It seems that all game are becoming immune to standard calibre firearms. What our grand-fathers used to shoot with .22 long rifles are now considered too tough for that calibre. What we used to shoot with a .270 Win can now no longer be brought down by it, because the animals have grown immune to it and we are now having to resort to at least .375 calibres to defend ourselves against the ferocious impala.
So tough have game become that we find more-and-more hunters resorting to the .416 Rigby, because impala, let alone other much larger game like the Eland, are now being born with steel re-enforced rib cages.
As far as handguns go things are even worse and in answer to this huge problem we introduce .....
The NEW .825 G&S Online Express Magnum
"The first magnum handgun cartridge, the .357 Magnum, was therefore introduced in 1935 to shift the balance of power back to the handgun hunter. For at time, it did. At the time of its introduction the .357, loaded to the previously unheard of (for a handgun) MAP of about 43,000 psi, was the most powerful handgun cartridge in the world. It was loaded with a 158 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 1550 fps and muzzle energy (ME) of 845 ft. lbs. The .357 was used to bag all North American big game, including elk, moose and the great bears, before the beginning of the Second World War. Big game was still relatively weak in that bygone era, so practically no one felt any need for a more powerful handgun hunting cartridge.
However, by the end of World War II wild game was becoming too tough for the .357 Magnum. Elk and moose were becoming impervious even to perfectly placed .357" bullets. (Today, of course, we all know that even the smallest deer have become completely immune to .357 Magnum bullets.) Experiments to again redress the balance of killing power were underway in earnest by 1950 and in 1956 the result, the .44 Remington Magnum, was born.
This new cartridge, billed as the world's most powerful handgun cartridge, was standardized at a MAP of 36,000 psi. The original loads drove a 240 grain bullet at a MV of 1470 fps with ME of 1150 ft. lbs. The .44 Mag. was used to kill all manner of heavy game, such as elk, moose and the great bears; it did so with authority. All across North America hunters heaved sighs of relief. Protected by a .44 Magnum revolver, it was once again safe to venture into the woods.
Unfortunately, that happy state of affairs only lasted until the 1970s. By that time elk and moose had begun to shrug off solid hits by .429" (.44 Mag.) bullets. In desperation, some handgun hunters began carrying crystals for protection in the field and storing their .44 Magnum ammunition inside pyramids specially constructed for the purpose. (A secondary benefit of the latter practice came to light when it was discovered that these pyramid shapes also sharpened razor blades.) " - Chuck Hawks
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Muzzleloader Realtime Hunting Day 1 Scene 3 with a Black powder Revolver .44 Caliber
Terminal Bullet Performance in Muzzleloading
"I liked your article: it makes many good points. The KE (kinetic energy) fallacy is so pervasive that it needs to be corrected as often as possible. The arrow is a good example: I think it helps to drive the point home if you mention how much KE a hunting arrow has (a 500 grain arrow traveling at 200 ft/sec has a KE of 44 ft. lb.). Thus the largest game in the world (including elephant) is hunted and killed with a projectile having only about 2/3 the KE of a 22 Short bullet. That should give pause to even the most ardent KE advocates." - M. Fackler (Terminal Bullet Performance in Muzzleloading)
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Dr. Martin L. Fackler is a retired Colonel in the US Army's Medical Corps, he was a battlefield surgeon, and the head of the Wound Ballistics Laboratory for the US Army’s Medical Training Center, Letterman Institute.
He is credited with a number of contributions to the field of terminal ballistics including:
- Developing and testing improved media in which the effects of bullet wounds could be simulated. This led to the widespread acceptance of 10% ballistic gelatin for evaluating penetration and expansion of projectiles.
- Establishing effects of projectile design and shape on wounding.
- He hypothesized that wound depth was much more important than previously thought, and recommended ammunition that could send a bullet at least twelve inches into his ballistic gelatin.
- He was the first researcher to demonstrate that fragmentation was the most effective means of inflicting wounds in a modern military rifle round. He asserted that yawing and cavitation do not typically cause severe tissue trauma. Or, that the "permanent wound cavity" or actual damage caused by a projectile is the primary "stopping power" mechanism and that the "temporary wound cavity" or shock wave produced by the projectile is at best a secondary mechanism, if not irrelevant.
- He has over 250 articles in print concerning wound ballistics and most were published in medical journals.
Big Bore Airgun Hunting - Stalking one of Africa's larger species of Antelope, the Red Hartebeest, with the Benjamin Rogue .357 AIRGUN
Also watch:
Extreme Muzzleloader Hunting in South Africa 175 Yards kill with a Inline Muzzleloader
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdR8Q424JIM
Sources
http://www.chuckhawks.com/825_magnum.htm
http://www.chuckhawks.com/terminal_performance_muzzleloading.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Fackler