Blast from the past

The Shadowed Halls of Rathcoombe Manor

Twenty-five year old website and still a great place to get down-to-earth advice about terminal ballistics.

Sciuchetti's results

Here 

Sciuchetti's data, Rathcoombe's graphic. 180 grain, .30 caliber fired into soaked phone books (remember those?) at various velocities.

 

Pearls of Wisdom

"The importance of hit location and shotline cannot be overstated."

"What emerges is that nearly all big game cartridges are capable of killing essentially any size game animal (short perhaps of pachyderms) under ideal conditions even with solids..."

"Its generally thought best to aim for the center of the thorax and leave a margin of error on all sides which will be highly lethal even if range estimation or wind or steadiness or a sudden movement by the quarry...Usually one can find the proper aimpoint on a line centered between the front legs and approximately one-third of the distance from the sternum to the top of the shoulders (ventral to dorsal). On a fully broadside presentation, the aimpoint will lie just behind the front legs at the same height."

"Shoot any ten deer, elk, sheep, antelope of identical size and age on a classic broadside shot through the shoulder and lungs; half of them will crumple on the spot but the remainder will...(not react or will run up to 200 yards) Link"

"Most rifle bullets are designed to perform reliably within a rather narrow range of velocities, usually 2000 to 3000 fps for most conventional rifle bullets. Below this velocity range, the bullet may not expand; above it, the bullet may shatter on impact...Bullets designed for the older low-velocity rifle cartridges and for handguns can be relied upon to expand down to about 1400 fps in the case of rifles and 900 fps in handguns."

Image of generic wound-track for an expanding bullet from a big-game cartridge.

In an ideal, broadside shot, the large white balloon corresponds in depth with the heart-lungs of your target animal.

In a less-than ideal presentation, the long, narrow wound track on the right side of the image is what will kill the animal and the large balloon will be expended on shoulder muscle or the front of the abdominal cavity and/or lancing through the ribs on the diagonal.

"The .300 Shock & Awe Magnum firing a 180 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of 3200 fps is no more potent at 500 yards than a .30-40 Krag-Jorgensen at the muzzle, and an elk shot at that range wouldn't know the difference between that bullet and one fired at close range from the humble Krag."