450 Bushmaster Bullet Question

[T-Rex]

Good morning all

I have a bullet performance question.

Last weekend I shot a buck at close range (25 feet), he was walking straight at me and I shot him through the thoracic cavity (no bone contact). When I started to field dress him I was expecting to be dealing with a pretty messy job as you can imagine, but what I ran into was the bullet literally stopped in the heart. Obviously the deer didn't go to far, 45 yards ish.

I found the bullet in the heart and there was just copper jacket left, it looks like it just exploded.

Bullet
Hornady 250 gr. FTX Custom
2200 FPS Muzzle
2687 FT/LB muzzle
Sectional density .175
Ballistic Coefficient .210 (G1)
I have no idea what those last two even mean but that's what it on their website

I have shot several deer with this round and have always had great luck with it, and penetration has never been an issue.

My question is, was the bullet just traveling to "fast" at the distance of 20-25 feet that caused the lack of penetration and the bullet to just explode.

I understand arrow/broadhead performance much better than I understand bullet science.

Thanks for you thoughts and have a great rest of your season

Rich

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I don’t think the “bullet was traveling too fast.” That bullet wasn’t going “fast” by any stretch of the imagination.

All you found was the copper jacket, right? That means you had a “core-jacket separation.” That happens sometimes.

There was no exit wound? That means the rest of the bullet - the lead core - was somewhere inside the animal, you just may not have found it.

Personally, I’ve never cared what a bullet from a dead animal looked like.

 

[Bluefish]

As speed increases penetration can decrease, so not an unusual result. Looks like it still worked well enough.
Sectional density is simply length vs diameter. Since it’s low, the bullet is short for length. People like to be above .3 for better penetration. Typical for a large bore with a lighter for caliber bullet. Same with BC which is a measure of drag. Higher number is less drag, but big bore, light for caliber is low, so lots of drag. Slows down fast and more wind deflection.