Soft point or FMJ?

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

So who died and appointed you Arbiter of Ethics?

Nobody, but all it takes is common sense and the tiniest amount of research to understand this most fundamental principle of hunting ethics which is widely known and accepted the world over and has been for many many decades. Subsistence hunting aside (which caribou may be doing - I don't know), if you can't shell out a couple dollars more for some actual hunting bullet ammo, then you should not be hunting at all. YOU need to give the animals a break by killing them cleanly and humanely.

 

[Son of Sam]

From what I've heard (I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am wrong) the Geneva Convention made it so FMJ only could be used on human targets of war to lessen the amount of kills (like that really did much, right?). To compensate for this, the 5.56X39 and 7.62X39 rounds became commonplace due to their inherent ability to tumble on impact with flesh, thus increasing the size of the wound channel. This is irrelevant... but it was found that killing an enemy only took ONE opponent out of "the game" while wounding an enemy soldier usually removed three (one down, two to carry the wounded off the field) = big bonus. This is only relevant because of my further reply to the thread:

I'll choose a softpoint over a FMJ every single time when shooting anything I want to be sure goes down and it's lights out forever. I'll quit hunting altogether when I see two other deer carry my "clean kill" off on a stretcher.

 

[koja48]

This has been a good thread. A soft-nosed, jacketed bullet WILL get larger on impact, thus imparting more energy. An FMJ will NOT get appreciably larger. I still side with using expanding bullets on big game in North America. An accurately-placed FMJ may result in a clean & swift kill; the same shot with an expanding bullet will do the same, but doesn't pose the pass-thru potential inherent to an FMJ. Bottom Line: We make our own decisions & we live with the results.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

And I believe it was the Hague Accords that banned HPs or soft points, not Geneva Convention. My understanding is that the USA is not even a signatory to Hague, but we abide by it anyway, just out of the goodness of our heart (either that or perhaps we really believe the doctrine that "it's better to wound than to kill" the enemy). Because indeed that is the purpose of Hague, to be more "humane" by not allowing the more deadly HPs or soft points.

 

[koja48]

History eludes me . . . point I attempted to make is that soft points likely weren't banned without substantiated evidence to do so.

 

[ArmedBear]

Read about the history here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum-dum

It was the Hague Convention of 1899, and, as with sporting arms, military weapons were tested with expanding bullets because the FMJ's were not as effective as the large caliber bullets used throughout most of the 19th Century.

The expanding .303 was far more effective than the FMJ .303, plain and simple. However, it appears that it was disturbing to people at the time, that military arsenals were experimenting with making bullets do more damage.

For some reason, it had never bothered people that soldiers were being blasted with .69 round balls, .58 caliber Minie Balls, .45 caliber bullets better suited for buffalo hunting, etc.

 

[paintballdude902]

i just go with the old stand by for deer i use a marlin .30-30 with softpoints i have never had a deer run more than 30ft and the ones that run i have noticed are the ones hit in the heart its most momentum or that split second they have to move

unless you hit the spine its not uncommon for them to run

If you doubt that ball ammo kills well, buy a couple 150lb hogs and shoot them and see what happens. Big chuncks of tasty hog meat will be laying upon the ground ready to be cleaned.

this is blasphamy you try doing that here and you will have some enemys for either a) buying a hog and not having a pig pinkin (bbq to anyone not from around the south) or b) not letting them come shoot it

mmmmm bbq

 

[ArmedBear]

unless you hit the spine its not uncommon for them to run

Blew the head nearly all the way off a chukar yesterday, and it kept flying for a good while. But I'm sure it was dead within a split second after the shot hit.

"It's dead, but it don't know it yet."