8.6 Blackout success and update

S

Sprint1006

Active member
So I was able to harvest a coyote and a cow elk yesterday morning. Good news is the 8.6 worked and it busted through an elk shoulder at about 120 yards. Bad news was once the bullet was inside it really didn’t do that much damage. The bullet stayed on a straight line path and put multiple holes and quite a bit of bruising in the front part of the lungs, but there was no frothing at all and no blood trail of any sort. Luckily she was standing not far from the first shot and I was able to hit her again. She moved upon the second shot and I hit her in front of the shoulders. She only went a couple feet then and died. While I was impressed the little round destroyed an elk shoulder, if we would have had to track her there was no blood to follow even in the snow. I didn’t want to hit her in the shoulder and think blood would have been better if I had hit her in the lungs or heart but still should have been some. I didn’t get a chance to take photos of the damage as we were fighting rain and snow. Just rushed to get it done and keep the meat dry. I did find one petal exit back in the stomach area but did not find the actual bullet even though it didn’t exit. All in all I was impressed with the 8.6 getting through the shoulder I am a bit worried about the lack of damage to the lungs and complete lack of blood trail.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5432.jpeg
    IMG_5432.jpeg
    3.9 MB · Views: 17
  • IMG_5434.jpeg
    IMG_5434.jpeg
    3.6 MB · Views: 17
I’m using the 175 grain hammer hunters at 2250 fps. Impact velocity was still over 2000 fps. The moose my mom shot with it back in October was a lung shot with much better results. Lots of blood spray, liquified lungs, and barely took two steps.
 
I’ve been trying to decide if the 186 grain shock hammer might be better suited for this cartridge. But was worried it might come apart too soon on something heavy like an elk. What do you guys think?
 
186 would not be bad. Top end should be 2200-2300. I wouldn’t go any heavier velocities will be lacking for proper expansion at distance.
 
Thanks for the update @Sprint1006

I understand the weather conditions and the time constraints for taking pictures of the wound channels. It’s not quick or easy to do so. Your description is great and I have a mental picture of what it looked like.

I remember those 175hh being drilled to near dead blow depths, if not a full dead blow design. Your low velocity and the amount of energy needed to shed those large, long petals slowed the shank and petals by the time they made it through the shoulder and into the lungs. Yet it’s impressive a petal made it to the stomach area. It’s also very impressive that the pill went straight line. I do believe your extreme fast twist helps to initiate a more even expansion of the nose vs a standard twist. Which helps keep it going straight line.

I can imagine that shoulder had some massive damage. So translate the damage in the shoulder of the elk to a rib shot into the lungs and you’ll likely get the results your mom did on the moose. I believe you’re seeing the limitations of this combination.

I’m very curious what the exit looked like on the coyote. Do you mind giving the details there?

Thanks again for the update
Kneedeep
 
Kneedeep the exit hole on the coyote was probably an inch and a half and left blood spray behind it. It was a high lung shot. Pretty sure it got the bottom of the spine as well. Never took a step.
 
Regarding the 186sh, I don’t know what a 2000ish impact would look like but a 186sh impacting at 3200-3300 has a short but wide petal pattern and wound channel. The shank also slows relatively quickly. I believe it’s due to the frontal diameter and the energy needed to shed all its nose at one time. A lot of pop and no peeling of the petals.

Kneedeep
 
Sprint1006 said:
Kneedeep the exit hole on the coyote was probably an inch and a half and left blood spray behind it. It was a high lung shot. Pretty sure it got the bottom of the spine as well. Never took a step.
Click to expand...
Do you think all the petals had shed by the time it exited. Did you look for any petal exits around the main exit hole?
 
This is an interesting round. I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more. I find the twist rate to be amazing.
 
kneedeep said:
Do you think all the petals had shed by the time it exited. Did you look for any petal exits around the main exit hole?
Click to expand...
I did not look for petal exits on the coyote. Took a quick picture and went back to trying to get on the elk we had bumped once already. Surprisingly shooting the coyote didn’t ruin our chances at the elk. I would say by how narrow the coyote was that if they fully shed they exited real near the exit hole. I was thinking the 186 might pop too soon for larger game like elk. I think I will stick with this combo and try to be more diligent about getting it just behind the shoulder not into it. Pretty sure it shed almost all of its energy in the shoulder which is why the lungs while having holes in them didn’t get tore up. If there had been some blood from the shoulder hit I would have been completely happy with the performance, but no blood, even with snow, makes for a hard time tracking if she had gone further.
 
les said:
This is an interesting round. I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more. I find the twist rate to be amazing.
Click to expand...
I did too, so much so that I built one. Plan to let the wife and kids hunt with it since it doesn’t kick at all, but wanted to do some testing my self. I want to do some lower speed testing this summer to see if the faster twist will shed the petals below 1800fps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top