So, as I've tried to explain before on this forum, for some types of hunting a bullet that spins off some fragments, does plenty of damage consistantly, and still penetrates trumps a bullet that ONLY penetrates.
Jeff: Really sorry to disagree but this is unmitigated BS.Fragments are the red herring in tissue destruction; they are dissipated energy.There may be some damage but it is inconsequential compared to the damage done by the rapid expansion(not disintegration) and frontal area of the bullet itself(the part that remains in one piece? Remember that part?)
Load a Northfork; push it fast.You will get expansion to large frontal area; you will get penetration,AND you will get very extensive damage WITHOUT any fragmentation.
You think fragmentation helps kill because you don't have much experience with bullets that don't fragment.
I've used bullets that do NOT fragment at all,but expand early to a large frontal area,stay in one piece,and the results look like a bomb went off. They still had enough penetration to bust off-side shoulders and sometimes exit.Their kill to shot ratio has been so vastly superior to the fragment type bullets it isn't funny. Yes, even on light game.
If you don't beleive me, go read something like African Rifles and Cartridges, or some other works by guys hunting in Africa,and see the disdain these guys had for bullets that fragmented;they thought such bullets were worthless.Even on here,JJ Hack does not seem to have much use for bullets that fragment,and the killing gets done by the part of the bullet that stays in one piece.Yes expansion is important;fragmentation is not,unless you shoot rodents and coyotes,both teeny animals that take no killing at all."Expansion" and "fragmentation" ar two entirely different things.Expansion is good,if accompanied by enough weight retention to ensure penetration.The fragments contribute little to the process IMHO.
In Africa,they kill LOTS of game;in North America,we mostly talk about it.If fragmentation of bullets was so reliable as a killer of big game, it would find favor in places like Africa;or in Alaska, near as I can tell, it hasn't.
We are a nation of deer hunters,and any second-rate bullet design works on deer, leading to erroneous conclusions about what is "good" bullet performance.
