Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Speed vs Energy?

After bullet placement, volume and type of tissue destroyed would be the biggest factors. Sufficient volume and the right type of tissue can be destroyed by a bullet that penetrates deep and creates a long, cylinder-shape wound, or by a bullet that fragments significantly and creates a relatively shallow, teardrop-shape wound. Depending on the path of the bullet through the body, one may be more effective than the other. In physical terms, momentum is what matters most, assuming sufficient velocity to open the bullet so it can perform as designed.

Was his quote about every animal he had killed or about animals on 1 particular hunt?

Fundamentally , both are projectiles that cause tissue damage[trauma], so whats different?




Either way, do all the other Roy cartridge users experience what Roy experienced?

I love you too sugar tits. You speak as if your magnificent whine has meaning. I often wonder if your frantic little typing finger isn't wearing itself thin on people who could care less. Its your finger and your whine do with it as you must 😂😂😂

IME what increases the likelihood of killing animals DRT is a broad path of destruction, deep enough to reach and destroy something immediately necessary to life. The broader that path, the more room you have for error, as long as the path reaches far enough into the animal - and how far that is depends on what you are shooting and where (including from what angle) you are going to hit it.

I don't think velocity of itself is the key factor. I've killed any number of game animals DRT with bullets that weren't travelling very fast. The bullet construction is far more important, and it has to perform at velocity at which it will hit.

Given a proper bullet, it's a Volkswagon beetle going 100MPH vice a Semi truck at 60 MPH. Both will be DRT will placement. I have found larger slower rounds cause less meat damage.

Yep, meat damage matters to some of us.

A bullet causes Blunt Force Trauma, An arrow slices tissue, capillaries, blood vessels, and Arteries.

Yes, more velocity can ‘help’, all else being equal. JME, but DRT on non-CNS shots seems to often coincide with at least some extra meat damage, and are also more common with bullets that have either some large frontal area OR begin expanding as soon as they enter, and not 1/3-1/2 way through the critter.....probably why tipped stuff, especially monos, seem to work so well, and my 357/357 WFNC bullets and 30-30 HP Barnes seem to drop stuff like they’re moving a lot faster than they are. Just anecdotal over the years. Getting into the physics of it would cause all sorts of bickering around here.

As game gets progressively larger, I find myself tipping to the energy side.

Well, I like speed, but not in any Weatherby chambering.
I watched enough elk hunter clients show up with their mark v's in the 1980's to sour me on the Weatherby product. One hunter told us his rifle was zero'd from the factory.
It just turned me off of anything Weatherby to this day.
The speed, energy, bullet equation has not been completley proven to me . I still use the mpbr concept, a Nosler partition and shorter , lighter carbine style rifle.
A little birdie hinted something about an ought six or a .270 Jack....kinda stuck with it.

I hit this doe with a 300 grain TSX from my 416 BEE traveling at a MV of 3150 fps. No vitals left basically and she ran 138 yards before she folded. Pictured is the exit hole. you just never going to know how they react to a hit.

Saw a NVA tank that looked like that deer. DRT.

Thanks M C H. I've been gone and just got home.

An arrow WILL kill at 500 yds---> IF it's propelled FAST ENUFF ( aka Speed).


Jerry

Other factors remaining the same, velocity and energy are essentially interchangeable - if you know one you know the other.

Easy.


It ain't easy.

A tractor trailer going 2 mph won't kill many deer that it might hit.

Energy out the ass. Too slow.

A 4000+ fps 20gr bullet will kill a deer stone dead. Maybe.

Way fast. Needs more ass.

Given a straight up comparison?

On light game like deer, good bullets.

25-06 will put them down faster with rib shots. Maybe.

So many variables, the question really can't be answered.
Within the most common ranges on deer?
Use either, and about any hunting bullet.

Energy is greatly dependant on velocity (squared), so they are very much related.

By definition, blunt force trauma is non penetrating. Think baseball bat to the torso as an example. Unless one is using bean bags or rubber bullets ... a bullet very much causes penetrating trauma.

Speed, definitely. Energy has a role, as they're related due to simple physics and equations, but speed impresses critters much more than energy IME, all else being equal.

As far as lung shot DRT vs. runners with identical shot placement, identical bullets, impact velocity, etc., I read a study that basically concluded that if a bullet hits at the top of the heartbeat, arteries get WAY overloaded and rupture, causing instant death, where if the bullet strikes between heartbeats, this does not happen and they'll normally do their 20-50 yard death run. I have no idea if it is true or not, but found it interesting.

You are half right.

"Center-fire rifle bullets also cause blunt trauma by tissue displacement (temporary cavitation). The ability of different tissues to survive this blunt trauma is related primarily to tissue elasticity and cohesiveness."

Hit someone hard enough with a baseball bat in the head and you can get penetration. A bullet is not a sharp object but yes it does indeed penetrate. Once the bullet deforms it is nearly all blunt force trauma. Yes of course the petals can be sharp and create cutting.

I will stand behind my statement. The general difference between a bullet and a broadhead is that the broadhead primarily only cuts wear as the bullet provides blunt force damage and shock.

I also never said anywhere that a bullet does not produce penetrating trauma!