ORIGINAL: Pavomesa
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.
Hydrostatic shock is bound by the law of deminishing returns. The effect a bullet and its "shock" can have on an animal depends entirely upon the energy the bullet creates, but more by the force of the resistance put on that bullet by the mass of the animal you are shooting.
Lets take your .22-250 example and your 40 gr bullet and shoot two targets with it. First, lets shoot a rabbit. A BIG rabbit will weigh about three pounds. A .22-250 with a 40gr bullet will be traveling about 4150 fps (depending on who you believe) and that gives it an energy of 1530 ft/#s. If you make that a ratio, between the energy of the bullet and mass/resistance of the animal, you'll get 510:1. If anyone hasnever shot or seen the result ofa rabbit, or other small game shotwith something like a .22-250, its about like a dump truck running over a cat... you end up with a bloody/furry sort of toupee. Now, use that same bullet on a big bodied whitetail deer in the mid-west. We will say that he is live weight 250#s. Now the ratio is down to 6.12:1. That is less than the ratio would be if you were to bean that same deer with a 90 mph fastball (assuming the baseball was the lightest allowable weight of 5oz... if it were the maximum of 5.25 oz... then the ration would be even larger). Surfacearea of course prevents the baseball from having the same effect as a bullet, but the shock wave or energy transfer to the body is the same.