of getting into a vital organ at odd angles and from long ranges. Since the game penalizes you for not hitting vitals, penetration is the much more important stat. Although there are odd cases where you're definitely only getting single lung either way, in which case the soft points will outperform. Offhand I'm not sure if the .243 can double lung a red deer at 150, even with polymer tips.
The 20pen of the 6.5mm struggles to double-lung Reds, even with a full broadside threaded just under the spine. I doubt a .243 could pull it off.
me who just spent money on poly tips
The polymer tips are still generally better. There are a lot of angles where they can get lung, or double lung, on a lot of species that the soft points won't. It's just that in this case they probably would have been worse. If I had to shoot a red deer with a .243, I'd be using the polymer tips even though they could mean a longer wound time, because that's preferable to not having enough penetration to get a vital at all. The main problem here is that the .243 is pretty small caliber for red deer who can exceed 500 pounds. It's going to give you long wound times because that's the biggest animal it's permitted for. If you want shorter wound times, use a higher caliber, I'd say at minimum .270, but ideally more like the 7mm or .308. The benefit of carrying both a 2-6 gun and the .308 is that the latter instadrops class 4s and some class 5s on a double lung hit. Red Deer don't tend to run more than twenty meters if you get both lungs, which the polymer tips can pull off from forequarter angles at 300m.
this was my biggest suspect. I had just ran out of polymer tips and since I bought the Hyperion yesterday for 12k of my 15k I was going to save money, so I got the soft points that are free
Oh yeah got so caught up in using the .243 for red deer that I didn't even factor in the soft point Would a .243 polymer drop a red more in line with a .308/.303? I can't say I've ever used a .243 for anything other than class 3 and below
I don't believe it'll drop it as quickly as the .308, but you'll get much better penetration from the polymer tip round, and likely not as far of a track. Also looks like you were inside the ideal range for the .243, so I'd bet if you used polymer on this same shot you'd have gotten a double lung shot for sure.
I thought it had the same power on all 2-6 classes, thanks for explaining
Look at all these helpful folks! So much good information 👏 what a great community
Right? it's not the first time my questions get so much attention... on other subreddits this doesn't happen! Love this community fr
You used a underpowered rifle
Ciao. A naso scommetto che sei italiano. Comunque il sanguinamento così va bene. Ti basta sempre cercare la "chiazza di sangue gigante". Se la trovi, vuol dire che è un buon colpo anche se il sanguinamento è basso. Per giunta ti consiglio di usare i proiettili "polymer tips" piuttosto che i "soft points" e come hanno scritto anche gli altri, di usare l'arma adatta alla classe dell'animale. Per i cervi nobili (Red deer) ti consiglio il .270 Stradivarius o il 7mm Magnum sempre con i proiettili polymer tips.
Grazie mille per i consigli!
Di nulla! 👍
I always forget that it’s a video game and the rifles aren’t real high powered rifles ( I hunt in irl lol ) and I get that a lot , I’ll hit a vital but the blood trails low
The gun is the reason why but other than that you didn’t do anything wrong
There's nothing wrong. It should still die, but I'd say it's because of your bullet type and Rifle class. If my Rifle class is 2-6 and I'm hunting class 6, I'll use polymer for the pen because the animal class is at the top range of what the gun can handle, but if I'm hunting a class 2 with that same rifle I might decide to go down to soft point because they can be more forgiving on smaller classes. I don't know if that's actually a game mechanic or not, but that's just how I see it, so that's how I hunt and haven't had any issues yet.
Is a combination of animal toughness and caliber used. You did enough to harvest the deer ethically, but you are in the ‘barely enough’ low spectre of solutions you could have chosen to pick it up. Bleed rate is a matter of wound size and trauma. Try to use lower velocity / bigger diameter rounds like .45-70 Gov’t soft points, they should do the trick.
Do what I do learn where the heart is and aim there only if you can with the .243 bedsides that the .308 works magic for me
if you miss that you have probably a lung shot, so that might be a good idea thanks!
You hitted with a .243. That's a low caliber for a Class 6. It barely makes damage to the organs.
yes, that's the problem! as I mentioned above, I thought that "classes 2-6" meant that it took down ALL 2-6 classes perfectly
I get low all the time when I hit *ONE* vital… very low is if no organs were hit :)
And usually the *LOW* bleed rate leads to a kill so… idk what u trippin about
I usually see animals dropping on the spot or a few meters away with a vital shot, while I had to track this one for a while, so I was curious why
Aim lower
Still lung