Do you want a exit wound????

[lerch]

THis is a constant argument around my families gun store. We get in a lot of hunters who think they need to shoot a heavy bonded or solid copper bullet on 140lb whitetails that are paper thin, and then they get pissed off at us when the deer they shot runs off. My question is would you rather have a bullet completley pass through a animal or would you want it to stop inside the animal and dump all of its energy inside it??? I personnally like the idea of a bullet expending 3500lbs of force in the chest cavity of a game animal or at least dumping most of its enrgy inside.

[Pete Lincoln]

Lerch, i want an exit wound 100% of the time if i can get one. Shot placement is the key, you destroy the animals vitals its dead. it may run, but with an exit, it will leave a blood trail that you can follow. no exit wound and you can search and search.
I shoot a lot of wild boar, and they are tough, some of them stop bullets pretty well and have no exit, the fat on the hogs closes the entry quickly and there is no blood trail, when they run, they are a bitch to find,
A good tracking dog is a must (and indeed access to one is required by law)..
i want an exit every time..
Pete

[lerch]

I understand the benefit of having a exit wound as far as blood trailing goes and I would also like to have a exit wound in this case, preferably one the size of a soft ball [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]. But what I guess i am really wondering about is that if a bullet stops in the chest cavity of a animal doesn't it transfer of its inertia energy into the tissue and bone of that animal. And if this is true then wouldn't this massive concussion drop an animal with a high shoulder or regular shoulder shot or flatten its vitals. I don't know if this is true it just seems to me that it probably would be. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Kenster-Boy]

I would have to say that it sounds like six one way a half dozen the other. If the bullet goes off like a bomb in the chest cavity of an animal it has a much better chance of just dropping and not running at all. But if it does then there is less chance of finding it.
On the other hand with a pass through shot the animal will most likely run but will be easier to find most of the time. Although I have seen pass throughs that leave little or no blood trail. So it seems to me that an exploding shot will have an animal run off about as often as a pass through shot will leave no blood trail.

So do you like walking up to a dead animal or do you like trailing blood? It sounds like 50/50 to me.

[davewilson]

if i could have a bullet exit an animal at the same speed it went in,that would be my first choice.obviously this won't happen,but my point is, the faster a bullet goes through an animal,the more shock it imparts upon it. killing power is more a function of kinetic energy, not foot pounds.this theory of stopping a bullet so all of it's energy is transfered to the animal is a measure of foot pounds and not a good measure of killing power.disregarding the variables of exploding vs. stay together bullets, i'll take an exit hole every time.

[Freebore]

I'll take a large on that exit wound if you would please!

[jsali]

In an ideal world all animals would be compliant and drop instantly with a well placed shot.

Up until last year that was the case with my hunting experiences. Then I managed to draw a moose tag and there he was. Three 200 grain sierra game kings from a .300 win mag at 340 yards and he was down. The first shot took out both lungs and a piece of his heart, the last two were both lung hits.

The moose (not a big moose) managed to stay upright for a full three minutes before he laid down ( of his own accord) and went to sleep. When we tried to find him in the brush we discovered that there was no blood trail whatsoever, luckily we were still able to track him to his final resting place. Two of the bullets were pass throughs, one was resting against the skin on the other side. The exit holes were finger sized and extremely difficult to find as the thick hide, hair and fat had sealed the wound.

IMHO a large exit wound will give an adequate blood trail to follow because as nothing in this world is perfect, odds are eventually you will be tracking an animal (good hit or not).

Here's a pic of the little moose that could! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]


If you can see there is zero blood outside the aniumal even with two (small) exit wounds.