I have just been calculating different calibers front area of the bullet.

Caliber .264 (Swedish 6,5 x 55) have a front area nubmber of *33*

Caliber .300 (300 win) have a front area number of *45,5*

Caliber .338 (338 win) have a front area number of *58*

Caliber .375 (375 H&H) have a front area number of *70*

Caliber .416 (416 rem) have a front area number of *86*

Caliber .458 (458 win) have a front area number of *105*

Caliber .577 (577 nitro) will have a front area number of *169*

Caliber .600 (600 OVERKILL) will have a front area nubmer of *191*

Caliber .700 (700nitro) will have a front area number of *245*

Caliber ? (4-Bore) Will have a front area number of *490*

Caliber .375 H&H will do 2 times as big wound channels than caliber .264 (swedish 6,5 x 55) Now I understand how a .375 H&H can be so much more effective on swedish moose than the 6,5 x 55. I have been calculating only the bullet diameter before. Then the it is not much different between the 6,5x55 and .375 H&H "9,5 mm v&s 6,5 mm" There is just 3 mm different BUT the .375 H&H is still going to make a 2 times bigger hole than the 6,5 x 55. If you only calculate the bullet diameter it is not as much different as if you are calculating the real wound diameters.

Hmm I have nothing do do right now so we can take the expanded front area of bullets to.

If a .264 caliber bullet expand to 2 times its diameter then the wound will be 4 times bigger than the orginal diameter. .264 + .264 = 528 It will make a little bigger hole than a .510 caliber bullet.

Then if a .375 caliber bullet expand to 2 times its orginal diameter. .375 + .375 = 750 It will make a bigger hole than a caliber .700 solid bullet.

Now we take a big one. If caliber .600 (600 Overkill) expand to 2 times it orginal diameter .600 + .600 = 1200 A much bigger hole than a .4-Bore can make.

I just so fun now when I know how much different there is between different calibers. I think that this is the reason why a big bore kill a animal much faster than a smaller one. It is just the wounds not ENERGY.

Any one that agree???

Not always.

If you do not adapt the hardness of the bullet to your target, then the big bore will go through without expanding. Then you do not have any advantage. This is the reason, why some guys are very disappointed with their big bore on small(er) game.
F. e. the 375 will be ok for wild boar. But the roe, shot with the same caliber and bullet may walk for a distance if you do not hit the spine.

Best regards

Sauenj�ger1,

That was a good thought! If the big bore like the .458 Win have a hard heavy 500 grain bullet at low velocity then it will not expand. Then a .375 H&H with a more soft premium bullet that expand to 2 times its diameter will give a bigger wound channel and a faster dead for the animal.

Ecxept the diameter, also the shape and construction of bullet is quite important. For example, a RNFMJ .458 won't necessarily make a very big permanent hole, whereas a FN bullet with big meplat will make a big hole and work well also on smaller animals. In fact, if I had to use only one type of bullet for all hunting in my .45-70, that would definitely be a hard-cast FN bullet, weighing about 400 grains.

In smaller calibers (6,5 mm, 7 mm, 7,62 etc.) the non-expanding bullets IMHO are quite useless except for birds, fur animals and maybe brainshots on elephants

LD100

You will be supprised how many people use the 7.62 militery ammo on large game like Kudu, I have shot Kudu and Eland with it and my Father always used them, he did not want to use a soft nose. I did't like them that is why I use a 9.3x62

Flip,

Yes, I know people use them on large game. Here in Finland 7,62 military FMJ ammo in 7,62x53R have been used both legally and illegally for shooting moose for about 80 years. During WW2 it was the only ammo available and as far as I've heard from people that used it then, it appears that the results were not very encouraging. Of course, some animals died quite well, but more were only wounded.

Now that there are good-quality softpoints available, I haven't heard anyone saying that he would prefer the sharp-pointed FMJ bullets for big-game hunting. If you give it enough velocity, the sharp-pointed FMJ-bullet will in many cases give satisfactory results, but it is far from the best alternative.

Would I go for moose or eland with FMJs? If that was be only ammo available I would, but I would definitely try to find something better.

Front area does the job, I agree to your calculations.
But SD. and a minimum of speed plays a part in killing the animal too.
High SD.with adquate speed = good penetration. Without penetration no kill.