Those photos of Shrapnel look like a time warp with fast forward to the present. He wasn't that bad looking in his youth...
I've killed a few deer with .45-70's, mostly with 300 gr. Horn at around 1,850 fps in past years.
My current primitive weapon is a 30" BPCR and I shoot 250 gr. TSX's over Vv 120 at 2,550 fps. That's a Barnes 1895 load and the 1885 action is a lot stronger, so it could go faster, but that load seems to work.
The last BPCR kill was a 130# doe walking across a food plot. I hit her behind the shoulder and she ran 20 yds., blowing blood like a fire hose. The TSX had opened and blew a huge exit wound, pulverizing her heart.
A young hog (20#'s or so) was shot at around 100 yds. with that rig last year. It blew lungs and chest tissue thru the far chest wall. When the hog was cleaned, the far chest wall looked like a cracked window pane, with fracture lines extending out from the large exit hole. Evidently the chest wall was bowed out enough by the bullet, ribs were fractured in multiple directions. I had never seen that before.
BTW, I don't know how well the 250 TSX would penetrate in a big animal, but it sure is bad at 2,500 fps on soft targets.
DF
