This podcast will challenge decades of “common knowledge” about what type of rifle and bullet should be used for big game hunting. In fact, if you can’t have an open mind about things you “know” to be true, you probably shouldn’t listen to this. We don’t say that to be dramatic, but because being willing to accept information that challenges widely-held assumptions is critical to processing this information…
Listen Now — Hit play in the header above, access the podcast on Spotify, or download the episode from SoundCloud.
Killing big game animals quickly, cleanly, and consistently doesn’t typically require a big caliber and a tough bullet. Actually, the bigger, heavy-hitting rifles are mostly counter-productive.
Header Photo: Exo founder, Steve Speck, on an Alaskan Dall Sheep hunt with his 6.5 Creedmoor
Key Concepts
- The difference between death and incapacitation and why that difference matters to hunters
- The “energy” of a bullet is meaningless when you understand how bullets kill and how animals die
- The only goal cannot be to kill an animal as quickly as possible for big game hunters who care about harvesting meat from the animal
- Bullet performance cannot be judged visually, by analyzing how a bullet looks upon impact/recovery, or with marketing photos of “picture perfect” bullet expansion
- Different big game species aren’t very different when it comes to chest cavity width, bone structure, and what level of penetration is required from a bullet
- Tough bullets aren’t needed for tough animals and how using “tough” bullets can be a mistake that gives those “tough” animals their reputation for being hard to kill
- The “anatomy” of a wound channel — total penetration depth, neck length (depth of penetration before bullet upset), max temporary stretch cavity (width and length), and permanent crush cavity
- Why the characteristics of a wound channel is what matters, and not what caliber or bullet was used to create that wound channel
- The harder a bullet is, the more often it fails. A bullet fails to kill adequately when it penetrates well but doesn’t upset (or expand) enough to create a sufficient wound channel.
Additional Resources
- Part 2 of this conversation
- “.223 for bear, mountain goat, deer, elk, and moose” thread on Rokslide. Warning: this is a very graphic thread with many photo examples of wound channels on big game animals.
- Additional podcasts from “Form” on the Shoot2Hunt Podcast
Have Questions?
We will be doing Q&A in future podcasts and videos, so let us know if you have a question that we should consider discussing.
Note: We include this podcast in both The Gear and The Hunter categories, as it covers the mindset of the hunter, as well as the gear that the hunter chooses to use.
