by BD1 » Mon Jun 27, 2011 10:26 am
I'm going to add my thoughts on JHP pistol bullets and hunting. I owned a "hair on" tannery in Northern Maine for about 7 years. Among other joys, that business allowed me to get up close and personal with 500-700 bear hides, 100-200 moose hides and several hundred deer hides every year, along with fur bearers and the odd assortment of exotic stuff sent in by taxidermists for tanning. I'll bet I've fleshed a least 50 240 grain JHPs out of the side of bear heads, forward of the ear, that were put there by guides using a .44 mag for a point blank "finishing shot" before they started into dressing out the bears. None of those bullets had penetrated the skull. I've fleshed dozens of fully expanded JHP pistol bullets out of moose hides that were still in the hide on the entry side, completely healed over. And I think all of those were at handgun velocities. You run those same bullet designs up to 2,000 fps and I believe your penetration and terminal effect will be very poor, even on lighter skinned game. There's just not enough sectional density in your average pistol caliber JHP to get the job done.
I also guided bear hunters in Maine for about five years, and ran bear with dogs for years after that. When playing around with bears, my .44 mag was loaded with 310 grain hard cast flat points. They're only traveling about 1,100 fps, but I've never recovered one as they all went through and through, even on "Texas heart shot" hogs. These days I use a 265 grain grain hard cast flat point in the same pistol for deer and pigs with substantially the same results.
BD