It would depend on where you shot for. I have shot squirrels with a .50 caliber. And they do not blow up if you shoot for the head. Hit the body and you cut them in half.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
I was outside thinking then wondering, how much of a groundhog would be left if you shoot it with ML?
I am thinking a few hairs and a blood spot.
Not quite, here's one that went to the Great Soybean Field in the Sky complements of a 250 grain shockwave pushed by 100grains triple 7 ffg. Range was 95yds.
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Bowtech 82nd, 26.5"draw, 54lbs
HHA Optimizer Lite
QAD Hunter
Maxima 250's
300fps, 59lbs KE
i hit 2 with a round ball out of my flintlock. 1 in the neck at 10yds(was aiming at head) and another at 45yds off the shooting sticks. shot him just like a deer. rolled him hard. he never moved...entrance and exit were there...but nothin to write home about...but then again, it was dead and if it were a deer, it would left blood...so i cant complain.
i shot a milk jug full of water with a maxi hunter...boy did that thing blow up....think it was the sheer size and mass....
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>>----Give 'em the shaft!--->
I doubt most ML bullets, even at "magnum" velocity, would expand much in a groundhog, unless you shot it nose-to-tail. Even then maybe not that much. You'd have a very dead groundhog that had a small hole going in and a little bigger hole coming out.
Now, if you want to see a groundhog explode, hit them quartering towards in the shoulder with a .22-250. I nailed one like that with a handloaded 55gr Nosler Ballistic Tip load that chrony'd at 3775fps. Shot was at a local public range at 205 yards (the groundhog literally wandered out onto the berm in the impact area while I was sitting there waiting for my rifle to cool. Unfortunately for that groundhog, the range is on public hunting land, I had my hunting license, and it was groundhog season. It was a real mess. It basically turned the groundhog inside out, with the liquified innards all over the hill. It's was definiately a "humane" kill. That groundhog didn't know what hit him.
I've shot them with a .54 flintlock & round balls and it didn't tear them up much. But they usually did drop on the spot.
But then I hunted squirrels with that rifle, too. It was fun to take their heads off, and it usually did! [8D]
strang thought ML vs Ground hog
