does speed kill?

2bits -

welcome to the BaitShop! looking forward to your knowledge and experience here on BSB!

Moose,

    I hadn't posted yet but yet splatter can kill.

But if you splatter enough you might not penetrate to the vitals with enought bullet.

   I've seen front leg's turnt to mush, and a shrapnel penetrates but not big holes.  It takes maturity to know your shot... (gun, abilities, distance in which you ran stay out of trouble) if your going to use a lighter round.  There are plenty of wild eye pistol wavers who aren't afraid of recoil, hell there are some guy's who live for it.  What I'm gettin' at here is bullets of mass take substancle amounts of fuel to get them moving where light weights don't... Awful tempting to stay light.

  Take the 7WSM for instance - theres a round that splatters but has enough mass to keep going.  If your using it on the 250 to 300 yd shots it's slowed down enough to do it's job.  If on the other hand yer using BT's and you shoot a deer at 25yds... and make contact above 3200 fps  SPLAT....   it'll kill it sure enough, and it'll put it down hard, BUT you have to eat around the hole.  This is why I went with the 300WSM and keep the top end around 3k and use solids.  However I may have gone too far with that seeing the two deer I hit with one shot is fairly "unethical"... That bullet needs to damn near stopped after Criter #1.  I bought some accu-bond's to see if I can build a load up for Elk. (I only want one of them at a time!)

    Anywho, Saddlesore is dead on with Mass....  it's a bit hard to quantify because the "hydro-dynamics" of the bullet pass through are of value in terms of putting the critter into shock.  BUT if you don't penetrate with mass that shock can mean very little fast.  

Spot

For elk, I tend to go with the heaviest bullet in the caliber I'm shooting.

For deer, I go a little lighter 165-180's in a 30 cal.

For sheep, goat and antelope , which are not hard to kill,I go with the 130-140 grains ina 6.5 or .270

Match the bullet construction to the velocity and the animal is dead meat, if you put it in the right spot.

Slow heavy bullets are cool in the brush. Not because they push twigs aside and keep on trucking (they don't) but because they're lethal as all get out in the ranges you'll see and shoot game. No blood trailing required and even if there is for a bit it'll be a huge swath you can follow at a trot.

However, my .300 wammo jammo wildcat magnum is just as lethal with a good controlled expansion bullet like a Nosler partition, Win. Failsafe, or something like that. I can take the same rifle and shoot a good distance if I have to (and the conditions allow it) and have a really good chance of doing an equally good job out there too.

So if you only hunt vine maple jungles on the Olympic penninsula or some place then a 30-06 with 200 grain bullets will do the trick just fine. If you only take 100 or 200 yard shots no matter the terrain that's also fine.

Honestly most rifles sold will do the job 90% of the time. I think people spend way too much time picking out little details that the deer or elk won't care about when they're hit with it.

Gunrunner......I am going to purchase a 300WSM this week as matter of fact for a project I am going to undertake. A wildcat it will be, however the .264 caliber bullet sitting on top the 300WSM case will do a lot for long range shooting and penetration as well, with a custom made 160 grain bullet.

The 140 grain bullet has a sectional density of .287 & BC of .490 which is good indeed. However the sectional denstiy of the 160 grn bullet will be .330plus and BC should be better than a .540, this is excellent for delivering energy down range for a long ways. I will shoot it from 500 to a 1000 yards at paper.

Macca.......It takes a long time to be the type of shooter that can print excellent groups at 1000 yard matches with a very well put together rifle!

The Lupua is a great round for sure, however it is way to much in recoil for anybody (around 55 pounds of felt recoil to the body without a brake on the rifle) not having a muzzle brake on the end of the barrel.

It is also very difficult to practice at the rifle range with a muzzle braked rifle..........people don't like them as a general rule.

I will need lots of practice time and this wildcat we are  going to put together will have the recoil of a 7mmmag or less. This means I only need a recoil pad to sit and fire a 100 rounds a sitting at the bench. 

The 338 lapua I used two weeks ago printed a 6.05 group from the bench at 1000 and a 60-60 possible prone this last weekend at 600 yards.It uses custom .621 BC projectiles at just over 3005fps from a 30 inch tube and only produces 36.63ft lbs of recoil at a recoil of 14.04fps.I don't use a brake in competition(not allowed down here).I don't find the recoil a major factor.Weighs in over 12lb.

I shoot a 6mm,308,223,300win and a 6.5-284 as well depending on what I get lent.My mate is a gunsmith and I use what I get loaned.

There are two 6.5-300WSM I have competed against and they go pretty well but not as well as the 7mmWSM which has taken a fair few comps this year.

I agree it does a lot of time to make a good LR shooter.My best group at 1000 is around 5.65.

Macca