Pass throughs

[Confederate rifleman]

Just a thought. There are those that favor pass throughs for a variety of reasons ( better blood trails full penetration etc) and those who would rather find the bullet somewhere inside. I wonder if the amount of energy transfered to the critter has been factored into this ?
By this I mean the shining lights have pontificated for years about " minimum energy requirements" for taking various species of game. I've only recovered 2 bullets and noticed that the 2 critters that stopped the bullet , went down immediately and most of the pass throughs ran some distance.How much of the pass through's energy was transferred and how much moved dirt,made small rocks out of large ones or chopped some wood? It is difficult to determine how much velocity and energy are transferred to the deer when a bullet blows on through, but if the bullet remains in the deer all of its available energy is transferred to it. Its comparable to expanding bullets vs fmj's. Given equal penetration of non-nervous system hits, the expander drops them quicker partly due to superior energy transfer.Myself , I like finding bullets.They make nice momentos of a fine experience. Like I said, just a thought...

 

[Lee 9]

I had the same experience for years but when I started using the 250 gr Gold Dot over 110 gr of BH209 I started getting pass through and bang flops at the same time. I took a metal detector out and found the bullet from the last buck it was about 4 inches in the ground [shot from a high stand] and a nice mushroom.

 

[mcrik]

I would rather have big bullet AND a pass thru AND a bullet that doubles it's diameter by expanding AND holds together. ( I don't want much, huh? ) After it does all that, I don't care where it goes as long as it's safe.

I firmly believe in the research of Dr. Martin Fackler.

mcrik

 

[Semisane]

I don't want much, huh?

Not really. What you want is a 250 grain Gold Dot for 150 yards or less, and a 300 grain Gold Dot for longer shots.

 

[Okie Hog]

I could care less whether there is a pass through or not so long as the bullet expands. Most of my hogs and deer are DRT. Pick your shots very carefully and do shoot at a game animal unless there is a very good chance that it will dispatched quickly.

The only animal that I have lost in the past ten years was an elk in 2004. That elk was shot at 75 yards. There was a pass through but that sorry 300 grain PTX bullet did not expand despite the fact that the powder load was 150 grains of granular Pyrodex.