Yes. He shot him square in the shoulder and got a pass thru. Now he makes fun of my
7-08. Calls it a pellet gun

Did you break his rib where you hit him?

Do you have a pic of the rib cage after deer was skinned to disprove the angle theories?

Also, out of curiosity, weigh the remaining rounds that were in that same box of ammo if you have them still and see if there are any weight differences to see if maybe it was a light load (you may still have a few light loads in the same box since it's a manufacturer defect)

That's about all I know to maybe get some closure on the matter

Believe it! Ha! Bullets can be faulty too. Not enough powder would be best guess for me or casing issue. Can't see a defective bullet by looking at it in all cases.

In my opinion if it was a dud bullet the point of impact would change drastically, more than likely you wouldn't have hit the deer. That being said if you hit a limb before the deer it would change the point of impact to some degree too. Looks like you hit it almost perfect. If it was a faulty projectile and only penetrate 3 in it would have more than likely fragmented a lot more than it did.

That's crazy.

I once shot a deer that was almost facing me dead straight on. Bullet entered to the right of the sternum and traveled between the skin and rib cage and never entered the chest cavity. Found bullet under skin around his paunch. Deer dropped when i shot him but got back up and ran about 100 yards before dying. Best I could tell was that enough fragments from the bullet severed arteries or entered the chest cavity to kill him.

You either hit something (a square hit too, not a deflecting hit) that slowed the bullet down and didn't have much left when it hit the deer. OR that bullet wasn't loaded hot enough from the factory, at 60 yards it may not be enough to make a noticeable trajectory difference. It could have dropped 3" and you wouldn't be able to tell.