What a bullet does to an animal when it hits

If you shoot a game animal through the lungs with a properly placed expanding bullet, three things follow.
First, the shock effect destroys a lot of tissue in the pleural cavity, causing these organs to lose function rapidly.
Second, as the area bleeds profusely, the blood gathers in the lung sacs, drowning the victim in it's own blood.
Loss of blood to other areas of the body [organs like the brain] cause haemolytic (sp?) shock, and unconsciousness follows.
Final result? You have work to do!! :)
Eagleye.
 
Bullet enters right side(depending on angle) at high velocity, opens up to twice it normal size, destroys and disrupted cardiovascular system either with a hole or hydrastatic(or whatever that thing is called) damage, makes bigger whole on the left side for the air and blood to leave from, animal drops and dies before I get there.
 
It is a fast frickin' movin' little metal thingy that hopefully hits your soft furry thingy putting a hole(s) in the soft thingy so that the red gushy stuff comes out of the soft furry thingy.

I can simplify it even better for arrows and bullets both, metal hitting living object, bad. Other examples can be a baseball bat vs your knees or an I-beam vs your head or a truck vs a moose. See the trend. ;)

On a side note I tried Dogleg's theory on animals but with light from the outside , apparently it does not work from the outside!! I did however see other red/blue lights during this experiment!!
 
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I shot a black bear at a non vital place, which was under the spine but very close to the spine, above the gut but a litter farther from the gut, a little behind the middle point of the bear body. Almost no blood, the bullets passed through. It was not a vital shot, but the bear died almost instantly (When I walked to his place, he gave out his last breath). So I was and still I am confused, why this shot placement can be better than a perfectly placed shot.
 
I think there is a crush factor and tear factor...the crush factor is when the bullet impacts and the kinetic energy pushes an amount of tissue/material out the exit wound...the tear factor is the distance from which the bullet entered to exiting the cavity and the amount of internal damage...
 
glang1 said:
This is what a bullet does to ballistic gel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQx2eHpDVnE Maybe this is the "hydraulic shock" you refer too?
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I was amazed to see how the twist of the bullet affected the ballistic gel when it went through it IT recreated the spin in the gell. - It cause the cavity to recreate the twist, however I wonder if it isnt quite that dramatic on impacting an animal because you dont have a solid block of gel like substance tightly connected together - ue muscles, fat intestines, lungs etc. to transfer that spinning energy motion quite same way
 
Dogleg said:
It's pretty simple really.

Use small, light, fast and soft bullets on small,light, fast and soft animals.

Big, heavy, slow and hard animals are usually served big, heavy, slow and hard bullets.

Beyond that, there really isn't much to know.
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dogleg, you said it all! Bravo! That is the voice of experience! the simplest solution is the best...
 
Well there is a huge difference between hunting bullets and FMJ's. Hunting bullets are designed to kill where as FMJ's are designed to injure. They hydrostatic shock is the biggest factor in the killing ability of a bullet. Any bullet placed in the vitals will kill but a well constructed expanding bullet, that retains it weight well, will kill on a marginal shot. FMJ's are designed to injure not kill. No expansion means a clean, neat hole. Yes it will kill, if in the right place but not very effective unless it hits a vital organ/arteries. Expanding bullet turns internals into goo.
 
elker said:
I shot a black bear at a non vital place, which was under the spine but very close to the spine, above the gut but a litter farther from the gut, a little behind the middle point of the bear body. Almost no blood, the bullets passed through. It was not a vital shot, but the bear died almost instantly (When I walked to his place, he gave out his last breath). So I was and still I am confused, why this shot placement can be better than a perfectly placed shot.
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It's not better, just consider it lucky. The hydrostatic shock itself can damage organs by itself as eaglyeye said. Even though you didn't hit the heart or lungs the energy from the bullet would have been transferred into the animal, including into the lungs and heart, damaging them. It's just like being in the water and having something blow up near you, you don't need to get blown up because the pressure and energy are going to turn your lungs to mush anyway.
 
Having taken quite a few Moose,Bears, Deer, Wolves and everything else.
I used to think that I was an expert in telling you what killed the animal.
I used to think that it was Hydraulic shock.
I also used to think that a lung shot animal died drowning in his own blood.
It took a Veteranarian to explain what happens.
When you shoot an Amnimal, [lets say in the lungs], there is huge blood loss.
Blood pressure to the brain drops, when that happens, the animal looses consiousness and dies.
This is why a head shot or neck shot Animal dies quick, the blood to the brain stops,[Animal dies].
 
Bullets will cause a "funnel effect" when it penetrates tissue. Bigger/slower bullets will cause a bigger "funnel", causing more damage (assuming it is a well placed shot). But we can discuss this all day long. If you hit them right with an appropriate caliber, it won't stand for long.
 
I don't agree with big slow bullets cause 'more damage'. My 30-06 with 150gr pills does way more damage to deer then a 4570 pushing 325gr pills does to deer.
 
Zanelike said:
I don't agree with big slow bullets cause 'more damage'. My 30-06 with 150gr pills does way more damage to deer then a 4570 pushing 325gr pills does to deer.
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Really depends on bullet...the notion of fast/soft bullets for small game and slow/hard bullets for big game is about as outdated as non-jacketed bullets. Way too many types of bullet construction these days for any rules.
 
Comparison of calibres, speed and energy is very much a moot point when not discussed in the context of the wide array of bullets available today.

Hydro crappo shock is a bunch of foolishness in the grande scheme of a bullet wound and its lethality.

The more damage you can do to vital tissue, the better, ...but the lethality of the damage is not incrementally proportionate to the bullet size. if your shot is on the vitals, you reach a point in bullet size where you encounter a plateau as far as lethailty goes and even diminishing returns if you intend to salvage the animal or its parts.
 
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