Is a .30 caliber airgun REALLY deadlier than a .25?

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Baker Airguns

Baker Airguns

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Jun 5, 2018
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Hi everybody! In this video, I'm probably going to make some of you mad. The topic I address in this video is, "Is a .30 caliber airgun REALLY deadlier than a .25?" The results might surprise you. As always, all comments are welcomed and appreciated. The first link is to the written article. The thumbnail is to the video itself. I suggest taking them both in for the full story.



CLICK HERE for the written article...








https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcgxvS4z0p8



 
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The topic is really more about penetration than “deadliness”. 

At the same energy level, we should expect the smaller caliber to penetrate further. It has less frontal area with which to interact with flesh (ballistic gel in this case). That means it is dissipating less of its energy per inch of penetration...which also means it is doing less tissue damage per inch of penetration. Thus in almost every real-world case, the larger caliber is more deadly.


Unless you’re shooting an animal in which you need over a foot of penetration to reach a vital organ....
 
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The topic is really more about penetration than “deadliness”. 

At the same energy level, we should expect the smaller caliber to penetrate further. It has less frontal area with which to interact with flesh (ballistic gel in this case). That means it is dissipating less of its energy per inch of penetration...which also means it is doing less tissue damage per inch of penetration. Thus in almost every real-world case, the larger caliber is more deadly.


Unless you’re shooting an animal in which you need over a foot of penetration to reach a vital organ....
Click to expand...


One of the things that spurred this comparison was a customer of ours.

He butchers animals for a living.

He bought a .30 caliber airgun that averaged 70fpe to dispatch hogs at point blank range.

It did not work, as it did not penetrate the skull to begin with.

Deadliness starts with penetration.

-Donnie


 
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Ah, yeah. Some penetration definitely beats no penetration.

Perhaps inform the reader of this anecdote. Meanwhile the plywood + ballistic gel is of a completely different character, giving well over a foot of penetration from either caliber after passing through the improvised skull. I think it’s a great demonstration but the vast majority of airgun hunting does not seem to require armor-piercing ammunition. Our obsession (the royal “our”) seems to run in quite the opposite direction, wanting accurate hollow points that expand in soft flesh to maximize tissue damage rather than ice-picking through. The hog example is the outlier but certainly highlights the “it depends” nature of vastly varying circumstances.
 
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Ah, yeah. Some penetration definitely beats no penetration.

Perhaps inform the reader of this anecdote. Meanwhile the plywood + ballistic gel is of a completely different character, giving well over a foot of penetration from either caliber after passing through the improvised skull.
Click to expand...


I actually considered including that story in the video...but I hate anecdotal evidence.

Still, it's a true story.

The customer is a friend of mine and showed me video of this happening.

-Donnie
 
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In this instance I would say 22 is deadlier. 21gr slug @ 1100+fps will go thru a LOT of material. Way more than I thought.

Surface area of projectile will increase resistance to penetration. Projectiles that deform can penetrate better sometimes. Sometimes deforming into an almost a knife-like profile. Other times not. One of those things you just have to get out and test. 
 
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I am not surprised, due to the larger area of the 30 presents more wetted resistance area.

My only criticism is that in the soft target penetration chart, you used the LESS THAN symbol rather than the GREATER THAN symbol for the .25 caliber.



X penetration is greater than 18"

X penetration > 18" 

Vs. 

X penetration < less than 18"



Otherwise, great article.
Click to expand...


Son of a.....

You're totally right.

LOLOL

It was late last night when I made the graphs.

Please forgive me.

-Donnie
 
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Aloha Donnie,

He bought a .30 caliber airgun that averaged 70fpe to dispatch hogs at point blank range.

It did not work, as it did not penetrate the skull to begin with.

Deadliness starts with penetration.

May I ask what type of gun and what weight of pellet, Also where was his shot placement. I'm curious because I have been using my Edgun Leshiy 2 to take some boars, my kills have been 40 yards or less, my shot placement is either right behind their ear or an inch high between the eyes. The boars weight ranged from 70 to 150 lbs. my pellet used is JSB 50.15 gr. at 855 fps.

I was using .25 JSB 33.95 gr. at 970 fps for my past hunts but I wanted to try .30 cal being a larger pellet and having more inertia. This video you made is very interesting, especially on the penetration of the 2 different pellets. Good work and keep these types of video's coming.

Aloha, Keone
 
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I've helped kill a few hogs over the years. My thought is overpowered; 70 fpe would likely cause the pellet to explode on impact with a solid object resulting in little penetration. 

I will edit this to: 70 for in .25 will likely explode on impact. .30 I feel would be quite underpowered considering Daystate started at 100 fpe for a likely reason.


 
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