Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean2
Muzzle Energy was a fad perpetuated by a number of gun writers. It has since been proven many times that it has no bearing on how effective a bullet kills. Many continue to perpetuate it as some form of measure of killing power but it isn't. If it did, nothing shot with a Round Ball out of a Muzzle loader would have ever died, nor anything stabbed with a spear or sword.
What kills is the hole. As long as the bullet penetrates, causes damage in the right area and leads to sufficient bleeding and or damage to vital organs and nerve centres, that is what kills game. Whether this is accomplished by a spear, arrow, round ball or a 200 grain bullet doing 3000 fps is immaterial.
The only reason you want to keep a Barnes above a certain speed is to ensure adequate expansion so it makes a BIGGER HOLE. A .308 200 grain FMJ has far more muzzle energy than a .308 130 grain cup and core, but it will generally not kill as quickly or effectively because it makes a smaller HOLE.
I have shot Elk at 600 yards with the 130 grain Barnes. I got penetration to the offside hide and good expansion on the bullet. I would consider 1600 FPS to be the min velocity to ensure adequate expansion, unless you hit heavy bone where expansion does increase, from what I have seen.
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I don't know if we'll agree on a theoretical "best" bullet, but somewhat surprisingly, to me at least; we seem to agree on everything else.
Heck of a good post.
Good info; thanks. The numbers I seem to have read before was about 1800, then recently read 2000 for a margin of safety. Surprised that they open as low as 1600, but I won't argue with real world performance.