Bullet Construction vs Lethality

[skipglo]

View attachment 489219

I don't think hunting over bait...was included in the question...but strongly recommend...the head shot!

 

[Snowboy]

You make some good observations. The only thing I would like to comment on is the double lung shot. That shot can be tricky for any bullet. The first thing to say is that lung blood flow in the mid to rear of the lungs is lower and less concentrated than up front close to the heart. That's because the main pulmonary artery and the first segmental pulmonary arteries are there and they have the same blood flow collectively as the high pressure aorta. If you rip them open the animal will bleed into the chest rapidly and lose consciousness quickly. At the mid lung don't expect a large blood trail, and if the exit hole is large a Deer or Antelope can run hundreds of yards. That is because a large exit hole stops the formation of a tension pneumothorax. It likely is eventually a lethal shot but the animal may take the rest of the day to expire. A better result is to not have a large exit hole that is self sealing. This causes entrapment of air in the space between the chest wall and lung known as the pleural space. With heavy breathing that space fills with air rapidly, and eventually pressurizes the trapped air to the point that the lungs are fully collapsed and squeezed to a very small volume. The consequence of that is catastrophic drop in blood flow from the heart to the brain and relative rapid loss of consciousness. The animal may run 50 -100 yds before collapsing.

What do you consider a large exit hole?

 

[skipglo]

Wow, 12 pages in 24 hours.

I'm not worried about rankings of bullet performance, I just use the one that I can shoot the best in my rifle. They will all kill animals.

X10!

 

[3chester]

I don't think hunting over bait...was included in the question...but strongly recommend...the head shot!

There are sometimes guys on a very close range shot, that forget their scope is above the bore centerline by inch and a half or so. They go for headshot and miss their mark, low by 2 inches, or so. Works when it does but, not for an amateur shooter.

 

[dfanonymous]

Just out of idle curiosity has anyone ever done any gel tests on the actual performance with the gel block set out to 1000 or whatever magical range that we are talking about here? Would like to hear what the results were, first off on how many shots it took to hit the gel block and then the penetration and bullet performance. As it is said, "Inquiring minds want to know."

I thought @Barbourcreek did a few projectiles? Or maybe I imagined that up.

 

[Mike Matteson]

I know that this thread is turning into kind of a s*** show. Certainly not my intention, but I felt I had to defend myself in as a polite way as I could.

I am not trying to beat anybody up. I ran into this before on bullets. Only I generally feel it's best to leave alone. It's the same story my bullet is better than your's. I am trying not get into this to hard.

 

[xsn10s]

I thought @Barbourcreek did a few projectiles? Or maybe I imagined that up.

Yup they did test out to distance. Some of the distances varied. Other people just shot into gel at lower velocities. Barbour Creek generally shoots into 20% ballistics gel rather than 10%.

 

[Pdvdh]

154gr Hammer Hunter Tipped (HHT) launched out of a 300 RUM at 3715 fps gets to 1000 yards still going 1799 fps and retains 1107 ft lbs of energy.

Based on what bullet BC value?

 

[BigDon]

SD? I am having a bald moment because I can only think Standard Deviation...LOL

Sectional Density

 

[BEEMAN]

nralifer. You said to ask questions in post #23. I did in post #27. If I missed your answer I apologize. I've gone back a number of pages and didn't see anything.

 

[skipglo]

There are sometimes guys on a very close range shot, that forget their scope is above the bore centerline by inch and a half or so. They go for headshot and miss their mark, low by 2 inches, or so. Works when it does but, not for an amateur shooter.

I was referring to the attached video....lol...gazelle eating popcorn!

 

[choprzrul]

Based on what bullet BC value?

.308 Cal-154gr Hammer HHT - Hammer Bullets

AT THIS TIME TIPS ARE CONSUMER INSTALLED TIPPING BLOCK INCLUDED WITH EACH ORDER Designed for a minimum barrel twist of 1-12", this Hammer HHT will run in any of the factory barreled rifles and be fully stable. A great choice for the smaller 30 caliber cartridges or for those that would like a...

hammerbullets.com

 

[xsn10s]

154gr HHT BC G7 .221 est. BD2 150 BC G7 .264.

 

[Taj]

The "penetrate deeply at angle angle to reach vital organs" is a tough one. If you look at ballistic gel testing, I've never seen a bullet with a truly LONG and WIDE wound cavity. Some penetrate a ways before opening up, some open up sooner…but either way the length of that maximum wound cavity is a real limiting factor.

It does me no good to shoot a bull or buck quartering away hard, and have the bullet exit the front of the animal but the wound cavity through the vitals is narrow. Experienced this the hard way on a whitetail that gave me a very long tracking job.

Let us know when you find the magic bullet; I don't believe it exists.

I shoot gelatin for a living and can comment on a few things in this regard. I do wound ballistic workshops for a major ammo manufacturer and all of my customers are law enforcement. Most of what I shoot are handgun calibers and we always shoot the FBI protocol. We do shoot a few rifle calibers that are applicable to LE but keep in mind that the FBI protocol does not apply to rifle calibers. First of all, bullets do not penetrate "a ways" before they start to expand. I wish we could program them to do that but bullet expansion starts on contact with what ever medium it's shot into. At velocities over about 2000-2100 fps temporary cavitation does come into play, which is basically a product of energy transfer. This will vary with terminal velocity but usually tissue stretch resulting from temp cavitation at velocities over 2000 fps results in tissue tearing and increased hemorrhaging. Bullet expansion plays a big part in energy transfer/ temp cavitation because it decreases the time over which that energy is transferred. Bullet design and construction plays a big part in how a bullet expands and the velocities at which they will expand. Some bullets are extremely fragile at very short ranges so expansion happens very rapidly and often to the point that energy destroys the bullet. This can result in catastrophic damage at short range but will also limit penetration. Bullets that come apart lose total mass and do not penetrate as well as the same weight bullet that stays intact. Terminal ballistics is always a balancing act of performance criteria.