Slugs — Testing How Much They Expand and How Far They Penetrate

[JungleShooter]

angrybear,

I agree, many tests are being done under the most favorable conditions, that are totally unrealistic to normal hunting.

For that reason I took the time to calculate both the velocity at impact (and the kinetic energy at impact), so that we can compare apples with apples....
And that shooters can make a simple ballistic calculation how far their particular rig can be from the quarry and still deliver that velocity that has shown satisfactory expansion.


One of the big advantages of slugs for hunting is that they loose much less energy/ velocity than pellets – because of their higher BC.
I was surprised when I tried to calculate how much muzzle velocity I needed to make a hollow point pellet hit quarry with at least 800fps at 40 yards. IT CAN'T BE DONE (without shooting them supersonic/ transonic, where accuracy goes down the gutter).
Because the pellet looses so much velocity, that even shooting it at the upper velocity limit for pellets, say 950fps, will get me to 30 yards but not 40y: The H&N Baracuda Hunter Extreme (18.52gr), with a for hollow point pellets very high BC of 0.026), shot at 950fps MV, will arrive at 30y with 800fps. And much less than that at 40y: 770fps | at 50y: 730fps | at 60y: 700

Now compare that to a slug with a BC of 0.060 (very conservative!). Shot at 950fps, it will at 30y still have 880fps | at 40y: 860fps | at 50y: 840 | at 60y: 820


Great times to be an airgunner (and get a FAC license*).


Matthias


*Or you could do as I did -- move away from a country with excessively strict gun laws -- like Germany's 6FPE (7.5J) airgun power limit -- and move to a country where the sky is the limit of the legal airgun power -- like Peru....