Most of the frangible type target bullets leave fragments so small it’s not going to contribute much if any to additional bleeding. The concussive wave that destroys tissue is what is doing the killing. It could also be argued that a bullet that mushrooms and has sharp petals would provide more blood loss that fragmenting.
The fracturing bullets like Hammers, Cutting Edge, Badlands and Lehigh actually produce fragments large enough to actually do something.
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The concussive wave, temporary wound channel, or technically, the temporary cavitation of soft tissue doesn’t cause any permanent damage that would lead to death unless it shocks the central nervous system.
I will have to pull together the research, but trauma room surgeons, technical reviews and scholarly research is that skin and soft tissue is so flexible that it just stretches and returns to its shape without damage.
Size doesn’t matter when velocity is high. Think about how much energy it takes to break apart the bullet into tiny pieces, and that is happening inside soft tissue.
It is counterintuitive that smaller particles cause more damage, but you have to consider the fact that they don’t immediately break into the smallest particles.
Ballistic jelly is just like soft tissue. It expands and then contracts. If you examine the jelly, only the jelly cut by the bullet is damaged. The rest is intact.
Blood shot meat is just bruised as if it got punched hard. I fell on my leg carrying a 100 pound pack and it was blood shot and sore, but there was no chance of death from it.
At first, the match bullet is breaking apart into large petals and pieces like the copper bullets, then breaking apart more and more.
As it breaks apart like this, ALL the tissue is smashed and cut. A copper bullet breaks apart and the petals don’t break up again.
Think about any bullet that smashes the shoulder blade and carries all the bone fragments that cause more damage. The more pieces the better.
It’s not that copper bullets or other bullets don’t kill, it’s that they operate differently on the soft tissue. Choosing them for a personal reason or legal reason like lead free, won’t ever get a side eye from me.
One could make the arguments, and many do make the arguments that you make. I believed and made the arguments too. I had to be convinced that it wasn’t accurate.
In the end, I am a “show me the score board” guy. The 77 gr Sierra TMK thread was enough to settle the question once and for all in my mind about what damage a match bullet does.