Bullet fragmentation study - Minnesota DNR

Riflechair said:
A really interesting study into an aspect of health and safety in our sport.

This is a bullet fragmentation study that the Minnesota DNR recently did. They shot euthanized sheep with a variety of bullet designs, and evaluated the distance that lead traveled through the carcass using radiographs. The results are pretty interesting.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/lead/index.htm
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Actually the study had nothing to do with health and safety and only looked a bullet fragmentation. Some very interesting results to be sure but they go out of their way in the study to say the are not looking at health effects.
 
That was pretty cool that they went that far in depth about the subject.

Just a word of caution start with your sound low, the guy yells sometimes and is whispering other times.
 
That was pretty interesting, especially since I have our little guys health to consider thanx for the post! :)

PS I guess the idea is to aim for the neck? :D
 
You are right Gate, it is studies like this and predecessors that were the impetus for the E-Tip and GMX.
 
So how does lead get into my meat with a head shot . . . it is hard to find a good abattoir who will grind your meat first thing in the morning before everyone else's lead, bone, and hair is clustered around the spindle. There is nothing more annoying that a fragment of lead adhered to a molar.
 
My .270 is sighted in for 130gr Nosler Ballistic tips
My .308 for Hornady 150gr SST Light magnums

I generally choose a bullet on the basis of it's ability to fragment.
I find it to be a desirable characteristic as it increases stopping power.
Although I find the study interesting, I think that the reason the fragments spread so much was only because they were in the cavity, and were spread around by the internal fluids, in muscle and meat they would have spread far less.

Also the quote
"To date no illnesses have been linked to lead in hunter harvested venison"
This after hundreds of years hunting with big balls of lead. Although our higher velocities cause increased fragmentation now, we've been hunting with .270s and 30-06s since the beginning of the last century!!!

Although I have found lead in my food before I don't consider it to be more than something to be careful about, and I think the increased damage and killing power of a fragmenting bullet make it a valuable tool in the Hunter's arsenal,

I wont throw the baby out with the bath water.
 
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Although I find the study interesting, I think that the reason the fragments spread so much was only because they were in the cavity, and were spread around by the internal fluids, in muscle and meat they would have spread far less.
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Check out the hip shots they did......nothing but solid muscle there and when the bullet hit bone, the lead spread even further....through solid muscle.
 
I was referring to the first slides, but you make a good point.
I actually hit a doe in the hip this year and found a lot of fragmentation.
I had to cut a lot of meat off and going through the leg cutting it up for sausage I was finding a few fragments quit a ways away.
I may have missed some lead but I think the amounts would be pretty small. I certainly was careful to get as much as I could out before sending it to the Sausage maker. If you just sent the whole leg you'd sure be grinding a lot of lead though.
 
It's interesting when you read the study though, the vast majority of lead fragments cannot be seen nor felt but collectively they add up to a fair amount of lead. If you are finding lead fragments away from the wound site, they are but the tip of the iceberg!
 
...next test subject should be that narrator. Either a serious allergy sufferer or rampant cocaine user, his nasally, annoying voice made it difficult to sit through that vid. Good info however and to bad we can't hunt with FMJ's.;)
I think after that vid I will try some Barnes bullets. I must admit the foster-type slug from the shotgun not fragging really surprised me!!!

Mad Mikey:p
 
That slug just wasn't going fast enough to fragment and the lead was so soft.
I'm not saying it doesn't have killing power but the trajectory sucks and by 100yds it loses a lot of it's power.
It's not the "magic laser" we've come to expect from modern high-velocity rifles.
 
Brambles said:
Would have been nice if they shot animals at distances longer than 50 yards, I'm sure they would have found far less fragmentation.
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Thats so true.
The doe I hit in the hip this year was at 220yds. The bullet has far less power at that range.
She was facing me and the bullet stayed in the bone on one side. The fragmentation was no were near as severe as the double femur shot they showed in the slide
 
Unfortunately, studies like these lead to the irrational laws such as exist on California. I would like to point out that they said that there where no illnesses linked to fragmentation, and law makers totally miss this when they make laws. There are trace amounts of lead in most of the water that is consumed by people; should we stop drinking water?
Mike
 
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