Bullets & Bones

[MachIVshooter]

Just got back from Texas, two hogs (and one rattlesnake) heavier than when we left. It was a great short trip, and it also yeilded something I've never got in all my years of hunting; A recovered slug to analyze. Most of my shots have been through-and-through the ribcage heart/lung shots, but the angle the pig was at made that pretty much impossible. Angled away from me facing downhill, and still moving, I kept the ATN's crosshairs on her and squeezed one off when she was about 30 yards away. the 140 pound sow fell where she stood, never twitched. What surprised me was a lack of exit wound by this rather heavy bullet fired from a pretty powerful rifle.

Upon gutting, I realized why she fell and why no exit: The 200 gr. Core-Lokt leaving the muzzle of my 673 .350 Rem Mag at 2,645 FPS had entered at the rear of her ribcage at just the right angle to severe her spine above the shoulders. But before getting to the spinal column and obliterating 4 vertebrae, it had destroyed 7 ribs. I found the bullet just under the skin in front of the shoulder on the other side:



The reason I felt this was worth posting is all the talk we always hear about crushing the shoulders of elk and the like with .300 mags, .338's and similar. This was only a 140 pound animal hit with a disproportionately powerful round. The bullet performed perfectly and retained 75% of it's weight, yet still did not exit the animal. Granted, 7 ribs and 4 vertebrae add up to quite a bit of bone, but fact remains that an elk's shoulder is a large, heavy bone. I just don't think one can count on a typical hunting round to get through it and still do what it's supposed to on the other side. I'll continue aiming behind the shoulder on big game animals.

Just some food for thought.

 

[Float Pilot]

Yeap, back when I used to hunt big bears I saw a Brown Bear's (griz to outside Alaska folks) shoulder blade make a 270 grain 375 H&H factory load splinter into a handful of useless lead particles.

Folks who think that shooting jello blocks is like shooting a big game or dangerous game animal are way off base.

BTW: I shoot 280 grain A-Square partition bullets out of my Ruger 350 Rem Mag at 2,400 fps. They hold together, but I have a longer barrel and a different rifling twist than you.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

When a bullet is found under the skin, it usually means that the skin stretched enough to contain the bullet -- it's not an indicator of how the bullet would perform on a different animal.

My "heavy" is Bigfoot Wallace, a custom '03 Springfield in .35 Brown-Whelen. My hunting load is a 225 grain Nosler Partition Jacket at about 2,800 fps. I have hit a good sized bull elk in the shoulder with it, and had the bullet break both shoulders and disappear into the wilderness.

 

[Odd Job]

When a bullet is found under the skin, it usually means that the skin stretched enough to contain the bullet -- it's not an indicator of how the bullet would perform on a different animal.

An interesting note about actual gunshot patients: in 2002 I conducted research involving live gunshot patients in South Africa. I got a sample of 150 cases in 4 months at one hospital (in that period 542 gunshot patients attended).
In my sample of 150 cases, there were 15 cases where palpable projectiles were present. That 10% is significant. One of those patients had two palpable bullets!
If you take it one step further and express it as a percentage of cases only where projectiles or projectile fragments have remained in the body, then the percentage rises to 17% (15 cases where there were palpable bullets, out of 86 cases where projectiles or fragments thereof were detected on X-ray).

Most of these were handgun wounds, only around five were from long guns or couldn't be ruled out as being from long guns.

That skin at these failed exit sites is a significant variable in terms of the overall resistance to the complete passage of a projectile, in my opinion.

 

[fireman 9731]

I'm not really that impressed by the bullets performance. Granted, it is a Core-lokt, which has accounted for A LOT of animals over the years, and not some new fangled super premium ballistic tip.

It lost 25% of its weight, which drops it down to 150 grains. 150 grains is a lot of bullet, even at a reasonable velocity of 2600 FPS. But as soon as it hit that pig, it started slowing down and loosing energy. It lost all of its energy in about 2 ft of flesh and bone. It was perfectly efficient, depositing all of its energy in the animal.

Hogs are tough animals, and you can never know exactly what is going to happen on the insides of an animal once that bullet makes contact.

I know I'm rambling but I get what you are saying. I have never been a fan of all the 30 caliber whiz-bangs that magically kill animals better than their predecessors. Its all about energy. Energy smashes through bone. All of the super thirties have enough energy to begin with but they loose it quickly as soon as the bullets touches the hide. You have to have a heavy bullet to maintain enough energy to keep smashing through bone. The thirty caliber rounds just don't have it. They try to make up for it by using lighter bullet weights to gain velocity. Velocity is only energy while it is moving fast, as soon as it slows down its energy drops dramatically.

I know I have rambled.... But you killed your hog just fine. My bottom line is that if you want true bone crushers, you need to have a heavy bullet. At least 300 grains. I like 350 and 405 grains in my 45-70. But its a whole other animal... You are right though, I wouldn't depend on any thirty, or thirty five caliber round to bust through shoulders.

 

[Gtscotty]

The SD on a 200 gr .358 bullet is very similar to the SD on a 150 gr .308 bullet (.223 vs .226). Even though a 200 grain rifle bullet is heavy by most measures, it is fairly light for caliber in a .358. The bullet performance you stated strikes me as pretty decent for a 150 gr .308, and therefore is in the ballpark of what should probably be expected for your load. If you're concerned about penetration, you definitely have plenty of room to go heavier in 35 cal, plenty of 225 and 250 grain bullets available.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I'm not really that impressed by the bullets performance.

It did what it was supposed to, though. My sister shot hers with a .308 using 180 gr. Federal power shock loads; She hit it broadside, and the only bone it contacted was ribs-it missed the shoulder. That bullet did not exit, either. It did, however, turn the spleen into jello chunks, and the 180 lb boar didn't take one step. OTOH, the one I shot least year (another ~130-140 pound sow) took a 165 gr. Ballistic Tip out of my 16" AR-10 broadside, and it was a through-and-through with busted ribs on both sides.

Hogs are pretty heavily constructed critters, which is why I have opted for larger calibers. Most of the guys in our camp use .308's, and the only real reason I went .350 instead is because my 673 was the only appropriate rifle I had without optics on it, so a logical choice for the ATN Mk 390 I had on my mini-14 to zap coyotes. We do have one guy in our group who uses a .22-250, but he only takes head shots. He knows that cartridge is marginal and counts on perfect shot placement with these animals. My sister had borrowed his .22-250 last year and shot a 60 pound weener with it, which I ended up having to chase into the brush and finish with the AR-10.

If you're concerned about penetration, you definitely have plenty of room to go heavier in 35 cal, plenty of 225 and 250 grain bullets available.

I have 225 gr/2,630 FPS Accubonds loaded, but I thought they might not expand enough in a 100-200 lb hog. I only loaded the Core-Lokts because they came with the die set I bought; Normally I buy Sierra, Nosler or Barnes bullets. It did what it needed to, I was just a bit surprised when I found no exit on a rather small animal with a rather heavy caliber. Roughly the same body size as a doe, and my 117. gr. .25-06 loads have always gone through them. But none have ever taken that path, either.

The only animal I've ever truly busted the shoulder on was a small pronghorn with that same .25-06 load, and it destroyed an insane amount of meat. There was an exit hole on him, and it was fist-sized.