Randy,
OK, good topic for discussion, (campfire, bar-room, workplace, internet), but what's the point? P.S. Wasn't it Will Rodgers who said something like "there's lies, Damn lies, and statistics."
As this is the internet, I guess it broadly falls in there somewhere. :?
There's also the Will Rogers quote, "
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." that falls in there somewhere, as well.
The non-expanding bullet has its place, but as the Geneva convention wasn't directed at game animals, muzzleloading needs no hardball to properly feed from a magazine, and no thick, brittle gilding metal jackets are required to protect the bullet from the rifling-- not much directly applies.
The cited study was also center fire statistics, so whatever credence is given to hydrodynamic shock and the resultant "pressure wave" is not directly comparable, either. So, that was just a portion of what they came up with-- but it was based on lighter, faster, smaller caliber, jacketed, center-fire harvesting, not muzzleloading.
Bullet debates will likely continue endlessly, but it seems fair to say that a good approach is a fast-expanding bullet, with enough mass / velocity to carry it through the entire animal at the range and angle you are taking your animal at. Whether it actually makes it out the other side, or ends up against the hide seems of little value alone-- contingent on game, that hide can equal 8 - 10 inches of solid muscle tissue.
Everyone is bound to have their own preferences based on what they have seen for themselves, but .50 caliber round balls at longer ranges have been shown to be horrific cripplers of game, and though some folks seem to like hard cast bullets
"so they can bust brush," or shoot through trees (
), they still poke holes in animals. Sure, they kill, but so does a .223.
For close range deer work, a lot can fall into the "talking point" arena. But, though by far the most popular in the US, deer are certainly not the only muzzleloading game animals being hunted. Any, if your choice is 200 yard work with tougher or just plain larger animals, you need a lot more out of your rifle and bullet. A 350 lb. caribou isn't that tough, either, but with all the animals I've seen with 3, 4, 5 bullets in them-- somebody knows how to make it look tough.
Deer aren't that tough, but in a visit with Doug Miller of Thunder Hills Ranch, where Doug has witnessed the results of thousands of 270 - 350 pound pure Russian boars taken by a wide variety of means, the results of the high velocity zip-thru laser-beam effect are clear.
The 7mm Mag crowd has killed their fair share of hogs, but time and time again-- high velocity center-fire rounds have resulted in them going 100, 125, 150, or well over 200 yards after a "good" hit. It kills them, but it takes a while.
With a heavier, slower, larger caliber muzzleloading round (or rifled slugs), he sees a big difference-- a well-placed shot resulting in anything from a few steps to 20 yards or so. Some of the very close shots I saw with heavy conicals just left them on their backs with only a few final kicks left. The 270 lb. boar I picked out of the stubble right at sunset at 117 yards was with no "rocket load" at all, it was just a pair of Triple 7 pellets pushing a pure lead .44/50 300 grain Dead Center. Yet, the tusker went 15-20 yards in a dazed half circle, then gave a few last kicks. When we zipped him open, the chest was sloshing full of blood. By contrast to the smaller, 220 lb. feral hogs I've dropped handgun hunting, charging but only 20 yards or so out-- there was just no comparison or question as to what did the best and cleanest job. That was only a 1600 fps load or so, very mild by rifle standards, but a cranker compared to a lot of wheelguns with still over 1900 fpe terminal energy into that pig at 117 yards.
For a deer, it may well be just "conversation." For a blubbery Nilgai, or larger animal with large lung capacity / slow metabolism like a big bear, or just an ill-tempered boar that doesn't like particularly like being shot, and is happy to try to take a chomp out of anything that ticks him off or injures him, I think it is worth a bit more consideration what you might be whacking him with.
Who knows? With one of Toby's favorite 44 gr. N110 VT loads out of the Savage, that boar's 15 - 20 yards could have been diminished further to only a few steps at the same distance. Next year, I'll have to see. :wink:
Maybe it's time to take a couple of caribou with a 10ML as well-- why should Toby have ALL the fun?
