How Much energy is too little?

I agree there is energy. I get that but.
People put way too much emphasis on how much it takes to kill.
Say someone says it takes 1500 lbs to kill an elk…..so what if I shot an elk with a gun that impact energy was 1499??? Will it not kill it now?
Those numbers to me are a farce.
Broadheads kill with less than 100lbs of energy. Probably half of that.

Tons of whitetail bucks have been killed with 357s that never even started above 500 ft lbs much less ended there.

All our hunting bullets are supposed to upset based on a velocity

Energy sells rifles/cartridges and gives gun writers a way to write another article every week. I've yet to see another use for it.

M1A1ABRAMS said:

There nothing without some form of energy.
All forms of energy are associated with motion. For example, any given body has kinetic energy if it is in motion. A tensioned device such as a bow or spring, though at rest, has the potential for creating motion; it contains potential energy because of its configuration.

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Exactly! All objects have potential energy. Bullet or arrow potential energy does nothing until converted into kinetic energy (motion/movement - a delivery system/mechanism) from point A to B.

I'll just watch

it is going to take more energy to push a fully expanded 338 soft point through an animal than it will to push a fully expanded 6.5 soft point and that will be totally different than what it takes to push a copper that fragments the nose and leaves a solid shank to penetrate. frontal dia. matters when considering energy.
anybody that compares a bullet to an arrow put a 1/2" to 3/4" blunt on your arrow and tell me how many deer you kill, have to compare apples to apples when talking energy.

Tom264 said:

I agree there is energy. I get that but.
People put way too much emphasis on how much it takes to kill.
Say someone says it takes 1500 lbs to kill an elk…..so what if I shot an elk with a gun that impact energy was 1499??? Will it not kill it now?
Those numbers to me are a farce.
Broadheads kill with less than 100lbs of energy. Probably half of that.

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They are unwritten rules; what you do with them is entirely up to you. To answer your 1499 FT-LBS question, yes, it will. I harvested a bull elk at 931Y with a tad over 1400 FT-LBS. There is no difference from bullet manufacturers' recommended minimum velocity for the bullet to expand effectively at POI. A few of us keep that threshold much higher than the recommendation.

Bullets vs. arrowhead is hydro shock vs. hemorrhaging.

JiggyIi said:

Many many Buffalo were tipped over with the 45-70 and other Buffalo Cartridges starting around 1200 fps

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But we only hear about the ones that were tipped over.

Archery doesn't come into play here as far as the energy doing the killing, since it's the sharp blades slicing into organs or whatever and causing bleeding and/or lung collapse. Like getting stabbed with a knife or hit with a baseball bat.

I like big holes (.30 cal or larger) on big game placed properly. I follow the bullet manufacture's suggested minimum impact velocities. I seem to have full freezers post-hunting season using this method.

Energy is a side metric for me that doesn't influence me all that much. Everything above trumps an energy stat.

yobuck said:

But we only hear about the ones that were tipped over.

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Umm, lots of them fell to that cartridge prior to 1900…like entire herds decimated.

Philward said:

Archery doesn't come into play here as far as the energy doing the killing, since it's the sharp blades slicing into organs or whatever and causing bleeding and/or lung collapse. Like getting stabbed with a knife or hit with a baseball bat.

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And there's still some form of energy used in all your examples.

yobuck said:

But we only hear about the ones that were tipped over.

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and you never hear about how many shots needed or how many ran off and died somewhere else and never recovered. thank god most hunters are better educated now.

Too early for popcorn here but I am enjoying this. I will throw some gas in the fire.
K.E. = 1/2 m v^2

asd9055 said:

Too early for popcorn here but I am enjotying this. I will throw some gas in the fire.
K.E. = 1/2 m v^2

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Nope, it is not too early.