First deer with 300 Whisper (new Whisper owner)

[Riverguide]

I've been hunting for years with my sporter-rized Springfield 30.06 and been very happy with the results. A good friend started touting the 300 whisper as being a better cartridge for me considering I never take a shot further then 200 yards and much of the power of the 30.06 is wasted on Virginia White tails. Here are the details:

CZ-527 (originally a 223) rebarreled to 300 whisper; 1:11 twist.
Nosler Ballistic Tip 125 grain being pushed by H110 at 18.5 grains. A simple Nikon Buckmaster 4 x 32 fixed scope for the sight. These were loaded for me by my good buddy that got me into this round.

Results - This was about a 60 yard shot from 16" in a deer stand taken right at sunset. The shot entered at the base on the right rib cage (she was quartering away from me) and exited just behind the left shoulder.

The good - There was NOTHING but bone fragments and jello-ed tissue in the lung cavity. The bullet did its job very well. She made it about 30 yards.

The challenge - There was NO blood trail to follow. A bullet fragment made it thru the hide but was small enough that all the blood stayed contained in the lung cavity. There was a nice beginnings of an exit wound in the rib cage but it stopped at the inside if the skin. Very little blood came thru her mouth as well. It was completely dark by the time I climed out of my stand and it was very hard to find her.

I love the idea of the cartidge and have SSK building me another CZ-527 with a 1:8 twist (paying top $$ but hope its worth it!) and should be at my FFL dealer the second week in December. I seem to have a challenge though shooting like I did my 30.06. I can't depend on a blood trail with that load. As I gain confidence, maybe I will do more head shots.

I have a picture of the inside of the hide with the exit wound if anyone cares to see.

-Riverguide