Roundball penetration verses powder charge question

[kelljp]

Neighbor drop by and was complaining about his deer season this year. Was telling me about the two deer he shot and how neither dropped immediately, one requiring a follow-up shot.
This guy is one of the best shots I've witnessed anywhere, so I know his placement isn't the issue. We took several catalogs and bound them together. He then shot them with different powder charges. We were both surprised that increasing the load from 70 grains of FFG upto 90 grains didn't make a depth change. It stays around 7 inches. What did change was the roundball distortion, as the powder increased, it became more fragmented.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior?

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I have never seen a soft lead round ball fragment, however with heavy powder charges they will flatten considerably. I have often recovered them just under the hide on the off side. I think the hide being elastic acts like a catchers mitt.

Deer dropping on impact depends a lot on the nature of the deer. I've had them drop instantly especially young ones and I've had to trail some down and finish them. A neck shot will usually drop.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Animals often don't drop immediately at the shot. A heart shot deer will sometimes run full tilt for 50 or more yards dead on its feet until it runs out of steam.

Your question brings up something I remember from an article about modern bullets. The question asked was "at what point during the death of the animal did the bullet fail?"

 

[FlaminCrow]

Energy was higher at poi.
Greater expansion at impact.
Rather than fragmenting but flattened out to where the edges were “cracking”?

 

[hawkeye2]

Shooting into catalogs or similar doesn't equate to shooting into flesh. It is, however, a good way to compare the results of different loads.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Caliber and length of barrel are factors.
My 45cal 42 inch barrel delivers 2030fps @ 25 feet. At 75 yards, not hitting bone, the RB tends to go right thru them.
If it hits a bone it tends to frisbee out and go a different direction. I use WW lead for the hunting balls.
Find Paul Harrel's meat target and try it.

 

[tenngun]

Unless you have a brain or spine shot deer won’t drop immediately
I’ve had deer with heart or both lungs hit run as much as a quarter mile. And others go down just a few steps from the shot.
With 70 grains in a .54 or 60 under an .440, or 70 under my .600, all my shots went through and through.
The only time I recovered a ball was from an elk shot low on the right side at a 60 degree angle
Bit of liver, diagram left lung rib and stopped on the skin
And that was thirty yards on top of 120 grains 3f with .54 ball almost a yard
She ran less then a 1/4 mile
I waited about two years to go find her, well my watch said fifteen minutes or so. The time to smoke one small bowl in a clay pipe

 

[45man]

Give a heart shot deer 10 seconds and it can go 100 yards. They are out of it and can run right into trees, etc. I can't count the deer I have shot but deer hit with the .45 go a ways but all hit with my .54 dropped right now. I have never recovered a pure lead ball.
I figure my lifetime deer kills at around 560 with maybe 160 with ML's and over 150 with archery. We did a lot of hunting on farms and orchards with unlimited tags and donated tons of meat. Back then we did not have to pay for processing.

 

[kelljp]

Caliber and length of barrel are factors.
My 45cal 42 inch barrel delivers 2030fps @ 25 feet. At 75 yards, not hitting bone, the RB tends to go right thru them.
If it hits a bone it tends to frisbee out and go a different direction. I use WW lead for the hunting balls.
Find Paul Harrel's meat target and try it.

The caliber is .62 and the barrel length is 36".
Roundball on the right was with 90 grains and on the left was 70 grains.
As the load increased we saw the ball become more elongated with jagged edges.
But the penetration depth stayed the same.

 

[Darrell Martin]

This has been a great conversation about deer dropping when hit right. Always been a question in my mind. I have seen videos of modern rifle kills drop when hit. Myself with M/L have had heart and double lung shot deer go 60 yards before checking out. This seasons 10 point shot straight through, 60 yards out in the woods. I appreciate all for the input on this forum. We are not alone in our traditional hobby. Thank you!