ORIGINAL: Zugunruhe
I think it was Elmer Keith that came up with the rule of thumb that it takes 800 ft. lbs. of energy to cleanly dispatch medium sized game. What are your thoughts on this? I mean seriously, does a deer know the difference between 700 ft. lbs. and 800 ft. lbs. down range?
I ask this because I repeatedly see kills on here at ranges far greater than where the bullet "should" be performing according to the above logic. For instance, a common load of 85 or 90 grains of Pyro RS and a 240gr. XTP moves out of the barrel at a little over 1600 fps. According to the ballistics tables, this load dips below the 800 ft. lbs. of energy at around 136 yards but I know we've seen reports here of longer shots with that powder/bullet combination.
Is this just another "how dead is dead" exercise, or is the 800 ft. lbs. benchmark a useful thought for bullet selection?
I ask this partly because my gun dislikes 777, crud rings so bad that even the second shot after a wet patch/dry patch is difficult to load irrespective of bullet type (sabot or conical). I'd like the extra velocity boost that 777 offers to up downrange energy, but if it cruds up my rifle I'll stick with RS.
I have been very interested in the same subject. I believe it is wound channel and tissue disruption which is a function of shot placement, penetration and expansion.Please see this:
http://www.rkba.org/research/fackler/wrong.html
A summary of the paper is this:
[blockquote]This paper is another landmark by Dr. Fackler in scientific research about terminal ballistics. It explains why most of what you read about this subject in newspapers, politicized medical journals and gun magazines is grossly wrong. Dr. Fackler's research and experience bear directly on the proper treatment of different gunshot wound types. [/blockquote]
Here is how I rank bullets that I know (my opinion only, not intending to start a bullet war, but just want to show ya what I think), best to least from a Terminal performance POV at ML ranges:
Barnes MZ, Flat Nose bullet
Barnes TMZ, X bullet, XPB
Barnes Origonal (fragments some, abotu 30%)
Nosler partition
Speer Gold Dot
Cast Bullets and Flat Nose bullets (Elmer Keith)
TC SW bonded
TC SW non-bonded
XTP
.....whatever
Knight all lead bullet (used them first season killed 5 deer, good expansion, no pass thru)
..whatever
PowerBelt
Patched Round Ball
Chap Gleason