Does Bigger Bullets Kill Quicker?

**CorditeCrazy** · 26-05-2021, 21:02

Originally Posted by pre 64

T....I have had clients shoot small buck [grysbok,duiker,klipspringer ect] with solids from larger calibers such as .375's and 458's simply because only a caliber size hole is made on entry and exit and the client wanted a full mount of the animal. A high velocity small caliber expanding bullet can really make a mess of the skin on exit.
While the smaller calibers kill quicker,it would be silly to use them on eg.Elephant where penetration is required.
2 very different scenarios that show the importance of bullet selection for a specific need.
Quite honestly,for our plains game, shooting within a distance where the bullet [decent bonded or mono] can be placed accurately makes your question superfluous. The animal will not know if the bullet was 264,284 or 30cal...makes no difference.
A 44 handgun bullet makes a bigger hole through a Kudu than does a 308 but on a shot where the Kudu will drop within a few meters with the 308 , it will travel over a hundred meters from the same shot from the 44.
Nothing is cast in stone,however,a bullet capable of penetrating through the vitals at a reasonable angle of the target animal and retaining enough energy to do the most amount of damage to internal organs is the correct bullet to use.
I think that the larger the hole and the more damage caused to the animal,the better. But...it is not allways the bigger calibers that achieve this.

Why is this do you think?

**Messor** · 27-05-2021, 06:25

I will try and Layman it, 3 things.
Energy, bullet construction, impact velocity.
Energy = the ability to do work
Bullet construction= material, size and mass
Impact velocity = just that

Firstly energy, many folk are quick to point out energy does not kill, that assumption is wrong, throw a bullet at an antelope and see what happens. Energy is the ability to do work, in this case it allows the bullet to work, more energy means it can do more work.
What is this work, well the bullet must penetrate, it must cavitate, it must create a permanent wound channel.
Now the bullet construction and impact velocity will dictate how this energy is used.
A solid will cavitate a little, and create a small wound channel, its energy will go into penetration.
A soft point will expand quickly, its energy will go into cavitation, limiting penetration.
A bonded will do both, it will cavitate less than the softpoint but penetrate a little deeper.
A mono will cavitate, less than bonded or softpoint, its energy will be divided between wound channel creation and penetration.

Impact velocity governs how quickly a bullet expands, empirical testing shows that almost all bullets penetrate less the faster they are shot, that is because energy is lost through cavitation, but that is a good thing, it’s what normal people would refer to as “it hits hard”.
Same as me punching you, the faster I hit the harder I will hit you.

So we know the energy allows the bullet to do work, but also when impact velocity is the same the more mass and material the bullet have the more work it can do. It’s like shooting a 143gr from a 6.5 and a 165gr from a 308 at the same speed. The 308 will have more energy, a bigger bullet with more material and mass, it’s got the greater potential to do work. What is that work again, cavitation and wound creation, that is the only thing that kills an animal.

On that note, how do you kill an animal without hitting the CNS, hemorrhaging which causes blood loss which causes brain death. The more destruction caused by the bullet the faster this process.
Now some person will say but hang on, I shot a wildebeest with my 375 and it did not fall over, it ran.
Well duh fellow, your bullet does not have the ability to suck the oxygen out of the animal, you might have destroyed the vitals and that animal WILL die, but for now it’s running with whatever it’s got in its system. Smaller animals which may not be able to handle the initial cavitation might just fall there without a CNS hit, but the cavitation creates a referred CNS hit none the less, a shock on the CNS.
Also, all species differ, they are physically constructed different, their physiology is different, that is why some species are referred to as tougher than others.
They are not made of a harder material, their makeup is different, they retain more oxygen after being shot hence they can go further.
Example a kudu is just a soft critter, where wildebeest are known for being hardy.

So now someone will say but look, if the animal is going to die after being shot with either a 6.5 or 375 using the same type of bullet, then why use the big gun?
The answer is simple, the one created more damage from where blood loss can occur, that animal will in fact die faster, it’s in the comparison where humans err.
You see, never ever does the shooter shoot the animal in exactly the same place, nor distance, so people compare animals with different shots, that is wrong, you can have 10 000 examples but still you are not comparing the same thing.
If it was humanly possible to do this experiment 100%, then you will find across the board that animals shot with bigger guns, at the same impact velocity with the same type of bullets, those animals will die quicker. It’s not wishful thinking, it’s not magic, it’s plain and simple science.

So if you sit around a braai and tell folk your 6.5 kills just as well as someone else’s 300wm, you are lying, you are only saying that to justify your choice, your opinion is not based on science.
Or if you say your gaymoor will outshoot a 270 at distance I say yeah, but of what use is that?
It’s like two people eating pies, if they eat only one then Bob have the better pie, but if they eat 7 in a row then Charlie’s pie becomes better. What sense is there in that, none, you want the best pie the first time around not there where you cannot use it.

You must always compare apples with apples, the same animal, the exact same size animal, the exact same shot, the exact same impact velocity, the exact same bullet construction.

So again, its energy, bullet construction and impact velocity.
You cannot defy the science of terminal ballistics, a bigger gun will do more damage to the animal, and it will kill it faster.
The ONLY thing humans must make sure of is to place the bullet correctly, and here caliber choice does become relevant, do not ever use a gun you cannot fully control, if you can shoot the 6.5 gaymoor better then a winmag you are much better off using the gaymoor, if you can handle the winmag well you’ll be dispatching your animals faster, more merciful, more reliable.

**aimpoint** · 27-05-2021, 11:02

Messor, you are correct scientifically, but not practically, in my humble opinion.

At the end of the day its a person pulling the trigger, most people are scared of big bangs. Therefore i think that in real life scenarios data will show that smaller calibres kill quicker. Purely because the shot was placed better.

I was at a gong shoot recently where a guy flinched so badly with his 300 win mag, with only the striker going off. His bolt did not chamber a round. It was hilarious. I can confidently say that i will dispatch animals faster and more mercifully with my 6.5 gaymoor than what he will with his 300 win mag?

And for the record, Kim's pies taste the best

**Messor** · 27-05-2021, 11:15

Yeah but I stated that explicitly, I was just trying to answer the questions as best I can.

**pre 64** · 27-05-2021, 15:47

Hi Cordite...i was gonna answer your question by stating bullet construction and impact velocity.
But i see Messor has gone into some detail on both ....soooo.....hope good to go.