I was just testing various powder charges and RB loads. I set my box up at about 25 feet. But, after that, we moved it back to 50 yards and fired a couple of shots. Shooting had to be curtailed because the boards began disintegrating! I had expected to get more out of them, and didn't buy extra lumber.
These are Comparison tests. The distance to the box is not particularly relevant unless you are testing to find out how well a particular projectile is going to penetrate 1 inch boards spaced 1" apart! :shocked2: I don't think I have any reason to hunt such lumber. :rotf:
Because of different BCs for balls and bullets, you have to accept that limitation on the range you can use RBs for hunting game. Add the limitation of open sights, take into consideration the diameter and weight of the ball being used, and you find testing at 25 or 300 feet to deliver pretty similar results with lead RBs.
Seriously, Even ballistic's Gel-- now available to private persons but costs a lot, and you have to mix and cast your own "blocks"--- doesn't exactly duplicate the performance of any projectile striking flesh AND BONE, particularly when the density of bone can vary so much. I have a very good friend who has been testing bullets, and balls for more than 50 years, who now just shoots them into sand bags. He has shot lead into so many other mediums, over the years, that he can look at a slug's or ball's performance in sand and a very good idea about what it will do in flesh and bone. He has several boxes of spent bullets, both taken from dead deer and other game, as well as similar projectiles fired into sandbags. When he sets them side by side, you begin to understand that ball or bullet expansion has more to do with the composition of the projectile, and its weight, than to velocity. Only when you have a projectile slowing down to near terminal velocity does the deformation begin to lessen noticeably.
I have test fired bullets and balls into wood, water, dry-wall(gypsum board) sand, ballistic gel, newspapers( dry and wet) solid wood, tree stumps that were green, RR ties, and dirt. I probably have forgotten some of the things I have tested projectiles in, but this is as good a list as my brain can managed today. Projectiles have ranged from the .36 revolver RB, to the .22 short, to the .50-140-550 Sharps cartridge.
For purposes of your interest in the effectiveness of a projectile to kill ELK, I fired a Remington Core-Lok 180 grain Jacketed Soft Point .30-06 round into that same Pine plank box, as a " Standard " to use in judging the .50 cal. RB loads. Where the .50 cal. RB( 177 grains in weight) went through 6 boards and smacked into the 7th, the .30-06, 180 grain bullet penetrated 8 boards. The 180 grain, .30-06 ammo has long been accepted as perfectly adequate for killing ELK. Since my .50 cal. rifle is for shooting RB only, and I have no expectation of hunting ELK here in Illinois, I was only concerned with its performance on deer.
The first deer I shot was about 40 yards, broadsides, with the ball breaking a rib going in the right side, behind the "elbow", piercing the back of both lungs, and some of the major arteries above the heart, before breaking a second rib exiting the 3 1/2 year old Doe. The second rib had a noticeably larger hole through it than the first broken rib, and the wound channel expanded as the ball passed through each of the lungs, with the hole in the Left lung almost 3/4" in diameter.
At that range, I was expecting the ball to pass completely through the deer, and it did. Its performance mimicked the channel I saw through the boards in my penetration tests. I took the time to autopsy the deer when field dressing her, just to find out how close to reality my test " medium " was for this pure lead RB. When I returned home, I called my friend, Ray, who had done the testing with me, and shared the information with him, and then called Jim, the fellow who tests in sandbags these days, and shared the information with him. He told me he was not surprised at the results from either the boards, or in shooting the doe, as he had seen similar results over the years in his own testing, and hunting. Jim is a Korean War vet, and about 17 years older than me. He worked as a Deputy Sheriff part time for about 30 years, and began investigating lead bullets, and alloys, of all kinds for bullets, for police use. He ended up designing his own shotgun slug for use in stopping cars that were approaching road blocks. His slug hold up to metal targets, and gets through to those engine block far better than anything now in use. He was never able to find anyone interested in using his slugs for police purposes, so he has hunted with them now for about 45-50 years. His slug is so accurate that he used to win $20 bets by standing off at 100 yards, and putting 5 of his slugs through the challenger's baseball cap from his Remington 1100 shotgun, using standard trap type sights on the barrel, and NO rear sight. I heard about that first from another shooter who had lost $20.00 and showed me his " trophy " hat with 5 12 ga. holes through it, before I asked Jim about it. According to the other shooter, he had never heard of anyone winning that bet with Jim, and Jim told me he had never lost such a bet with anyone.
Jim has literally fired thousands of bullets, slugs, and balls into test media, over his life time, and I frankly don't know anyone living who knows more about bullet performance than Jim. When some manufacturer puts out a "New " bullet, Jim seems to always have a box of the ammo in some caliber that he has a rifle or shotgun to shoot, and is testing it almost before I hear about the " new " slug. The closest I have come is one time when he said to me over the phone," Yeah, I know about it, I just tested some of them Yesterday!" Then he proceeds to tell you what existing bullet or slug expands or reacts the same as the " new " one.
Sorry I wandered a bit, but I have been enriched in my life by meeting and knowing some truly talented and learned friends, who have been kind enough to sit down and answer stupid questions from a Country Lawyer. MY personal testing began as a kid, with my father firing the guns, and my brother and me digging the slugs out of dirt, or tree stumps. I have been digging spent balls and bullets out of various backstops for the past 50 years.
