Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Observations of bullet performance

I like the way you think.

I've found a slightly more prosaic way of looking at it, and that is equating velocity and distance. If you theoretically knock 200 fps off the round, it is roughly the same as shooting the same animal at a greater distance. Take 200 fps off a 308 WIN round and it's about the same as shooting the animal at 75 yards greater range. Take a 300 Win Mag and knock 200 fps , and it's about 100 yards difference.

You can also equate two different chamberings. Given the same bullet, a 180 grainer, a 30-06 has about the same at the muzzle as a 300 Win Mag at 100 yards. At the muzzle, a 30-30 with a 170 grain bullet has about the same velocity as a 300 Win Mag at (let me take off my socks. . .) between 300 to 400 yards.

Yes that's all true but doesn't account for the higher rotational velocity of the magnum chambering, which helps bullet expansion and does not decline as fast as forward velocity....the reason magnum chamberings help those bullets expand better at distance.

Yep, rotation hardly slows at all, even at longer ranges, and has a definite effect on bullet expansion. Which is exactly why reducing muzzle velocity when testing bullets in "media" at close range doesn't mimic performance at long range, as so many people believe.

Agreed John.

I tell people that and the break out "energy figures" and tell me I'm some kind of dangerous nut....

Indeed. Increased velocity not only helps with a flatter trajectory, but increased delivered energy, and also less time to target, reducing wind drift.

I have no doubt that more whitetail deer in North America have been taken by the .30-30 than any other cartridge, perhaps more than the next two or three cartridges combined. Out to 150 or so yards, it's an effective, if not terribly flat shooting killer.

The same can be said of a .300 Win Mag at 400-500 yards.

Ah! Yes, it is true that I'd rather be attacked with an ice pick than a power drill. However, I still think the idea has some merit. Rotational energy is great as long as you have expansion already started. However, if the bullet is not expanding, it may pencil on through no matter how fast it is rotating. N'est pas? I'm asking, not stating this as fact.

I also don't see a huge difference between deer shot with 300 Mags vs. 30-06 inside 200 yards. Small hole in/Larger hole out at least when hit in the boiler room. However, let that 300 Win Mag hit a sizeable chunk of bone? I saw a big buck at the processor a while back that got hit in the spine with 300 Win Mag. The deer was basically cut in half, save a flap of belly skin.

Right, which is why flat-nosed bullets designed for lever action rifles are softer than spitzers, so that they won't pencil through at lower impact velocities.

And yes, so long as the bullet is an appropriate cup/core or partition type, there isn't much difference on game when shot at under 200 yards between a .300 WM, .30-06, and .308 Win for that matter, everything else being equal. Get much past 200 yards though, and the differences are evinced.

With the monolithics that are so in vogue now, velocity is much more critical for expansion. From my observations over the past decade or so of posts on this and other hunting boards, I think a lot of hunters are wasting money and actually diminishing their chances of a clean kill by using TSX and similar bullets on deer-sized game, particularly in calibers under .308".

That being said, my favorite coyote bullet is a 90 grain old school X bullet out of my .243 Win. It pencils through without tearing up the pelt, yet still drops them in their tracks.

Many deep thoughts in this topic.

This net is such an improvement over the old print system.

Bullet rotation and subsequent expansion have nothing to do with why people think you're a dangerous nut.




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Hey ! You got an AMEN !! here. I've butted my head against that rock round here. As you mentioned the principle the 7-08 is just as good as the 280 and the 280 is just as good as the 7 Mag. ET.AL. etc. ( 300 Savage ----- 300 WM)

Time of flight is totally lost on some even tho wind drift gets its mention.

Jerry

You would know that how?

Relax, I'm just funnin' ya.

But consider your response: you're conceding that I know, you're just wondering how I came about the information.




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