Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Enough energy for elk?

Bob,
Thank you for the kind words, but just because you're not a physicist doesn't make you dumb or lacking skills, not at all. To the contrary, you're one of the more intellectual guys that I know of around the campfire.

Such bullets have been killing elk successfully since when - the late 1940's? 160g Partitions, as loaded by Federal in 7mm RM, were my backup cartridges for many years.

In recent years, however, the elk have become smarter, tougher and more elusive and what once worked is now woefully inadequate. (If the trend continues they will soon develop opposable thumbs.) These days the successful elk hunter uses at least a .338-378 with heavy for caliber bullets. A .50BMG semi-auto Barrett with a big Nightforce scope is better, allowing hunters to shoot elk in the next county.

You might be able to kill an elk with a 200g Partition but you would need to get really lucky.

Don�t you love it when people argue that momentum is conserved but pretend energy doesn�t matter, even though it is also a conserved entity and inseparable from momentum in that you either have both or you have neither?

Don�t you love it when they claim no energy is transferred to the target but have no answer for where it goes when the bullet�s velocity, and therefore its momentum and energy, drops to zero? Maybe they think it just disappears? (So much for conservation...!)

The fact is that it takes WORK to tear flesh asunder, shatter bones and do the other things a bullet does. Maybe they think when a prairie dog is sent flying is different directions the energy required to accelerate the body parts comes from a lightning bolt?

While I freely admit that energy alone is a poor predictor of terminal performance, it is a tool with its place, to be used or abused as the user sees fit. The more similar the calibers and bullets the more useful it becomes, and vice versa. As I�ve said many times, though, retained energy is only one aspect. More important is the rate at which energy is transferred and for what period of time, something retained energy figures alone cannot inform about. Then there is bullet weight, bullet construction, etc., all factors that play a part in terminal performance.

The truth remains, however, a bullet with zero energy does no harm while a bullet with infinite energy destroys the target, the earth and the universe.