- Joined
- Oct 22, 2014
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- 9,513
Dumb question #1: I have chest shot and killed deer that never moved another muscle where post mortem indicated no apparent CNS damage and a heart still relatively intact. Is it possible that the hydraulic effect shocked the CNS or the heart? Or is this a case where the animal "psychologically" (if that's even possible in an animal) checked out immediately, rather than physiologically.
Not hydraulic, the temporary stretch cavity. And yes, animals just like humans have varying levels of psychological incapacitation
Dumb question #2: After looking over the various rifle gel tests, is there really an appreciable difference between the lethality of the common chamberings from 223-308?
Nope. Given ideal projectiles for any cartridge within that realm, bigger is “more” but not generally more enough to mean anything*. That is- just because you shoot an animal in the lungs and it runs 50 yards does not mean that if you went bigger that it would have ran 25 yards instead. Barring a CNS hit, they have to run out of oxygen or blood, and given correct bullets and impact speed everything in the 223-308 realm is more alike than different.
*heavy frangible 6.5, 7mm and 308 bullets can cause significantly more tissue damage than say a .224 with like bullet, however those bullets way cross over the line that almost anyone would find acceptable for meat damage. With a 223 and the right bullet it’s already at too much tissue damage levels- why would I go bigger unless I wanted to cause even more meat loss? Because going bigger and then hamstringing the cartridge by putting a bullet in it that causes less damage is akin to buying a V8 and then yanking spark plugs because it’s too fast.
I'll leave the questions at that for now. As a general comment, I was surprised to see how glass dramatically affected the bullets and the wound cavity. I would have never thought that.
Yes indeed. Glass is horrific on bullets. It’s also what one can expect as a worse case scenario- say extremely large ungulates (moose/bison) shoulder knuckles or shoulder joint. Plywood is similar to elk/big deer shoulders. Heavy denim equates to vary large and fat hide and skin.
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