Anatomy of a well placed body shot.

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intenseaty22

intenseaty22

Member
Mar 7, 2017
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GA, United States
Got a squirrel today with a well placed shot to the vitals with the Cricket Mini in .22 & Hades. Distance to target was 33 yards. Ammo flying out at 830fps. Shot placement was slightly quartering towards the gun just above the shoulder. It fell in place and did not run off, not even a foot. Took me a minute to actually find the entry, but found the pellet right away under the skin just under the ribcage.Was able to retrieve spent pellet easily. Here is the expansion of the Hades.

1581525469_9981200705e4429dd539482.03794640_1FB581CF-7959-4273-A413-5D4C48513AAE.jpeg


Then I proceeded to inspect the chest cavity. This is what I found: 
1581525490_12205873225e4429f2238516.85865951_FAB015FD-05FB-4D27-952E-4595FB13A91E.jpeg
1581525491_9256932605e4429f34dc885.83365379_F2961B25-0B6B-45C9-A6A4-D50064C5EDED.jpeg


Heart tore up pretty good, almost split in half. 


 
Great shot placement!

What was the distance and muzzle velocity?

I like the .22 Hades so far in terms of accuracy. I got virtually no expansion at 900fps MV at 30 yards on a recovered pellet that I deliberately put lengthwise through a gray squirrel to see if the hype was real. In this photo, the tape measure shows the approximate path it took:



Here is the pellet in the jaws of calipers next to an unfired one:



Yours looks peeled open pretty well but also looks like it encountered bone somewhere along the way.
 
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@nervoustrig The shot was taken at about 32 yards. I think you can see entry on the picture above, and traveled almost exactly like yours above, stopping just below the skin near the diaphragm. I can laser in a bit and see. Frankly do not recall what speed I have it set up at, but generally speaking I don't like it too hot in the yard. I think maybe around 800ish fps. 

As for the Hades, I have had mixed results with expansion. I posted a while ago a shot to the head (face entry) that the thing just mushroomed out perfectly, opened up like a flower. Sometimes I get it back intact, just like what you posted above. However, they have proven to be so consistent in the accuracy department that it's a bonus when they open up like that. Either way the squirrels end up just as dead. 
 
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Thank you sir. Having read a bunch of user reports over the few months these pellets have been on the market, I wonder why there is so much variability in expansion. I mean I know there are a lot of variables but even where most of the variables are reasonably the same as they are in our examples:

* similar distance (33 yards / 30 yards)
* same quarry (gray squirrel)
* similar placement (quartering vitals shot)

We get very different expansion despite there being about a 20% difference in energy in the other direction. I'm wondering if early contact with bone is a necessary condition. What I'd like to try is a head-on shot from a downward angle through the body and see what the expansion looks like. I realize that in the field, that's an almost impossible scenario but it would be interesting to see the result.

I generally stick to brain shots which makes for a small kill zone so what I saw in the Hades was the potential to expand the kill zone with vitals shots. So hypothetically if they benefit from hitting bone, that kinda defeats the purpose for my use. Accurate, yes, but not more accurate than the 15.9gr or 18.1gr domes. Effective, yes, but not compellingly more so and yet slightly more expensive.

 
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Thanks guys, the shot was a good one considering I was not on the bench. I try shooting from the bench as much as possible because I just can't keep very steady. This one took me a bit of concentration, but in the end I got lucky and it placed well. 

I am wondering if you are able to decrease your speed a little and see what kind of expansion you get. I do think that the "bullet hits the bone" is probably a factor here. but who knows. 

I did want to talk about the always talked about and oh so important, to some, ..........Energy Dump!!! Personally, I don't buy it, at least not most of the time. When I started air gunning I bought some H/N Hornets. Man, those things are Wicked!! Like a Polymag on steroids. The ultra sharp brass tip just cuts right through and opens up the way for the lead behind it. So I shot a squirrel once, it was coming down the side of the tree giving me a perfect side profile shot. I took it and that pellet sailed right on through the side of the vitals and kept on going with enough energy left to have probably killed 2 more if they were lined up. That squirrel just arched in place and fell to the ground never to move again. I have also seen on YouTube where Mexican hunters have shot deer with a .22 Marauder, probably at around 40ish fps, and it just jumped like it got stung by a bee, walk two yards or so and tumble like it was drunk, then just fall over not to move again. While I shot a doe once with a 50 Cal Muzzle Loader at 40ish yards broadside to quartering and dang thing ran 100 yards before it gave up the ghost. 

I think that the important thing here is being able to disrupt a major vital process in the body. Does not matter if that's the brain, heart, lungs, or a combination of those. 


 
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