Thread: A question for the doubters

Have heard described the damage to a fallow from a bullet wound, went through the front shoulder, clipped the back end of one lung, damaged a lot of internal organs, and ended up breaking a back leg on the way out. Animal was lost at the time, but shot and killed for humane reasons about two weeks later as a 'lame' animal - hunter was really surprised at the damage and the fact the animal was still alive although not well at all. Gangrene, stink rot etc etc...

Have seen a big red stag hit square in the shoulder with a .308 at bush range, bullet blew up on the mud encrusting it's shoulder from wallowing and animal was lost due to a very large but shallow surface wound.

A red hind, shot and killed in very poor condition with a .22 caliber lead projectile found in the left rear knee.

Feral cattle beast, shot and then found with a .22 caliber lead bullet under the skin against the skull.

A few others but you get the drift - I think @gimp nailed it with his first answer it's not the caliber it's the point of impact and the construction and efficiency of the bullet to expand in the right penetration distance to reach the correct vital spot to do the maximum (right) amount of damage. It's not the size of the exit or entry holes - it's the damage to vital hydraulic and comms network infrastructure and to a lesser extent pneumatic equipment on the way through that anchors animals for us. It's the same as humans - we look at super fit athletes with broadly similar lung capacity etc as normal people and go how the hell do they do that? The amount of fitness they have means they've trained their muscles to still perform in an oxygen and fuel deficient state without failing as quickly as the rest of us, which is the same effectively as most animals we hunt. We shoot an animal with something that doesn't do massive damage on the way through, the animal's muscles will still function enough to get them the hell out of dodge as a survival instinct thing. It doesn't matter if it is a big bullet hitting somewhere not vital or a little bullet doing the same thing, won't anchor the animal. A decent bullet hitting a vital spot, that opens out correctly and creates a big would channel and dumps most of it's energy for good hydraulic shock effect will usually anchor you the animal every time.

A bigger (or more correctly wider/larger caliber) bullet is easier to set up to offer more controlled expansion and more reliable energy transfer, and carries more energy at time of impact than a smaller bullet which is what we class as a greater 'margin for cockups' as hunters. A smaller caliber will do the mahi, but it is more susceptible to crap in the way or other issues than a bigger caliber but having said that the big cannons can still have the odd random failure (the .308 on the shoulder I mentioned above).