If velocity has no effect, I guess then we should expect the same results from a 40 gr bullet out of 22 LR as a 40 gr bullet from a 22/250?
Anyone who has ever dressed out their own deer has likely seen the effects of hydrostatic shock. And it's silly to deny it can increase the lethality of a bullet.
But just how all this affects killing power is something we can argue until we are pea green in the face. As we increase velocity, a lot of other variable increase as well. For instance ENERGY[&:] The faster any projectile is going, the more energy it has. I would argue that SOMETIMEShigher velocity can certainly = increased killing power. But let's not get lost in the issue of just how quick an animal is medically "dead."
Again, if we consider a deer properly shot through the boiler room, i.e. heart/lung area, when we dress out this animal we find that most of the hydrostatic shock was actually delivered to the muscle tissue...especially on the exit side. A bullet hardly knows it has touched a heart or lung. Assuming text book bullet performance, I suspect what the higher velocity round does is accellerate just how fast an animal will go DOWN simply because more of him is damaged.
But text book bullet performance doesn't always happen for sure. Sometimes higher velocity can cause bullets to explode on impact...sometimes causing crazy wounds that may or may not kill quickly. In such cases the higher velocity was likely more of a handicap.
And just how much hydrostatic shock can any given projectile create...regardless of velocity??? In other words, it we shoot a deer with an 87 gr bullet going 2,300 fps...........how much greater would be the "HS" and its effect if we shot the same deer with the same bullet going 3.300 fps? What about 4,300 fps??? My point is we've only got the same very small projectile. At what point in velocity has it imparted all the damage it can do?
I don't have a clue to the answer to this. All I can do is affirm that velocity most assuredly has an effect........up to a point. It's defining exactly WHERE that point ends that I can't answer.