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Long Path · September 22, 1999, 03:39 PM

There does seem to be another degree of damage done to a wider swath of tissues-- "hydrostatic shock," they sometimes call it-- that seems to occur with bullets hitting soft tissue at velocities in excess of about 2000 or a bit over, according to some combat physicians. They were thus of the opinion that a really fast small bullet from a rifle and a really fast larger bullet from a rifle made very similar wounds when fired through soft tissue. Such as it was, this was not too far from the truth (*KEEP READING!!!* I'm a bigger-bore man, myself!). A shot to the abdomen ("soft tissue," remember) really isn't that different when one compares hyper-sonic .22 and super or hyper-sonic .30 hits. Problem is, an organic body, human or game or varmint, is not homogenious; it's got bone, cartelidge, air, etc. To push right on through such a heterogenious assortment of structures, the bullet needs to have some mass for momentum, to cause a permanent wound.

Now, in pistols, unless you're talking about the hand-rifles that comprise the Contenders, XP-100's, etc in rifle calibers, you're talking about arms that simply can't get their bullets up to the velocities that elicit that seeming "equalizer" of rifle cartridges, hydrostatic shock. With pistols, some shock can be induced, but much of the tissue displaced by light, fast pistol bullets simply returns to its original configuration, leaving only the bullet path as the permanent wound cavity. This is rather small, of course, with a light, fast bullet with minimal penetration.

Enter to our rescue the proponents of the "B.H.B." (Big Heavy Bullet) philosophy, of which I am a member. This philosophy is only interested in permanent damage done by the initial strike of a large--preferably very blunt and very solid-- bullet to center mass of the target, pushing through whatever it might encounter on its way through.

While there are those who believe in the "magic" of high energy, light bullets moving along mighty swiftly (and in fact you can see some spectacular stops with these, on occasion!), I prefer not to depend upon "magic," but rather on the good ol' sledghammer approach.

BTW, just about all of the states that dissallow pistol calibers that can't maintain a minimum energy at a certain yardage have no problem with bowhunting, in which the arrow's energy never approaches the same energy, right off the bowstring! A medium-heavy, sloooowwww-moving arrow can handily dispatch a 1000 lb bull elk, hit properly, because of its permanent damage done to arrows. Properly constructed handgun bullets of sufficient caliber can penetrate hard structures like bone even easier.

[/soapbox]

September 22, 1999, 03:39 PM	#2
Long Path Senior Member Join Date: May 31, 1999 Location: N. Texas Posts: 5,899	There does seem to be another degree of damage done to a wider swath of tissues-- "hydrostatic shock," they sometimes call it-- that seems to occur with bullets hitting soft tissue at velocities in excess of about 2000 or a bit over, according to some combat physicians. They were thus of the opinion that a really fast small bullet from a rifle and a really fast larger bullet from a rifle made very similar wounds when fired through soft tissue. Such as it was, this was not too far from the truth (KEEP READING!!! I'm a bigger-bore man, myself!). A shot to the abdomen ("soft tissue," remember) really isn't that different when one compares hyper-sonic .22 and super or hyper-sonic .30 hits. Problem is, an organic body, human or game or varmint, is not homogenious; it's got bone, cartelidge, air, etc. To push right on through such a heterogenious assortment of structures, the bullet needs to have some mass for momentum, to cause a permanent wound. Now, in pistols, unless you're talking about the hand-rifles that comprise the Contenders, XP-100's, etc in rifle calibers, you're talking about arms that simply can't get their bullets up to the velocities that elicit that seeming "equalizer" of rifle cartridges, hydrostatic shock. With pistols, some shock can be induced, but much of the tissue displaced by light, fast pistol bullets simply returns to its original configuration, leaving only the bullet path as the permanent wound cavity. This is rather small, of course, with a light, fast bullet with minimal penetration. Enter to our rescue the proponents of the "B.H.B." (Big Heavy Bullet) philosophy, of which I am a member. This philosophy is only interested in permanent damage done by the initial strike of a large--preferably very blunt and very solid-- bullet to center mass of the target, pushing through whatever it might encounter on its way through. While there are those who believe in the "magic" of high energy, light bullets moving along mighty swiftly (and in fact you can see some spectacular stops with these, on occasion!), I prefer not to depend upon "magic," but rather on the good ol' sledghammer approach. BTW, just about all of the states that dissallow pistol calibers that can't maintain a minimum energy at a certain yardage have no problem with bowhunting, in which the arrow's energy never approaches the same energy, right off the bowstring! A medium-heavy, sloooowwww-moving arrow can handily dispatch a 1000 lb bull elk, hit properly, because of its permanent damage done to arrows. Properly constructed handgun bullets of sufficient caliber can penetrate hard structures like bone even easier. [/soapbox]