sorry if this is in the wrong place...

For hunting purposes only, do you prefer a fast moving bullet over a larger diameter? and can someone break this down for me...

to me it seems like a slower, larger bullet that leaves most if not all of its energy in the animal/target would provide more "shock" and hense more killing power-faster kills than a bullet moving way to fast to have an opportunity to expand much and makes a hole same size going in as coming out.

am I wrong? All I know is using 130 grn 270's on deer just behind the shoulder has resulted in most deer I shoot going no farther than 20 yards, with several never taking a step. So what is alure of more speed?

Dave

Woooo, wooo,
This may be a long running thread.
I'll start this off by saying that the allure for me is with a long for diameter bullet running at moderate velocities penetrating to and through the vital organs making holes going in and going out.
With some of the newer monometal and "premium" bullets you can get by with a lighter bullet that works better with more velocity (eg 270 grain Failsafe out of a 375 Weatherby).
In any case I let the characteristics of the bullet in question guide what velocity I'm going for. Since I'm more of a meat hunter than a trophy hunter I am coming more to prefer big, wide, long, heavy projectiles at a moderate velocity. They get the job done without as much bloodshot meat. Close stalking and accurate shooting is what really kills game quicker than anything else.
JCN

I have small caliber fast bullets and larger caliber fast bullets. To take game animals,(we are talking about deer size animals and larger right?) you just can't beat the larger bore for taking game quickly. Some of the most dynamic kills I've produced were with my muzzleloader! Not to fast but those big, heavy bullets seem to really clobber whitetails. With proper bullet selection, any caliber .22 and up will take game. If I had a choice, I would grab my .375 over my 22-250 any day for a big game hunt.

I go for a middle weight bullet at a reasonable ( for caliber) speed .I think this gives me the best(without getting scientific about it) mix of bullet weight and trajectory.To me the most important things for humanely killing anything are 1/ shot placement, for which I consider trajectory an important factor,2/ energy at the target, for which bullet weight is the important factor.

Stubblejumper,
please explain further, if possible...seems to me that if a bullet entry wound is same size as the exit on a regular basis at say 50 yards, but at 300 yards you see much larger exit wounds, then what changed? other than speed?

and what about the "energy" the bullet transfers to the animal? The "shock value" lets say...

tahnk you for the education!

Dave

There is no answer...

How can I say that? Because I was a Registered Nurse.

What the hell has that got to do with it? Well, I was the only male working with a bunch of females, and after work, while relaxing at our favorite waterhole, some of the most interesting topics came about. (Nurses at that time were very "open" in their conversation...maybe they still are, since I haven't dated any for around 10 years.)

One of our conversations had to do with size and speed.

With only one exception, all the ladies said that neither size nor speed was important. The important factor was that the "user" had the ability to "hit the target" where it counts.

The same can be said for hunting.

(Oh, and that one exception preferred size over any other factor. "The bigger, the better!")

I think this is a wide open and much to generalized question. But Ill try to offer a couple of tidbits about the way I see it.

The extremes; on one hand youve got the old slow and heavy school that favors something like a 45-70 might produce. Its a well known fact that very heavy bullets penetrate like the dickens and pretty much crush whatever is in their path.

Elmer Kieth also did a good job of proving that a certian type of bullet delivered in this fashion can produce its own kind of "shock value".

At the other end of the spectrum there is the Weatherby/Ultra-mag crowd that favors tough bullets going lightning fast, they too have a shock value that is very real and anyone who has experienced it can testify.

I think that the majority of hunters prefer to be somewhere in the middle of these extremes. I know I do. Both have their pluses and their minuses. But I can tell you this, with the plethora of fantastic chamberings and bullets available today, I think that it is possible to come close to having both without really resorting to either. By this I mean you can take a 30-06 and load up a fairly flat shooting fast expanding heavy for caliber accurabond and it will very quickly expand to twice its size.

As far as expending all of the energy inside the animal, that is totally relative. There is a lot more room for expending energy on a Buffalo then there is on a squirril.

One thing that I keep coming back to on this debate is Ray Atkinson testifying that he's seen a lot of wounded buffalos from guys using 45-70 type stuff. It seems pretty clear to me that on that kind of scale, another 4-500 fs could concievably go a long way toward dropping them more cleanly.

This is what Roy Weatherby set to prove wrong during the 1950's
His theory was that a smaller lighter faster bullet would produce the same effect as a heavy big slow bullet would.

It is the difference of being shocked with electricity or being pnched in the stomach.
They both leave you stunned and/or debilitated.

If you are thinking on what caliber to choose or just pondering the thought, it comes down to what your personal preference is.
If you like big heavy stuff, great.
If you like a sharp crack from lighter stuff, great.

-Spencer

This is what Roy Weatherby set to prove wrong during the 1950's.
His theory was that a smaller lighter faster bullet would produce the same effect as a heavy big slow bullet would.

It is the difference of being shocked with electricity or being pnched in the stomach.
They both leave you stunned and/or debilitated.

If you are thinking on what caliber to choose or just pondering the thought, it comes down to what your personal preference is.
If you like big heavy stuff, great.
If you like a sharp crack from lighter stuff, great.

-Spencer