.22 Rifle "Stopping Power"?
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jmorris
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What ammunition are they using? It varies in speed as does barrel lengths for single shot and semi automatic firearms. I can show you with a chronograph that some semiautos can fire ammunition faster than some single shots though.
Not sure I would call their “proof” old news or vivid imagination, how about poor shot placement? I have killed them in a trap with .22 ammunition that was going slower than the speed of sound myself.
Skylerbone
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It takes a certain level of velocity to expand a hollow point. If it expands, it doesn’t penetrate as deeply. Thus if velocity were slowed to the point of non-expansion, the bullet will not parachute to a stop.
Carl N. Brown
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"increased velocity mean decreased penetration". I just don't see how that is possible.
.22 bullets are soft lead or thin copperplated soft lead. They deform at higher velocities penetrating less but dumping more energy.
.22 40 grain bullets at standard velocity 1080 feet per second often penetrate more than the same bullets in a high velocity 1280 fps load.
It's even more counter-intuitive with high power rifles. At 25 yards a 6.5 Carcano 160 gr FMJ bullet at 2100 feet per second penetrates twice as much wood as a 7.62 NATO (.308 Win) 168gr bullet at 2700 fps: the high velocity bullet deforms and/or yaws and offers more resistence and does more damage in the shorter penetration. But, at about 400 yards dropt down to 2100 fps the 7.62 (.308) penetrates as deep as the 6.5 Carcano at 25 yards.
.22 bullets are soft lead or thin copperplated soft lead. They deform at higher velocities penetrating less but dumping more energy.
.22 40 grain bullets at standard velocity 1080 feet per second often penetrate more than the same bullets in a high velocity 1280 fps load.
It's even more counter-intuitive with high power rifles. At 25 yards a 6.5 Carcano 160 gr FMJ bullet at 2100 feet per second penetrates twice as much wood as a 7.62 NATO (.308 Win) 168gr bullet at 2700 fps: the high velocity bullet deforms and/or yaws and offers more resistence and does more damage in the shorter penetration. But, at about 400 yards dropt down to 2100 fps the 7.62 (.308) penetrates as deep as the 6.5 Carcano at 25 yards.
Varminterror
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Greater velocity = greater expansion. Excessive expansion can mean fragmentation, such the bullet loses mass, and wastes energy (literally) in its own destruction. Such it doesn’t retain as much momentum to penetrate as deeply, and has lost energy it would have needed to elicit deeper penetration against it’s larger expanded diameter.
Kill a bunch of stuff with similar cartridges of different velocities, you’ll see it happen quite frequently.
Varminterror
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Something which HAS always surprised me, when examining game or livestock post-mortem taken with a 22LR. A non-trivial number of animals are cleanly and quickly dispatched by slugs which mushroomed and stopped against the exterior of the skull. The impact was obviously sufficient to do the killing, despite no physical trauma to the brain. More often than not, animals found with a slug mushroomed against the skull were those which required follow up, finishing shots, but I’ve found far too many with only one shot, one hole, and a mushroom pressed against the skull under the skin, which dropped stone dead to pretend they were flukes.
Really makes me consider the fragility of our brain.
Really makes me consider the fragility of our brain.
I was thinking solid bullets. And brain tissue is quite soft.
Varminterror
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Lead solids don’t equate non-expanding. Higher speeds will smear the nose off of a lead bullet, especially if deformed by the skull upon entry, creating more drag in the channel and reducing penetration. Again, shoot a bunch of game with these rounds and you’ll observe such common occurrences.
Well I wouldn't actually know as the only things I had ever shot at were paper targets...
OP
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Howland937
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It does seem odd that the animal (of any kind) would potentially die without evidence of destroyed brain tissue But In a way it does make sense though considering how many people die of TBI without any actual penetration into their brain. I mean, that math adds up better than the lost velocity in .22 semi-auto math anyway.
jmorris
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It’s often easier to “see” if you take things to an extreme. So, take a thin jacketed bullet designed for a 1:14 twist barrel and push it at high velocity’s out of a 1:7 twist barrel and it won’t even make it to a paper target at 25 yards, in one piece, much less provide penetration on many objects.
Obviously other variables in play as well.
748
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I ran this test about 20 years ago. I loaded up reduced load rounds to produce 500yd velocity at the muzzel. These rounds went through, paper, wood water jugs much better than full power rounds. This was especially true with fmj.
Only on hard targets like steel, stone, concrete did the full velocity projectiles do better.
Skylerbone
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I recall with some clarity a Driver Education film from some 31 years ago featuring a State Trooper. He described a number of accident scenes including one where the cause of death was TBI from a 15 mph side impact.
The young woman he described as looking completely healthy save the fact she had passed. The coroner determined the driver’s head had impacted the side window, and not even hard enough to break it. I surmise the number of such accidents leaving dead or impaired drivers lead to the increase of side curtain air bags.
I too have witnessed some dumbfounding kills with animals with little or no cranial penetration.
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