Difference in pellets and power between different calibers

[glassman]

I was out in the desert this morning trying to call in coyotes, fox or bobcat. Hiked almost a mile out to where I set up. Got settled in to my blind, turned on the Foxpro, got in about 4 minutes of of calling and it falls silent, dead batteries. Doh. Homer hand to the forehead. Tried doing a little mouth calling but lost interest rather quickly. Soooo I hiked back to the truck and taped a couple targets to a piece of 1/2" OSB I had in the back of the truck. Walked out a short ways and decided to sight both the .30 Bobcat and .22 Air Wolf in at 60 yards. After I finished I went out and brought back the targets and the chunk of OSB. Below are the pictures of the OSB. The 18 grain .22 JSB's embedded themselves nicely into the panel at 60 yards but did not penetrate through. The 50 grain JSB exact .30's just pounded their way through like they were going through paper at 60 yards. I didn't quite expect to see that big of a difference.

.22 18 grain JSB's
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Front side holes from the .30 50grain JSB's
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Rear side hole from the .30 JSB's
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[Willie14228]

I don't have numbers but I shoot both a 357 bulldog and a 50 cal black powder I use both to hunt with and have run a lot of different rounds through them to find the most accurate and best KE on impact.
There is a pretty big difference in grain weight 50-18 = 32 both are being shot at close to the same fps.
Of course a rounds shape and material will play a part in it's penetration ability but mass and speed are the main factor
It's kind of a balancing act, a lighter bullet/pellet will have less drop and faster fps therefore less time for wind to effect it's flight BUT will "fall off" faster because it has less mass to fight wind resistance.
A heavier pellet will have more drop but it's mass will keep it's KE in the lethal range longer
Think about it this way.... A guy gets out of his Volkswagen bug forgets to put it in park it rolls back 10 feet hits a car... Most likely a scratch or small dent.
Same spot same distance a truck driver forgets to set the parking brake.... And somebody is going to be getting a new car.
Or if you want to scale it down a bit
A 90 mph baseball compared to a 30 mph bolling ball... which one would you be willing to catch

 

[zebra]

There is also a difference in the alloys used. Some have harder tips than others so there is a difference in penetrating power.

Penetration (one of my favorite words) is not the only consideration for a hunter though. I find that hollow points kill the quickest. You don't want the pellet to go straight through. You want it to expand and break apart inside the critters head.

 

[Dartagnan]

"zebra"There is also a difference in the alloys used. Some have harder tips than others so there is a difference in penetrating power.

Penetration (one of my favorite words) is not the only consideration for a hunter though. I find that hollow points kill the quickest. You don't want the pellet to go straight through. You want it to expand and break apart inside the critters head.

After wwatching my slow motion hunts with ground squirrels and their reactions using dome versus polymags (hollow point / polymer tipped). The Polymags obviously did more damage then the domes. Most of the time I can see the domes exit and ricochet, almost instantly, out the other side. Not so much the Polys. Obviously the polys expand and the squirrels absorb the energy of the polys then domes.