In GREENCOUNTYPETE's post about .35's, Warrior commented "The avid and professional hunting community has always been on the look out for cartridges and calibers that dump animals right there. "

That reminded me of an article I read awhile back on Nathan Foster's website, ballisticstudies.com. Nathan is, in my opinion, one of the foremost experts in the world on rifle shooting, marksmanship, and terminal ballistics. If you haven't read his stuff, check it out. He's not a scientist in a lab, he's a hunter and guide who has personally skinned thousands of animals shot with hundreds of firearms.

Nathan introduced me to the term "hydrostatic shock" in terms of killing animals. According to his definition, "Hydrostatic shock transfer refers to the effect when shock waves travel through flesh to distant nerve centers, disrupting their ability to emit electrical impulses."

I'll sum up the principle like this: an animal (or human) body is 60%+ water. We're basically walking soaked sponges in a balloon of skin. If you've ever slapped a water balloon, you know that the energy is transfered through the fluid in a cone shape that bulges out the other side. Your hand doesn't have to go all the way through the balloon to create a disturbance on the other side. An energy path is created in front of the impact. That's why if you shoot a jug full of water, the backside of the jug often ruptures with no bullet hole in it: the impact transferred by the water ruptured the jug before the bullet ever got to the exit. We see the same thing in slow-motion videos of target shooting, especially ballistic gel.

In hunting kills, hydrostatic shock happens when the energy transferred through the flesh is enough to cause immediate organ failure, particularly to the nervous system. It's not just about the damage caused by the bullet channel itself, but the shock transferred to the surrounding tissue. This is why some animals tip over right there, while others with identical shot placement run. Achieving hydrostatic shock depend on force delivered, which is a function of bullet mass, velocity, and impact area (a wider bullet creates a bigger cone of energy.)

Just a little useful knowledge for your head. Don't take my word for it, you can read the full article at https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/Effective+Game+Killing.html. Scroll down if you want to skip his long intro on the ethics of humane killing, etc.

Happy shootin

A high shoulder shot will anchor them.

Brian

this seems to come up nearly every year

looking back at the cape buffalo cull study done by veterinarians they shot with the same gun in the same place about 50/50 fell right there vs ran a short ways

they checked out the brains and the animals that went down right there had hemorrhaging. those that ran a ways then went down did not.

I forget the magnum cartridge they used but it wasn't a small or weak cartridge.

they came up with the theory of blood pressure as a part of the shock wave

if the beat of the heart was high the shock wave traveled , if the the pressure high the shock traveled if you could put a blood pressure cuff on a test animal and time the shot so that the blood pressure needle was at the peak when the bullet struck. some what hard to get a control on that. but it sure would be interesting.

likewise it is my theory that if you can get enough shock to take the pressure high even if the heart is relaxing and pressure at it's lowest , but that is a function of volume , speed and surface area of the bullet

why a 125 pound doe generally goes DRT when a 250 pound buck doesn't near as often.

if you set up a water balloon and you smack it yes you see it bulge out the other side , but if you double the size of that balloon and smack it with the same energy you don't get the same amount of effect

it is my belief that one should not rely on hydro-static shock alone , if you need an animal down where you shoot it perhaps it is a moose just stepping up on a trail out of the nee deep water , or a bear that has been chased by dogs and is now standing ready to come down and charge you. a buck yards from a fence line with an anti neighbor. Break bones CNS central nerviness system hit

neck , high shoulder , down through the shoulder blades from above

if it needs to be down there , break the shoulders , back and neck yes it will cost a little meat but so much less than a lost animal.

The key......IMO.......to a clean, instant kill is bullet placement. A shot at the base of the ear will put almost any critter down RIGHT NOW. Moose with a 40 grain pill etc, DRT !

You got it White.In one eye and out the opposite ear-drop like a heavy sac of potatoes.
neck shots pretty good too.

I have taken several deer with my .444 Marlin, including my very first deer and my best ever buck, but none of them dropped on the spot. Same thing with my .50 and .62 cal flintlocks shooting cast lead roundballs. With my 6mm Rem, .270 Win and .30-06 it is a different matter altogether. They are much more likely to drop where shot. Regardless, every one of them ended up in the freezer and on the dinner plate.

Too many folks think that moose and grizzly care about hydrostatic shock! When your bag of water is big enough, slapping it doesn’t do much.

The bigger they are the harder they fall. When you see a large bear absolutely crushed from being shot with a large magnum round it is impressive! I have often wondered how damaging is it to the vascular network as well as the nervous system?

I will admit that I have killed moose, black bear and grizzly with a 22 LR with one shot behind the ear. ALL. in emergency situations.I do NOT recommend it !! I understand it is not within the realm of legality............but I am still alive. That means more to me than any regulation.

Ken, I really preferred the .22magnum in those situations!

I prefer a 12 gauge or a high powered rifle. Glad we don’t have any of those species around here to cause those situations

Agree with this 100%. No busted up arms or ribs too.

While I'm by no means any kind of authority I have seen everything from a 1200lb beef dropped with a single 22lr to all sorts of critters shot with all sorts of things. I've come to the conclusion that the things that matter are this in order of preference.

Shot placement. If the projectile hits in a way that it destroys the brain you get instant death, destroys the heart/lungs you get death but the animal may run until lack of oxygen ends all other function, destroys skeletal structure you get instant incapacitation but may have movement to the degree of mobility remaining and death based upon degree of blood loss.

Mass of projectile. Nothing trumps big holes and the resulting damage to that which the projectile actually touches. Mass carries energy, energy does work.

Projectile velocity. Outside of ranging ability velocity imparts energy to the projectile mass. Important only to provide enough energy to be able to penetrate the target from any given angle and pass completely through destroying whatever the projectile may impact.

Projectile upset. The least reliable aspect of wounding and incapaction. If choosing a bullet that upsets choose one that holds its mass while meeting the above criteria.

Given a choice my pick is a 12ga 1 1/8 oz slug as the most reliable killer I've shot on game.

I have had more one shot kills and drop in their tracks shots on deer and antelope with my 6mm Remington than any other caliber I have ever used. I hand loaded 100 grain Sierra semi points that I had bought at a garage sale. I quickly realized that there was something extra special about those bullets. I never had a pass trough shot in the chest, all the bullets energy ended up in the animal. I also thought about the buffalo cull study. I remember that there was some speculation that at the instant the bullet hit the heart valve was open, thus allowing an extra shock to the heart. No way to tell however.

Poor bullet choice has wounded a bunch of lost game. You can use all the speed your magnum cartridge can generate, use the wrong bullet and all they do is blow up, sometimes outside the vitals. Mud on a moose, fat on a bear, or even major bones on a deer, can negate the effects of a thin jacketed / explosive bullet. A control expansion or cast bullet, cast from the correct alloy, both make two holes most often, and fill freezers. Hydrostatic shock is the by-product of the correct bullet, with the correct penetration, getting to the vital organs.
There were a great many buffalo killed with a 500 gr cast bullet, running 1200 Fps.

Give me a heart/lung shot .
Sure, the deer may run abit but it'll be dead in a short time.
Better then have a jaw blown off while trying a head shot.
There are folks that know their limitations and rifle that can pull off certain shots but a heart /lung shot will always be recommended.

I have found over 50 years that forward of the high shoulder, which is the base of the neck, works very well. It might clip the top of the shoulders, a large artery, and the spine. This placement also offers room for error. No tracking required.

Having said that, I shot a broadside doe free handed last year and hit her with a 140 grain from a 7-08 at about 100 yards. The shot hit middle of the deer and below the spine. That deer never budged. No ear flickered, no foot quivered, nothing. Go figure. It should have run.

Had a heart shot buck run 75 yards once, only to drop dead right beside my truck. After an hour search in the dark, I gave up and returned to my truck to discover my good fortune. I went back the next afternoon and tracked the blood trail backward just to see how I failed the night before. You just never know.

I agree on not trying the brain shot under most field conditions, though I have pulled it off the one and only time I tried it. To small a target under fluid conditions. Best saved for controlled situations like we do with an animal in a trap.
On deer I'm going for the shoulder whenever possible to break them down right there with the goal of taking out the heart lungs behind the shoulder as well. But I'm going to hit them with something that won't blow up on bone. If you like fast zippy mushrooming bullets don't aim for bone.

Even broken down I've seen one go several hundred yards on one good leg. Buddy of mine hit low with buckshot breaking the onside shoulder without taking out the heart/lungs, one pellet shattered the offside fore leg. And the other four rounds of buckshot went into the nearside ham as it was going away. None of the pellets entered the boiler room.
It was an easy track as the young buck bulldozed its way along with one good leg until it fell into a wash it couldn't climb out of.

The gun I have with the MOST confidence, is my Marlin 60 LE .22LR. If I were to be be stranded in ANY situation, this would be my gun of choice! I understand that this small caliber has its limitations, but I feel I can kill anything that I shoot at (survival situations, obviously) including big game...but I tend to be a pipe dreamer, so there you go.