.308 ammo for muntjac

[Gimlet]

Can anyone advise me on .308 ammo for muntjac? I haven't shot them before as we don't have them down here, but my brother is a farm manager up country and he's invited me up to cull some deer, muntjac being the main species. I mostly shoot Sika and roe and my only deer rifle is a .308. I have a .222 but I don't think its enough, and in any case there will be some roe.

I've been using Sako 123 grn SP gamesheads. I bought an M595 recently to replace my aged Parker Hale. The Parky was ammo fussy but it liked the Sakos and as I've got three boxes and the Tikka shoots them well I've been using them up. But the other night I shot a small sika hind. Just as I released the shot it swung its head round for some reason, perhaps to bite an itch on its flank, but it totally changed the angle of presentation right at the point of no return. The shot went from square-on to quartering. The bullet struck too far back quartering forwards towards the shoulder missing the heart but catching the liver. The deer went down, got up, staggered a few paces and fell again raised its head once then died. I wonder whether it would have run with a smaller calibre. When I gralloched it there was little expansion and not even that much bruising, just two pencil holes and a broken rib. Ok that was an unlucky fluke and naturally I'll be looking for clean heart shots as always, but that incident has got wondering me whether these rounds might whistle straight through a little munty without transferring much energy. Should I be using something else?

[al4x]

I wouldn't worry too much they should be fine, Munties are funny little critters and had I not seen the last one a mate shot run with frankly massive damage it's one of those things. If alert and in the right situation they just will, I have heard advice about pinning them through the front shoulders and actually with minimal meat there it might not be such a bad idea, I'm yet to try it but generally with even a 6mm hole they don't go far

[Redgum]

I have used 150gr sierra sp in 308 on Muntjac and it certainly drops them with surprisingly little meat damage. They are small deer but are pretty tough little critters with skin tougher than a fallow, hit them right and you should get plenty of bullet expansion. If I go out to specifically hunt Munties I use my 243 with 85gr sierra spitzers and have yet to loose an animal. Had the odd one run 20mts but that was due to bad shot placement, missing heart but nailing lungs. I don't think there is any need to pin them through the shoulders unless they have got back up and you have no choice.

As for the 222, one of the chaps that comes out on organised Munty culls uses one, not sure what bullet, but he never has a problem dropping them, but as stated, if Roe are also on the menu then it isnt legal.

Edited November 12, 2012 by Redgum

[al4x]

If you shoot enough you will get the occasional one run that you won't believe. Watching one with no heart or lungs and a hole large enough for the rumen to fall out of run like it hadn't been hit its quite amazing. Most don't but the odd one does the pining advice came from a full time stalker near Thetford and I also think its excessive but it is an option one of the other reasons it makes some sense is they are small and it doesn't take a lot of bullet deviation or shooting slightly back to puncture the rumen and contaminate the carcass.

Personally i've shot a fair few with the .223 and the results really aren't any different to the .243

[Dunkield]

If roe weren't part of the equation that triple 2 would be perfect.

I was talking to someone recently who shoots everything with (the mighty) 30.06 from plains game to muntjac

He said the damage was no worse than anything else.

Personally I think the bullet velocity is more damaging than the weight.

[Gimlet]

Thanks chaps. I'll stick with the Sakos till they've gone and then go back to 150s. Its a big piece of ground that I'm unfamiliar with. I know there are some servicable high seats in place so I'll have a drive round with my brother and it may be a case of using a seat and calling initially till I get to know the ground. The Sakos are slightly flatter than 150 grn rounds so they may be an advantage on unfamiliar ground. If I knew deer would show near a high seat or I could call them near reliably, I'd be very tempted to take the .222, but you can guarantee if I did I'd see nothing but roe.

From what little I know about muntjac they'll creep from cover briefly and disappear again rather than mill around browsing like roe. So the high seat option looks attractive.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Gimlet

[al4x]

a lot depends how much cover there is, if plenty then sitting in likely spots works well otherwise if the cover is knocked back and you have field margins / grazing land it can be worth a walk at first light

[Redgum]

The thing that you can guarantee about muntjac is that are mostly unpredictable. You will be in the highseat and jump out of your skin when one barks right underneath you, you can stalk them and they keep appearing the same distance away yet you can walk around a corner and find one happily feeding 10yds away without a care in the world. I have spates in the highseat when I think I will never see a Muntjac again let alone shoot one, next minute the wifes moaning about all the deer hanging about the place. I keep a diary of all the deer I shoot and,over the course of two years, I have shot more from a highseat with the buttalo than any other method. They really are good sport and very testing at times.