{"id":16410,"date":"2020-12-10T23:20:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T23:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/?p=16410"},"modified":"2020-12-10T23:20:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T23:20:31","slug":"daily-blog-12-10-20-bloody-bullets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/daily-blog-12-10-20-bloody-bullets\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Blog: 12\/10\/20 (Bloody Bullets)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This morning I worked some more on a reloading article, did some Christmas shopping on the Internet, and then reviewed the text for my new book. While doing that I got to thinking about a hunt from the book and ended up down a rabbit hole about bullet performance. This led to the beginning of an article on just that topic that I expect you will see somewhere, sometime soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It has become very common with hunters to hold up bloody bullets and make definitive conclusions about terminal performance. Gun writers tend to do the same thing with photos on the Internet and in magazines. I\u2019ll admit, I’ve been guilty of the same thing. I\u2019ve been a student of terminal bullet performance for a long time and I\u2019ve pulled a lot of bullets out of animals and various test mediums. One thing I can tell you conclusively is that a recovered bullet \u2013 no matter what you pull it out of \u2013 gives only an indication of terminal performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What hunters should be measuring terminal performance by is the damage done. After all, that\u2019s what we want bullets to do\u2026damage tissue. Right? Of course, one of the problems with reporting on the damage done is that magazines and social media will not permit those gory images to be shown. And to be honest, a photo of internal damage is not really a picture worth a thousand words; to fully understand and comprehend bullet damage, you have to get your hands bloody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the things you learn after you get enough blood on your hands is that there is much more difference in the damage done by bullet types than there is between cartridge types. No one<\/em><\/strong> can look at a wound created by a 30-06 and a 308 using the same bullet and tell which cartridge created which wound. On the other hand, given two drastically different bullets \u2013 a Barnes Triple Shock and a Nosler Ballistic Tip \u2013 deciphering which bullet caused which wound becomes much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All this should lead serious hunters to question some of the marketing hype that surrounds the concept of terminal performance. If a manufacture suggests that their bullet destroys less meat but kills better, you should question the validity of that claim. At the same time, when some hunter tells you a certain bullet expands faster than another, the first question you should ask him, like my old Friend Charlie Sisk used to often ask, is, \u201cHow do you\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you really want to know the effectiveness of a certain bullet, the only way you can determine that is to examine the damage it creates, and not from just one wound, but from several. After that, to have any idea how this compares to other bullets, you would need to see the same from them. Beautifully expanded bullets that have been pulled from animals are inspiring to look at and help sell ammunition. In reality, what you\u2019re really looking at is a deformed chunk of lead and copper that failed to fully penetrate. Basing terminal performance conclusions on a recovered bullet is like trying to predict group size after only one shot has been fired. It\u2019s what the bullet does \u2013 not how it looks \u2013 that matters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I worked some more on a reloading article, did some Christmas shopping on the Internet, and then reviewed the text for my new book. While doing that I got to thinking about a hunt from the book and ended up down a rabbit hole about bullet performance. This led to the beginning of an article on just that topic that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2976,2522],"tags":[882,2991,381],"class_list":["post-16410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-blog","category-hunt","tag-ballistic-tip","tag-recovered-bullets","tag-terminal-performance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BB-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hujZ-4gG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11462,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/the-basics-of-rifle-bullets\/","url_meta":{"origin":16410,"position":0},"title":"The Basics of Rifle Bullets","author":"gunwriter","date":"March 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've said before that when you go hunting the only piece of gear you carry with you, that will touch the animal, is your bullet. 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I realized early on that you cannot reach definitive conclusions about bullet performance by looking at the exit wounds or the recovered bullets. To know what really happens you have to shoot lots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "HUNTING"","block_context":{"text":"HUNTING","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/hunt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bullet-3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-3.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13042,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/ballistic-bull-tough-bullets\/","url_meta":{"origin":16410,"position":2},"title":"Ballistic Bull – Tough Bullets","author":"gunwriter","date":"March 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Hunters have been the victim of the communication of bad information based on conjecture and good marketing. Possibly classifiable as unintentional deception, ballistic bullshit has been thrust upon hunters, online and in print.\u00a0I doubt a gun writer exists\u00a0who is not guilty - at one time or another - of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EDITORIAL"","block_context":{"text":"EDITORIAL","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"H-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/H-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/H-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/H-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/H-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14744,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/a-little-bit-of-ballistics\/","url_meta":{"origin":16410,"position":3},"title":"A Little Bit of Ballistics","author":"gunwriter","date":"January 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s cold here in the hills. Temperatures have been in the single digits and the wind has been blowing hard. I have a variety of projects I need to be working on but they all involve shooting, and, well, I\u2019m holding out for better days. This has provided me with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EDITORIAL"","block_context":{"text":"EDITORIAL","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gel2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gel2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gel2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/gel2.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11137,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/dummys-guide-to-ballistics\/","url_meta":{"origin":16410,"position":4},"title":"The Empty-Cases’ Dummy’s Guide to Ballistics","author":"gunwriter","date":"January 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Ballistics \u2013 internal, external, and terminal \u2013 is a very misunderstood subject. I\u2019ve been studying ballistics since before I killed my first deer. I understand the subject much better than I did then, but I\u2019m still no ballistician.\u00a0But I am an hillbilly, and hillbillies like to keep things simple. 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This holds true whether we are talking about shooting animals or bad guys. A recent Facebook discussion resulted in a blog post by my esteemed colleague and arguing partner, Bryce Towsley. I don\u2019t agree with everything in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "HUNTING"","block_context":{"text":"HUNTING","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/hunt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bullet-4 copy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-4-copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-4-copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Bullet-4-copy.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16417,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions\/16417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}