When it comes to Big Bore my standards in accuracy are considerably different than that of a small caliber airgun. For hunting purposes I want to have my balance focused more on the impact ballistics and as long as my accuracy stays inside of 60% of my killzone diameter I am good with that. In another words if my kill zone is a 4" circle and my groups are 2 1/2 inches I am good with it.
Now I really hope folks like Mr Hollow Point, and all of the other Professional bullet casters will jump in on this discussion to help fill in the blanks and correct the errors I more than welcome it!
Now before we go any further lets look at the GOLDEN BULLET this is the perfect bullet... it ticks off all of the boxes
+ It dumps 90% of its energy into the subject
+ it creates a permanent wound cavity at least 200% of its own diameter (.50 cal would make a 2" cavity) through at least 30% of its passage through the subject, this does not include what is called a temporary wound channel through cavitation and displacement ( think of the bullet as a bomb, You do not want it blowing up as soon as it hits you want it to travel far enough to get through the entry tissue into the vitals this is where you want it to react the most but carry enough mass to continue through and create an exit wound)
+ it passes through the subject leaving both an entry and exit wound for faster blood dump and easier tracking
Is it impossible to get the golden bullet. I do not think so I believe its about discovering the right balance and I cannot help but wonder if perhaps Sabot's might be the key to doing so. We have some pretty large advancements in the Airgun Big Bore world with power and accuracy and bullets
Right now I am working off of more conjecture and theory than facts and with an laymen's understanding of ballistics not a professionals
I got my .50 caliber Texan and as one of my earlier posts stated at the time did not have any 50 cal slugs but have a lot of .45 along with some .50 sabots for my muzzle loader. What I discovered was that shooting .45 saboted airgun bullets I was still able to stay inside of my accuracy goal.
But why would you want to get a 50 cal to shoot .45 bullets you ask? well lets think about that balance.
It takes Volume to push a bullet out the end of a barrel I do not know the math but the larger your barrel the more volume you will have behind the bullet the more weight it can push at a higher fps.
Also when it comes to being compacted or expanded you are limited by the length of the projectile itself, you can only move metal so much before it is going to start breaking apart, This is where a sabotted .45 can play its part because it will allow you to shoot a longer projectile while still staying inside the weight limits of the .50 caliber volume to fps ratio limits. This offers more "crush zone" (I am sure there is a proper ballistic term just do not know what it is") It also offers a more streamlined design of the bullet itself giving more stability in flight while also allowing an larger effect when the bullet tumbles inside of the subject.
There is of course the monkey wrench in all of this conjecture
The longest sabot I have found so far is the red ridgeback they are 3/4 inch I believe, so the question as to sabots vs bullet is how long can the bullet be before it overcomes the stability effect of the sabot inside of the barrel?
This is just some open thoughts with a lot of gaps in the science of the whole picture but I do believe it might be something to explore further
Now I really hope folks like Mr Hollow Point, and all of the other Professional bullet casters will jump in on this discussion to help fill in the blanks and correct the errors I more than welcome it!
Now before we go any further lets look at the GOLDEN BULLET this is the perfect bullet... it ticks off all of the boxes
+ It dumps 90% of its energy into the subject
+ it creates a permanent wound cavity at least 200% of its own diameter (.50 cal would make a 2" cavity) through at least 30% of its passage through the subject, this does not include what is called a temporary wound channel through cavitation and displacement ( think of the bullet as a bomb, You do not want it blowing up as soon as it hits you want it to travel far enough to get through the entry tissue into the vitals this is where you want it to react the most but carry enough mass to continue through and create an exit wound)
+ it passes through the subject leaving both an entry and exit wound for faster blood dump and easier tracking
Is it impossible to get the golden bullet. I do not think so I believe its about discovering the right balance and I cannot help but wonder if perhaps Sabot's might be the key to doing so. We have some pretty large advancements in the Airgun Big Bore world with power and accuracy and bullets
Right now I am working off of more conjecture and theory than facts and with an laymen's understanding of ballistics not a professionals
I got my .50 caliber Texan and as one of my earlier posts stated at the time did not have any 50 cal slugs but have a lot of .45 along with some .50 sabots for my muzzle loader. What I discovered was that shooting .45 saboted airgun bullets I was still able to stay inside of my accuracy goal.
But why would you want to get a 50 cal to shoot .45 bullets you ask? well lets think about that balance.
It takes Volume to push a bullet out the end of a barrel I do not know the math but the larger your barrel the more volume you will have behind the bullet the more weight it can push at a higher fps.
Also when it comes to being compacted or expanded you are limited by the length of the projectile itself, you can only move metal so much before it is going to start breaking apart, This is where a sabotted .45 can play its part because it will allow you to shoot a longer projectile while still staying inside the weight limits of the .50 caliber volume to fps ratio limits. This offers more "crush zone" (I am sure there is a proper ballistic term just do not know what it is") It also offers a more streamlined design of the bullet itself giving more stability in flight while also allowing an larger effect when the bullet tumbles inside of the subject.
There is of course the monkey wrench in all of this conjecture
The longest sabot I have found so far is the red ridgeback they are 3/4 inch I believe, so the question as to sabots vs bullet is how long can the bullet be before it overcomes the stability effect of the sabot inside of the barrel?
This is just some open thoughts with a lot of gaps in the science of the whole picture but I do believe it might be something to explore further
