Post by oldstuffer on Dec 3, 2019 9:58:46 GMT -5
The problem, awesome, is "what is the bullet designed to do".
A Sierra MK is a fine bullet, it is designed to fly very straight, very stable, for a loooooong ways, and then penetrate a sheet of paper, or crush itself on a piece of steel plate.
Fired into a game animal they do 1 of 2 things:
1- they do nothing but make a caliber-size hole through and through, they behave like an FMJ.
2- they shatter into several small pieces, which all stop very soon making less, and SHALLOW, damage.
Which one happens depends on exactly what the bullet hits and how fast it hits it.
The absolute BEST behavior IMO that you can HOPE for, is for a target bullet to simply yaw sideways, snap in half (what military FMJ's do) and the 2 halves still weigh enough to tear up some tissue there AND get a little depth with it. That is IMO one crappy "best case scenario" to have to Hope For.
On the other hand, Controlled Expansion HUNTING bullets (so so many out there) are designed to hit tissue, at a very high speed, and UNDER CONTROL, have the tip squash back under extremely high hydraulic pressures, mushroom out to as much as 2-diameters, the jacket must be able to keep the bullet together as much/well as possible.
This leaves hunting bullets usually with far THICKER and tougher jackets than target-shooting bullets.
This is why I am a hard pusher for "use the RIGHT BULLET for the job".
Nothing is guaranteed, I have shattered 1 perfectly good hunting bullet on a Deer (Whitetail, he wasn't even all that large, 150gr Hornady Interlock) a long time ago.
The Interlock is a good, solid, controlled expansion hunting bullet, and ALL I got back was the base circle with a smear of lead on it, weight was 15gr IIRC.
Freak Accident Circumstance had an un-known Scope Death happen WHILE hunting, and I hit him, from 90 yards (absolute point blank) over a foot high, and a foot fwd from my P.O.A., and DRILLED a neck vertebra bone square on.
He was D.R.T. as that vertebra and 2 inches or so of Spine fared no better than the bullet did, BUT, it destroyed the bullet too. To expect the bullet to survive that is too much, and a Dangerous Game Solid is also the wrong bullet for Whitetail Deer. A Vertebra is probably the TOUGHEST bone in a body, any body.
Sure, people have killed animals with Matchkings, and A-Max's, and every other Match Competition Paper-Shooting bullet out there, but MANY people have ALSO had those same bullets fail to penetrate to vitals or just make a small icepick hole through and have lost game to die elsewhere, which is NOT our job to cause.
Choose a Gamweking if you prefer Sierra, or any of a suitable offering from anyone else you like, but don't go Hoggin' with a Matchking, and ESPECIALLY not with a .223R.
Juvenile Pigs are one thing, they aren't very big, thick, or tough, but their Important Parts are in the same place, behind the same (relatively) heavy bone and lot of shoulder muscle, scaled down.
However, if you run across #300 or so of mature Sow or Boar, you now have am serious problem, requiring Maximum Bullet Performance from that small-bore, and for that you need a purpose-designed Hunting Bullet, to try to guarantee that, no matter what is between you and Miss Piggy's Vitals, you can "get there from here".
This is why I (who am an "overkill" kind of guy) choose to use a .308W, and, when the Hornady GMX bullets failed to shoot worth a dam, will throw Barnes TSX's, and they are the heaviest hunting bullet I use (168gr), but, while the GMX's were failing, and before I tested Barnes, I tried the same 150gr BTSP Interlocks the B.A.R. throws at Whitetails, which it shoots great, and which my daughter MAY throw at Whitetails this winter from that LR308 IF she is recovered enough from Appendectomy Surgery a few weeks ago for her first season.
I can get that Barnes TSX into the Boiler Room, from just about anywhere, unless I screw up, and I can count on it not exploding to bits shallow in tissue (and PROBABLY not against Shoulder Bone either).
A Sierra MK is a fine bullet, it is designed to fly very straight, very stable, for a loooooong ways, and then penetrate a sheet of paper, or crush itself on a piece of steel plate.
Fired into a game animal they do 1 of 2 things:
1- they do nothing but make a caliber-size hole through and through, they behave like an FMJ.
2- they shatter into several small pieces, which all stop very soon making less, and SHALLOW, damage.
Which one happens depends on exactly what the bullet hits and how fast it hits it.
The absolute BEST behavior IMO that you can HOPE for, is for a target bullet to simply yaw sideways, snap in half (what military FMJ's do) and the 2 halves still weigh enough to tear up some tissue there AND get a little depth with it. That is IMO one crappy "best case scenario" to have to Hope For.
On the other hand, Controlled Expansion HUNTING bullets (so so many out there) are designed to hit tissue, at a very high speed, and UNDER CONTROL, have the tip squash back under extremely high hydraulic pressures, mushroom out to as much as 2-diameters, the jacket must be able to keep the bullet together as much/well as possible.
This leaves hunting bullets usually with far THICKER and tougher jackets than target-shooting bullets.
This is why I am a hard pusher for "use the RIGHT BULLET for the job".
Nothing is guaranteed, I have shattered 1 perfectly good hunting bullet on a Deer (Whitetail, he wasn't even all that large, 150gr Hornady Interlock) a long time ago.
The Interlock is a good, solid, controlled expansion hunting bullet, and ALL I got back was the base circle with a smear of lead on it, weight was 15gr IIRC.
Freak Accident Circumstance had an un-known Scope Death happen WHILE hunting, and I hit him, from 90 yards (absolute point blank) over a foot high, and a foot fwd from my P.O.A., and DRILLED a neck vertebra bone square on.
He was D.R.T. as that vertebra and 2 inches or so of Spine fared no better than the bullet did, BUT, it destroyed the bullet too. To expect the bullet to survive that is too much, and a Dangerous Game Solid is also the wrong bullet for Whitetail Deer. A Vertebra is probably the TOUGHEST bone in a body, any body.
Sure, people have killed animals with Matchkings, and A-Max's, and every other Match Competition Paper-Shooting bullet out there, but MANY people have ALSO had those same bullets fail to penetrate to vitals or just make a small icepick hole through and have lost game to die elsewhere, which is NOT our job to cause.
Choose a Gamweking if you prefer Sierra, or any of a suitable offering from anyone else you like, but don't go Hoggin' with a Matchking, and ESPECIALLY not with a .223R.
Juvenile Pigs are one thing, they aren't very big, thick, or tough, but their Important Parts are in the same place, behind the same (relatively) heavy bone and lot of shoulder muscle, scaled down.
However, if you run across #300 or so of mature Sow or Boar, you now have am serious problem, requiring Maximum Bullet Performance from that small-bore, and for that you need a purpose-designed Hunting Bullet, to try to guarantee that, no matter what is between you and Miss Piggy's Vitals, you can "get there from here".
This is why I (who am an "overkill" kind of guy) choose to use a .308W, and, when the Hornady GMX bullets failed to shoot worth a dam, will throw Barnes TSX's, and they are the heaviest hunting bullet I use (168gr), but, while the GMX's were failing, and before I tested Barnes, I tried the same 150gr BTSP Interlocks the B.A.R. throws at Whitetails, which it shoots great, and which my daughter MAY throw at Whitetails this winter from that LR308 IF she is recovered enough from Appendectomy Surgery a few weeks ago for her first season.
I can get that Barnes TSX into the Boiler Room, from just about anywhere, unless I screw up, and I can count on it not exploding to bits shallow in tissue (and PROBABLY not against Shoulder Bone either).