Pellet vs Clay (Video)

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Great video Erlis. That slug made one heck of a cavity.

Fuss
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The day before the test I killed an iguana with the slug, one shot to the head, and I saw a really tiny hole, but the iguana was DRT, and I was wondering how that a little wound did that. After the test everything was clear, the internal damage on the head must have cause a big damage on the brain. I'm pretty happy with their performance.
 
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Erlis

Can you tell us a little bit about the clay that you use? I like that it's reusable. I've never tried anything like that before? You sure made a believer out of me that the slug is the way to go for hunting.

Fuss
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Ohh I forgot to tell you. The slugs are only as good as your rifle can group with them, I haven't show that yet but I won't hunt with them if they don't group nicely. I think you should first confirm your rifle will do well with them, not all rifles will group well, I know that the FXs won't, unless you use their slug barrel. The Taipan is doing great with them and today I saw a post from DairyBoy confirming that his EdGun is also performing well, both of this guns have LW barrels, go figure!
 
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Thanks Erlis

And did you use the whole 5 pounds for your testing or did it take more?
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The clay comes with sections, when I started I used 3 sections, but as you saw at some point I had a pass through and it was becoming softer, the sun was hitting the clay directly, I was waiting for the slug to the end, so at some point of the video I added the rest. So Yes, at the end of the video I was using all the 5 pounds.
 
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I did a similar test to yours using the same clay. I was looking for penetration instead of expansion for head shots on groundhogs. In addition to the clay I placed a 3/8" piece of plywood in front of the clay to mimic skull. The test was done in summer and I transported the clay in a cooler with a cool pack. I place the clay 40 yards away in the shade to lesson softening. Of course the clay and plywood does not match a groundhogs head but is a way to compare pellet performance. The best penetration was either with pellets with hard lead and or a combination there of and heavier weight. Clay of course will not mimic actual expansion in flesh as in my test will not mimic an groundhog skull. The resulting expansion you get will be greatly exaggerated. When I go squirrel hunting I tend to go for chest shots and use hollow point pellets. I know these pellets are more effective than domes but I don't think on smaller critters you get that much expansion . I recently head shot a squirrel in my backyard and then hung it up with string. I proceeded to shoot it through the chest with three different hp's with a milk jug behind it filled with water to catch the pellets I was surprised how little expansion there was with some pellets going right through the milk jug necessitating adding a second jug. Mind you this was at 40 yards with a .22 cal with 28 fpe at the muzzle . The only pellet for me the consistently offers the best expansion is the Predator Polymag. JMO Bill
 
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If I body shot an Iguana, depending on the angle, I might have similar cavity expansion in the internals. The skin is hard but inside the stomach, lungs and heart is soft. This expansion can help in case a miss to the headshot. 

But I think you are right when using this in other critters, so like in everything, it depends. In this test the best penetration I had it with the Benjamins, and that result is consistent with my real life hunting. I was just curious to see all the different pellets I own how perform in this case vs a clay. I can also cut open an Iguana, but I don’t know if I’ll have stomach for that ;)
 
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I saw a video once on YouTube where an English gentleman was doing extensive testing of cavity channels caused by different pellet designs and calibers. He would shoot tera-cotta wax with pellets and make a casting of wound channel out of plaster of paris. Then label cores with pellet type ,grains and velocity to show damage of projectile. Some of the results were very surprising. In the 12 ft lb range the .177 pellets were making bigger wound channels than the .22 pellets.

The moral to the story is to gather information to get the most accurate pellet that does the most destruction to the flesh of the animal for a humane kill. More than likely you will have to compromise between accuracy and wound channel performance.

In England they are limited to 12 ft lbs so they make the most of available power and accuracy of thier guns.

any way I find this subject very interesting and thanks for sharing your experiment with us. Thanks MM
 
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