Replies

...The three most important things in caliber effectiveness are 1. bullet placement. 2. energy, and three bullet construction....

In about that order I imagine. but if you have two or all three of those going for you, the chances of success go up.

...Now I agree that caliber is also of some importance...

One out of the three. Yep.

...The greatest elephant hunter of all time and by a good margin was a Scotsman named Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell. He is thought to have killed over 5000.

I read some of his writings and he preferred the lighter calibers such as 6.5 Mannlicher and 7mm Mauser. He also used the long parallel sided fmj bullets, because of their extreme penetration...

Question. What is a long parallel sided fmj bullet? I know what fmj stands for, but i never heard of long parallel sided.

...Because I am not as good a shot as he was, (he was said to be an exceptional one), I would probably use something like a .458 Win Mag...

Likewise, given my experience and ability, if I could stand the recoil. I wonder how much you would really notice recoil in such a situation?

...I have shot a large number of medium sized animals, varying from maybe 20 to 150 lbs, with a pistol. The 9mm loaded with HP bullets is more effective than a fmj .45 acp., at least on animals of that size...

Bullet construction trumped bullet diameter. No argument here on that. But a larger bullet of similar construction might work too.

...After having said that, I will admit to liking the 1911 better than any other design with the possible exception of the Browning HP...

I respect your opinion on that as well, I know nothing about the Browning HP. It's something I'll look into though. I have heard of it.

I used to ride a 1/4 mile dragbike a long time ago. In racing, it boils down to how much fuel and air you can shove through an engine, and get it to the ground.

You can shove more fuel and air through a larger motor. We might equate that to caliber and cartridge length for our discussion.

The type of fuel you are shoving through it might equate to propellant. Gasoline? alchohol? nitro? Black powder? smokeless powder?

How do you get it to the ground? Tire size? Is the drivetrain up to it? That might equate to the whole gun itself.

Bullet placement. The shortest distance between two points. You will go faster in a drag race if you keep a straight line to the finish. In fact if you cross the line (your lane) you get disqualifed. Or, if it's a shot, you miss!

54 posted on 03/07/2006 8:06:34 PM PST by yarddog

When small caliber smokeless powder loads began to be used by the World's military, starting in the late 1880's they all used bullets which were really long. The sides of the bullets were straight right up to the tip, which was not a point but rounded.

These bullets were nearly always silver colored and of course were full metal jacket.

When the Germans went to a spitzer, or pointed bullet sometime before WWI, all the other countries eventually followed suit.

These bullets shot much flatter for obvious reasons. They were also lighter in weight.

Those old round nose fmj's would penetrate far far better than the spitzers.

I once tried some of those 160 grain bullets in a Swedish Mauser. They would penetrate any tree I tried them on, and some of them were probably three or four feet in diameter.

That is why Bell used them, because he knew they would penetrate to the brain every time.