Troutman10

I was just wondering if there is a minimum# of feet per second that a bullet has to be taveling in order to harvest an animal like a deer, elk, bear or anything else. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Paul L Mohr

Not really, but some states do have a mininum energy requirement and speed is a part of that formula.

Paul

SwampCollie

Yep... all depends on the weight of the bullet too. A 300 gr bullet going 800 fps will flat lay one out. But a .177 pellet at 800, unless it is put in EXACTLY the right spot... no way.

eldeguello

Paul is correct, in that a pretty slow bullet can take game, if it is big and heavy enough. For example, a .455 British Webley revolver fires a 265-grain bullet at roughly 600 FPS. Pretty slow. Yet it was considered a great stopper of hopped-up savages like the Zulus.Personally, I would want something moving a little faster for deer-size game.

Pavomesa

It's a sliding scale for sure with lots of variables, Trout. Energy is just one part of the equation. It also matters what bullet you're using. Some bullets will expand on a piece of tissue paper...others won't and need a good impact to start them doing their mojo. And some bullets even need a certain initial velocity to stabalize. So you ask a complicated question that can only be viewed case by case.

The good news is with any modern high powered rifle you're NOTvery likely to come up against this issue if you begin with the right gun to start with as they will all likely do the job out as far as you can identify and hit your target. Not to worry. Hunt and enjoy.

salukipv1

what I've heard/read is that at a given distance your rifle should produce 1000 ft.-lbs of energy to kill a deer effectively, so velocity helps determine that, but look up some ballistic tables instead, ie a big slow bullet can produce a 1000 ft.lbs, as can a fast light bullet. While some may not put much faith in a 1000lbs talk, its a decent pt of reference, to consider, looking at tables....can tell you that your particular cartridge at 200yds has a 1000 lbs but at 400yds has 500 ft.lbs, making it a 200yd gun, .30-30 comes to mind, use to be the upper range of this round on a deer was around 200yds and right around there it has 1000 ft.lbs of energy. now hornady is able to give you 1000 yds with a .30-30 out to almost 300yds. Hope this helps, certainly will help tell you if your gun is giving you 500ftlbs at a yardage or 2000ft.lbs,

Retaks

I kinda go by the 1000 ft/lbs of energy but it all depends on what bullet im using and the weight of the bullet. If im shooting my 204 with a 32gr Accutip i have 1000ft/lbs at 100 yards but i would donsider it a good deer round because the bullet fragments on impact. It all depends on the bullet type as to how fast it needs to be going to work properly also. There are alot of variables in bullets to say what is right for deer and what isnt.

Troutman10

Thanks for the help guys! Seems like there's lots of different variables that can be different with each cartridge, bullet weight, speed etc etc. Appreciate the help.