The Killing Capacity of Hot Lead

American Rifleman, vol 68, No. 5, Oct 15, 1920 – pages 9, 10, 12, 19, 20

by John Lynn

SIGNS in plenty point to less use and popularity of the 30-30 type of hunting cartridges. For a long time they have been riding the crest of a false reputation for killing power—and wounding at least one animal that escaped for every one that has been secured. Light, handy rifles made for such cartridges and not in better calibres perhaps are chiefly responsible. There is the Winchester Model 94 carbine, weighing under six pounds, for in stance, so light and nifty to carry that any hunter is tempted to close his eyes to its limited capacities and faults.

For the purpose of relating the following experiences and observations on killing power of bullets, big game hunting cartridges can be bunched in families as follows:

1. 30-30 and 30-40 class, high power, with about 2000 foot second velocity.

2. 38-40 and 38-S5 class, low power, with about 1400 foot seconds velocity.

3. 250-3000 class, ultra-high velocity in small calibre.

4. 45-70 and 405 class, large calibre, heavy bullets at high or low velocity. '

Classes 1 and 2 are unquestionably obsolete, class 3 is open to question, and only class 4 stands the continued test of all round experience.

For shooting hogs no one wants anything better than a 22 calibre rim fire rifle. It is only a question of enough penetration to go through the skull bone and into the brain, with sufficient accuracy to hit the spot aimed at. In Arms and the Man it was recently stated by Colonel Townsend Whelen of the United States Army that Charlie Baker of New Brunswick uses that very 22 rim fire for killing deer and moose—makes a more or less regular practice of it. He shoots them in the heart.

But a butcher shooting a hog or a Charlie Baker, spooking up unseen and unwinded on a bedded deer is a totally different proposition from the average hunter's shooting opportunities. Practically always we have to take our game on the fly. Mostly the location is among brush or timber. Sometimes we have to shoot over long range or not at all. As the country becomes more settled, these conditions are emphasized. Totalled up they mean that a good deal of our shooting must be done at the game and not at some particular spot in it, or at best we can distinguish only between front half and rear half of the body. To knock down the game —under those conditions—“anchor it," as Ross used to say in the advertisements, takes something just a slight suggestion of a shade more powerful than a 22 rim-fire bullet.

Friends of the 38-40, 44-40, 38-55 and 30-30 are numerous, but they must admit that they seldom make clean kills with one shot. It is done sometimes, when the bullet through luck or skill is directed to heart or head or running gears, but there is plenty of additional space on deer and bear and moose that often is hit without result except a wound. More often the 38-40 or 30-30 kill is made with a magazine full of cartridges and a few extra poked in after those are fired.

Old Sol Rooch is a half Indian now living in the States. He is a deer killer if there ever was one, having practically cleaned out the deer in two or three districts before authorities stopped him. Three or four years ago, as he humped his narrow back against a snowy west wind at a crossing, a bear tore through the brush within eight feet of him before he saw it. Four shots were fired, every one a hit——and the bear went right on. That is typical 38-40 work for you.

Then Sol sold his old Winchester and bought a 30-30. Almost right away he had bear shooting again, at 125 yards this time. How many shells he fired he never tells, and no one knows how many hits he made. But he didn't stop the bear. That is typical 30-30 work for you.

The writer can recall a goodly number of deer and bear shootings with these two classes of rifles. It is an actual fact that the game escaped wounded more often than it was killed.

Experience with very high velocity rifles of the 250-3000 class are more satisfactory. One of the nice things about them is that they seem to be able to drop game on the spot with a paunch or chest hit. Repeatedly it has been done by one or another member of our old hunting crew. Straight paunch shots with the 22 High Power Savage have accounted for two deer before my eyes. Chest shots, not touching the heart, with 22 High Power, 250 and 256 Newton, have accounted for several others in the same way. The bullets do not come out except in small pieces like No. 2 shot. It is quite a convenience, this doing away with a long chase after such an unlucky hit. Two other deer were shot in such an angle that the bullets went into the neck, low down. No sticking was needed, or much more than severing the neck bones to get the heads clean off.

But these high speed little bullets do hog up a lot of meat, and they do fail to stop game hit on a heavy bone. A ham-shot on a bear or moose is worse than useless. On a deer it is little better. Even a shoulder shot on heavy game is not successful half the time. The 256 Newton smashes through bones better, of course, than the 22 High Power, but the point is that it belongs to the same class. It has done successful work where the bullet struck only meat or light bones and did not have far to penetrate, but when it runs against heavy bones or must penetrate more than a foot in game, it surprises you beyond words at its poor effect.

Purposely three cartridges of classes 1 and 3 have been left out of the discussion above owing to the real merit they display. They are the 35 Rimless in class 1, and in class 3 the 280 Ross and 30-1096 with 175 or 180 grain bullet at velocity of 2600 to 2700 feet per second. The 280 Ross with steel jacketed hollow point bullets is unreliable because sometimes it will be stopped in the flank of a small deer, and again go whistling through a big deer without much mushrooming even when bones are struck. But the Ross copper tube bullets have never yet failed for me. In practically every specimen of game hit it went clean through, and it left behind a tunnel big enough to attract the attention of the animal. With this rifle and bullet you can shoot off a bear's leg or you can let actual daylight clear through him sideways. A hit in a ham means a ruined ham, but almost always a dead animal within a few yards. A shoulder hit is even surer. It will even kill a deer within three or four minutes by a hit through lungs.

The 35 Rimless, with its slightly greater cross-section and its relatively heavy striking force, seems to do far better killing than a 30-30. It compares more evenly with a 45-70-330. Two shots a couple of seasons ago finished a bear as neatly as I have ever seen the job done, and as it happened neither of the hits touched backbone, heart or head. One bullet went through and out, the other did not.

That 30-06 with heavy bullet at high speed has been pronounced the best moose load ever brought into New Brunswick by a man who knows a good deal about such matters. With it a shot in chest of moose and deer will usually drop them at once or close by, even if no bones are struck and heart is not touched. It has been said that this load has a reliable penetration of 12 to 14 inches in moose and bear. My own impression is that it often has much more, and that unless very big and hard bones are struck, there will be more trouble from the ordinary bullet going through without breaking up enough, than breaking up too much and too soon with failure to penetrate enough.

Last fall a man took 30-06 ammunition to the woods, loaded with Newton 175 grain bullets in front of enough of the right kind of powder to start them at a 2550-foot gait. He shot a buck deer through the neck. The bullet came out in fine style, making a quick kill. He shot a bear twice, once high up behind the shoulders and again in a ham, too far out. The bear did not stop. It was afterwards killed by another hunter miles away. All the evidence points to those bullets failing to mushroom sufficiently to tear much, and whistling through the bear meat like a full cased bullet would.

And yet this bullet and load really belong in the ultra-high velocity class which is under suspicion of failing to penetrate enough in moose and other heavy game. A prominent hunter killed a deer last fall with a shot quartering to the front, through the heart. The bullet lodged in pieces against the skin on the farther side, thereby bearing out its ultra high velocity relation to 250-3000, 256 and 22 High Power.

Where long range shooting is to be mixed with short, this 30-1906 cartridge loaded with a bullet weighing 175 or 180 grains to travel at 2600 feet or better perhaps is the most killing combination manufactured this side of the water. Ross 280 cartridge with copper tube bullet may be considered fully its equal, except perhaps in accuracy, but few can own this rifle since its manufacture was stopped during the war.

Ross 303 and other rifles for the cartridge and for the 30-40 cartridge, are better than 30-30 rifles, yet they are not enough better. With the proper modern pyro powder, a bullet of 175 grains weight can be speeded up to 2400 to 2500 feet in the 30-40. Even so, it is not the equal of the 30-1906 which is known to be no more than good enough. An owner of a 30-40 would hardly be justified in trading it off at a big loss in order to change for a 30-1906 rifle, but anyone buying a new gun should not hesitate to choose the latter.

Back a few years a certain hunter was using a Springfield bolt rifle for the 30-06 cartridge. At that time the 220-grain 30-40 bullet was the best to be had for it—the equivalent of the 303-215-grain bullet. It developed a velocity of about 2200 feet. One season end he came home and straightway bought a 45-70, declaring he was tired wounding game and not getting it. He has since used both these two with success, but he says now that the 45-70 is by far the more reliable killer within 150 or 200 yards. (Better than 30-220 grain blunt point bullet.) That is why he recently has acquired a 405 Winchester. Although it kicks hard and it does not do a great lot beyond 200 yards, it is an improved 45-70, and he says he will depend on nothing smaller-for the balance of his hunting.

Colonel Townsend Whelen, previously mentioned, states in his book, “The American Rifle," that for sure killing of heavy game, such as bear and moose, a bullet of at least 40 calibre, weighing no less than 400 grains and traveling at fairly high speed is desirable. His point is that we need a long, heavy slug which will plow through and out of almost any game straight with the line of aim, while mushrooming enough to leave a large hole. It would kick harder than the 405 Winchester, but should be more accurate and would have almost the ranging ability of the 30-1906 heavy bullet recommended.

Of course there is no such cartridge made at present. The description of Colonel Whelen's idea is included here to show the tendency toward a rifle of larger calibre, handling a long, heavy bullet. There is nothing magic or mysterious about this thing of killing power of a rifle. You must make a hole into your game, deep enough to reach a fatal spot, or on through is possible and big enough to develop nerve shock and to cause free bleeding. No small bullet will do it reliably. No magic quality can be built into a miniature bullet that will give it the power to accomplish this result every time. A little bullet that is soft goes to pieces; if it is hard it slices through like a chisel, with out shocking or causing much blood to flow. The 35 Winchester, 405 Winchester and 45-70 High Velocity have killing power because of their deep plowing ability and the great shock they deliver.

A recent test of various mushroom bullets in pine wood brought out that they penetrate some distance before beginning to expand. A 38-40 soft point bullet went through 8 or 10 inches of pine, a 45-70-432 soft point bullet about 15 inches, a 30—1906—150 grain umbrella point about 12 inches, a 30-1906-220 soft point about 14 inches, a 30 Newton about 10 inches and a 280 Ross hollow point, steel jacketed bullet about 16 inches. All of them except the 38-40 and 45-70 were ground to fragments before they stopped. All of the lot penetrated 4 or 5 inches before expanding. The Ross, 150-grain 30 calibre and the Newton bullets cut a clean furrow, no bigger than the bullet, like the corner of a chisel would cut more than 4 inches through the wood, then tore a ragged cavity an inch and a half or two inches in diameter from there onward.

If these bullets slip through 4 or 5 inches of wood before expanding, they will slip through double or three times as much meat without doing so, sometimes at least. That, to my mind, explains why it is possible to shoot a bear with one of them without apparently hurting him much. It shows why a hunter must be on his guard constantly against using bullets that may fail to expand. With American bullets we and other hunters have had more trouble in that direction than from those that go to pieces too soon and fail to penetrate.

Yet many prominent hunters are inclined to believe that the game bullet of the future must be constructed to expand less easily than the Newton, the umbrella point and even than our ordinary soft point bullets having lots of lead exposed at the tip. A pin-point of lead exposed, and that supported by a jacket of double thickness round the front of the bullet, is their idea of an ideal game bullet.

The problem is to get a bullet that will hold together during much penetration in heavy game, (especially through big bones) while mushrooming sufficiently—and that will yet mushroom in lighter, less tough game, such as deer. Such a bullet has not yet been made. The 500-grain lead bullet of 45 calibre perhaps comes the nearest to it. The 145 grain copper tube bullet of the 280 Ross is another not far behind, as experience shows. Can any one bullet be made to meet both conditions? In the humble opinion of the writer such a bullet can be built, but it will not have merely a pin-point of lead at the front, or double-thick jacket there. On the contrary it will be built to mushroom against the slightest resistance, although the point must be protected from injury in handling, in the gun and in the air.

Experience with hollow point bullets, extending from the present copper tube of the 280 cartridge and of various English cartridges back through forty years and longer to the "express" bullets of buffalo days, indicate that our future bullet should have that type of front end. I have yet to be convinced that plain soft point bullets and Newton bullets expand quickly enough after they first strike the game, or expand sufficiently on some occasions. The point should be sharp, to permit the bullet to retain its velocity better and to keep wind from blowing it side ways.

As light weight bullets with hollow points lack penetration, the future bullet must be long and heavy. And to hold the weight together the rear half, or three-fifths, must be hardened by alloying, or provided with a double thick jacket. The combination of long, heavy bullet with a soft, hollow front end, pointed sharp, and a tough rear half should give exactly the results we all have been looking for these many years. Its adaption to 30 calibre cartridges might improve their killing power, although it primarily would be a 35 or 40 calibre bullet. It should be given high velocity in whatever sizes used.

About 1880 and 1890 old hear hunters of the generation on ahead of myself were enthusiastically using the various 45 calibre rifles—-45-60, 45-70, 45-75 and 45-90. The old 1876 model Winchester, with dog-leg action like the model 1873, in 45-75 calibre was very popular. Some of the old 45—75's are still in use, and in spite of objections we read about, it is difficult to find actual users of that cartridge who do not speak well of it. They reloaded much of their ammunition. When loading for a particular deer they used pure, soft lead to make bullets, and preferred hollow points. When fixing up bear medicine, they hardened the lead a little with pewter, the only hardening metal readily available to them.

Present day duplicates and improvements on such a cartridge are to be found in our 45-70 High Velocity, which also may be loaded

if desired with 350-grain solid bullet or with the 500-grain lead bullet. Also 35 Winchester and 405 Winchester undoubtedly possess the same deep plowing ability to a superior degree. The 405 in particular is valuable, because a cast lead or alloy bullet of 300 grains can be loaded to give black powder velocities if desired. Such a load should be useful for shooting in which the full power of the cartridge is not needed, and for use when factory ammunition may be unobtainable. The large calibre enables one to load a powerful combination at home.

There is food for thought in several miscellaneous observations that may be made on killing abilities of bullets. For instance, we all know the old-fashioned round, muzzle loading balls were deadly in game. They frequently stopped game with hits that were not in fatal places. Meat often was black for several inches round their holes. The odd part of it is that they were all light in weight, flew at low velocity (often only 1000 feet, never more than 1400 or 1500 feet) and developed comparatively little energy, measured in foot-pounds. Most muzzle loading balls were about the weight and power of our 32—20. No one who knows will contend that the 32-20 will kill as well as the average muzzle loader. Why? A buckshot weighing 30 or 40 grains is far more deadly than a 22 calibre rifle bullet of same weight. Why?

As a further speculation of interest though not of much value, why is it that a rifle with a very quick twist appears to throw lead in a more deadly manner than one with a slower twist? For instance, the 25-35 carries a bullet of 117 grains and smaller calibre, against the 30—30's bullet of 160 grains and larger calibre. One might conclude from the figures that the 25-35 had only about half the killing power of the 30—30. From experience, however, the 25-35 is known to equal the 30-30 in killing power, if not to exceed it. The 30-30 bullet as it leaves the muzzle is spinning (due to the rifling twist) at the rate of 144,000 revolutions per minute; the 25-35 at the rate of 180,000 revolutions per minute.

Could it be possible that bullets thrown without much spin, or with none, as a smooth bore throws ball or buckshot, deliver more shock to meat they encounter than those with a faster spin like the 30-30 has? And could it be further possible that if the spin is increased enough it gives a bullet a new kind of shocking power? Remember that the 3000—feet velocity bullets revolve upwards of 250,000 times per minute. Or might a spinning bullet merely cut meat like a saw, while a drifting bullet bursts blood vessels like it does a can full of water? Does a rifle bullet, on striking anything, tend to slow up or pause in its forward travel for an instant, while keeping on with its revolving, thereby becoming a veritable drill or auger? Does a bullet penetrate a foot of pine or a foot of deer in the same time that it penetrates a foot of air?

One more speculation, and we will have enough for a month or so. It is an established fact that individual animals differ in their capacity to stand punishment. Every farmer and butcher knows that some hogs and cattle, shot in the brain or where the brain ought to be, will barely stay down, and a few of them get up and take three or four more bullets. Others go down at the first tap on their skulls. I know of one old she bear that was shot five times square through the body with a 35 Winchester. We thought she would be so dead we would need a basket or blanket to gather the pieces, but she got up from her bed a quarter mile beyond where the shooting was done, and travelled sixteen miles. She must have been one of those individuals that feel little pain and are not subject to nerve shock. Instances showing this difference differences in individual resistance account for our wounding some game severely without getting it, while other games goes down and stays down rather easily?

Not every hunter can use a 30-1906 with 180-grain or 175-grain bullets loaded to travel at 2600 or 2700 feet per second, a 405 Winchester, a 280 Ross, a 45-70 High Velocity, or other rifles of similar character. Those who do carry inferior calibres, of classes 1, 2, and 3 should make a point of understanding the limitations of their bullets. If it is possible to kill deer with a 22 rim-fire, it is easier to do so with a 30-30 provided care is taken to put the bullets into fatal spots. Users of the inferior rifles should therefore try strenuously to get their bullets into brain, backbone or heart, and always should avoid shooting when no fair chance to do so offers. Users of 22 High Power, 250-3000, 256 Newton and the like should work to get the same hits, but may in addition take paunch and neck hits if easier to land on those spots. It is only the man who uses one of the .405, 30-1906 or 280 Ross, 45-70 or similar rifles who can take his game as it comes, and knock each specimen down to stay with whatever running shots may be offered.

Powerful rifles are deadly. By that same token they destroy less game than half-way rifles like the 30-30. They do so because they kill the first specimen hit. A friend of mine who loves to hunt has not been in the woods for ten years. In the fall of 1910 he came from camp sick with disgust at himself. It had been his bad luck to wound one after another, three bucks—mortally, it was judged, from all signs——before he succeeded in getting one to bring home. He was using a 30-30, that is typical 30-30 work.

—]ohn Lynn, in Rod and Gun, Canada.