[bsterns]

I think all the replies on your subject are good ones. You mentioned that your daughter would be hunting fairly heavy brush up to 75 yards. I wonder if the deer would be easily found if, for some reason, it was shot in a less than ideal spot. My experience using a 243 over 40+ years is that you need for the bullet to expand well inside a fairly small chest cavity (which many Texas whitetails have) to keep the deer from running off too far. Heavy brush and the sun setting is always a problem with behind the shoulder lung shots. Higher up on the thorax closer to the backseems to paralyse them. Midway down through and through lung shots seem to allow the deer to run 50 yards or more. This is what I have experienced with my 243 using slow expanding bullets such as the old 100 gr. Winchester silvertip. The bullet would zip through leaving a very small exit wound and the deer would finally go down and be sitting up looking at me, still alive 20 minutes later some 50 to 75 yds from where he was shot. The idea of using a reduced load with a nosler 95 or 100 grain partition bullet might slow it down enough to expand more. Of course I am speaking of heavy brush, sunset, whitetail deer, and a 243 win. I once gave my wife some 80gr. 243 hollowpoints to shoot her deer and she shot him in the front shoulder and the bullet blew up. He fell, got up and she shot him in the butt. He fell, got up and ran off. We had to get dogs to find him. He jumped and ran and was shot 3 more times to down him. To kill him we used a .22 pistol to the head. Not your usual whitetail story but it proves you don't shoot fast hollow points at whitetail. Her first shot would have killed instantly had she used a penetrating bullet. So you can have both extremes. I just started buying Remington corelock 100 grain factory cartridges for my wife so I could not be blamed for the outcome. They seemed to expand perfectly on the bullets that I found. Some did not make it through larger deer but held together and mushroomed to the skin on the opposite side when the animal was shot through the paunch, liver, or whatever you might call a gutshot. Still those deer did not go over 30 yards. Of course it was in the morning. They only run off in the late evening it seems. I think the Remington PSP or PSP Corelock expand faster than the gameking or partition. If the bullet tumbles after hitting it can separate from it's jacket. Most of them stay together. I once shot a trophy whitetail whose horns are on my wall with the .243 at 325 yards. He was standing brownside to me grazing. I aimed high on the shoulder and it went low through the leg bone, brisket, center of the heart and exited leaving a horrendous blood trail. The deer was standing still when I shot and he ran wideopen headfirst into the ground, burying his antlers in the dirt and did a flip. He ran 35 yards. So whitetails can be tough and lots of stories can be told about which bullet is best. I think you must have a bullet that will not blow up on the shoulder and one that will not zip through like an ice pick stab wound. I would probably recommend the 95 nosler partition for myself and I would make sure I shot him in the shoulder and not behind it when the sun is setting and the deer is near heavy brush. I am sure it will be a great experience for an 11 year old. I think I was 12 when I first shot a gun.

Bob