RockyMtnMT
Official LRH Sponsor
I am very late to this thread and have only read the beginning. It may have been said, so forgive me if I am repeating. I want to give my analysis of the drt when there isn't a direct CNS impact. Animals have a heart beat. Blood pressure rises and falls with the heat beat. When a bullet hits and deforms it creates a pressure spike in the animal. Combine that pressure spike with the timing of high blood pressure during the heart beat and the possibility of dropping to the shot increase. What is happening is a blood pressure spike causing the animal to stroke out. It's not an electrical shock. It is a function of impact timing and bullet function. Some bullets create more pressure than others giving them a greater likelihood of stroking the animal out.
What we have figured out is this pressure increase comes from the rapid expansion of the bullet. The more rapidly that happens the more pressure. Kind of. If it happens on the outside of the body cavity, too quickly, then no pressure spike and hopefully that bullet has enough left to penetrate. This would typically be the highly frangible lead core bullet impacted at too high a velocity. If it happens on the inside of the animal but to slowly, then we wind up with a narrow wound channel and little visible impact on the animal. This is often when we see the animal run a long ways on a good hit. This often happens with the 100% weight retention bullets.
The trick is to get between these two. When we first started making bullets we did not have any consideration for the shed weight. We just knew that we wanted the nose of the bullet off ASAP. Our goal was to get a flat square frontal area on the retained shank as quick as possible to create a wide long permanent wound channel for the fastest blood loss possible. We want the bullet to become the flat frontal area like the old hard cast or wad cutter, knowing this form displaces soft tissue more perpendicular to the direction of bullet bullet travel than a rounded mushroom. This tissue displacement creates this increased pressure causing these more stunning kills. In our progression of bullet testing and searching for a copper that would do this at a very wide range of impact velocity, we figured out that the shed weight should not be ignored. We figured out that by increasing the amount of shed weight we increased the amount of initial pressure spike in the animal, increasing the amount of drt and less distance traveled after impact. I call it shock, probably technically incorrect. It is pressure increase. Easier to say though!
Next step in this progression was figuring out that what those shed petals do, lead bullets don't have shed petals, couldn't be discounted either. Radiating outward doesn't increase the permanent wound channel as much as having those petals track along with the retained shank. We often see the shed petals exit with the retained shank. An exit hole with several smaller holes around it.
We see more stunningly quick kills, from proper center mass hits, and rapid deaths from marginal hits than I have ever seen with any other bullet. Frankly, high success rates with marginal hits, is what is what separates great bullets from the rest.
I didn't intend to write this much. I am now running late. I hope I cleared up the drt phenomena. I also wanted to make it clear that mono bullets are not all the same. The one that I care about, Hammers, does not have the issues that are stereo typically given to mono bullets. Our bullet does not need more speed to function properly. Our bullet does not result in more travel after impact. Our bullet does not slightly deform at low velocity. We expect full deformation and shed weight down to 1800 fps. Our bullet is capable of higher velocity than conventional bullets of the same weight. Why not take it?
Hammers are in a class of their own.
What we have figured out is this pressure increase comes from the rapid expansion of the bullet. The more rapidly that happens the more pressure. Kind of. If it happens on the outside of the body cavity, too quickly, then no pressure spike and hopefully that bullet has enough left to penetrate. This would typically be the highly frangible lead core bullet impacted at too high a velocity. If it happens on the inside of the animal but to slowly, then we wind up with a narrow wound channel and little visible impact on the animal. This is often when we see the animal run a long ways on a good hit. This often happens with the 100% weight retention bullets.
The trick is to get between these two. When we first started making bullets we did not have any consideration for the shed weight. We just knew that we wanted the nose of the bullet off ASAP. Our goal was to get a flat square frontal area on the retained shank as quick as possible to create a wide long permanent wound channel for the fastest blood loss possible. We want the bullet to become the flat frontal area like the old hard cast or wad cutter, knowing this form displaces soft tissue more perpendicular to the direction of bullet bullet travel than a rounded mushroom. This tissue displacement creates this increased pressure causing these more stunning kills. In our progression of bullet testing and searching for a copper that would do this at a very wide range of impact velocity, we figured out that the shed weight should not be ignored. We figured out that by increasing the amount of shed weight we increased the amount of initial pressure spike in the animal, increasing the amount of drt and less distance traveled after impact. I call it shock, probably technically incorrect. It is pressure increase. Easier to say though!
Next step in this progression was figuring out that what those shed petals do, lead bullets don't have shed petals, couldn't be discounted either. Radiating outward doesn't increase the permanent wound channel as much as having those petals track along with the retained shank. We often see the shed petals exit with the retained shank. An exit hole with several smaller holes around it.
We see more stunningly quick kills, from proper center mass hits, and rapid deaths from marginal hits than I have ever seen with any other bullet. Frankly, high success rates with marginal hits, is what is what separates great bullets from the rest.
I didn't intend to write this much. I am now running late. I hope I cleared up the drt phenomena. I also wanted to make it clear that mono bullets are not all the same. The one that I care about, Hammers, does not have the issues that are stereo typically given to mono bullets. Our bullet does not need more speed to function properly. Our bullet does not result in more travel after impact. Our bullet does not slightly deform at low velocity. We expect full deformation and shed weight down to 1800 fps. Our bullet is capable of higher velocity than conventional bullets of the same weight. Why not take it?
Hammers are in a class of their own.
