Thread: Impact joules and ethics

Originally Posted by 16Tontovarish

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I'm wondering about ethical shots at range.

My situation is that I'm slowly getting more and more confident at taking longer shots in the field. I work on three quarters of whatever I can consistently hit first shot on the range being my actual real world ability.

This means that 3-400m shots are on the table now, and that means I feel I have to worry about the round actually hitting with enough oomph to do its job. I figure joules are a relatively good way to measure that, as that gives a good indication of if the round will expand properly, and helps sidestep the issue of ballistics between cartridges. I've seen the figure of around 2000 joules for red deer thrown around but I don't know where that figure comes from.

When shot placement isn't the main concern how do you folks judge an ethical shot based on distance? Am I overthinking things?

Also please don't turn this into a pissing contest about caliber.

Choose good bullets for your quarry (ones that perform at both end of the spectrum in range, have consistent BC, easy to obtain) and place them well. Simple as that.

Personally would not use copper bullets on deer sized game if the terminal velocity falls below 2,000 fps which could be as close as 250m depending on barrel length and catridge.

A good 'match' bullet (AMAX/TMK/ELDM) would probably work to around 1,400-1,600 fps or possibly lower depending on placement (just behind shoulder).