Reinventing the wheel - Bullet Performance Experiment

[45spades]

Hey guys. I may have an opportunity to test bullets on live hogs. I will use the subjects to test Cast HP, Cast Solids & Jacketed bullets.

At this point the test may or may not happen. But if it does then I want to be prepared. How should I design the experiment so that the results have meaning. Of course I will track the fixed and variable factors and report results.

Below are what I intend on recording and reporting.

1.) Load Data
2.) Bullet Type and alloy
3.) Velocities

Results
1.) Penetration
2.) Expansion
3.) Measure the damage (How?? Can be subjective?)
4.) Time for animal to succumb to the shot

What am I missing?

Thanks
Spades

[leftysixgun]

I think you need a ballistic ASSISTANT! I will take the liberty and nominate myself. Now, what time do I need to be where?
😬

[bradshaw]

Jun 11, 2019 8:33:43 GMT -5 45spades said:

Hey guys. I may have an opportunity to test bullets on live hogs. I will use the subjects to test Cast HP, Cast Solids & Jacketed bullets.

At this point the test may or may not happen. But if it does then I want to be prepared. How should I design the experiment so that the results have meaning. Of course I will track the fixed and variable factors and report results.

Below are what I intend on recording and reporting.

1.) Load Data
2.) Bullet Type and alloy
3.) Velocities

Results
1.) Penetration
2.) Expansion
3.) Measure the damage (How?? Can be subjective?)
4.) Time for animal to succumb to the shot

What am I missing?

Thanks
Spades

*****

You can start by lining up gallon jugs of water. Pad & pencil, record penetration, whether jugs blow up or not, whether bullet seems to track straight. Collect any bullets you can, take photos and notes. This provides a head start on what you may anticipate in the field. Decide, on a broadside shot, whether you want to aim immediately behind the shoulder for a lung shot, or squeeze a shoulder shot. It is impossible to make comparisons without some accumulation of evidence. Good hollow points make good lung medicine. A follow-up shot takes every bit the discipline of the first shot. Which is to say, squeeze each shot like it is the only one you have.

Any “experiment” on handgun ballistic performance afield requires an absolute commitment to MARKSMANSHIP.
David Bradshaw

[azshaun]

Could always go the Paul Harrell route and make yourself a meat target...

youtu.be/MjxryJ9FKVA

Go to minute mark 15:48 and can see how he does it...

[boolitdesigner]

I usually test my HP's on undisturbed live deer that weren't alive after testing (usually called deer season here)...... and have used road killed deer occasionally.

[sixshot]

Works for me.

Dick

[nvcaller]

Post mortem organs injured , sub q air on flesh, bone damage and blood loss. Animals don't die the same way but you can evaluate averages. It's just a tough subject. Just like elephant to deer the only constant that I have seen in 40yrs is blood loss and central nervous system damage , and speed relationship to organs most are from archery kills so hemorrhage is my base of opinion.

[45spades]

Update - I had to put the testing on hold. Now waiting for deer season to pass and also have to get the hog trap up and running. I hope to get started in February or March next year. The good news is that I have plenty of hogs to trap. The bad news is I have plenty of hogs to trap!!!!

[contender]

One hard to manage variable is the bullet angle being repetitive. If at all possible,, try & take all your shots from the same angle, distance, and point of impact. Since it appears you will be working with a hog trap,, and wild hogs,, not domestic, in a chute,,, this will be harder.
Next,, the size of the hogs makes a difference too. A 100 lb hog vs a 300 pounder,, etc.
As with any testing,, when you can duplicate the test frequently,, you will get better data.

[45MAN]

45spades: YOU ALSO NEED TO CHECK FOR DEVIATION FROM A STRAIGHT PENETRATION PATH. LEAD BULLETS CAN SMUDGE, SHEAR, SMEAR AND DEFORM ON ONE SIDE OR ANOTHER AND THAT LOSS OF BULLET INTEGRITY LEADS TO THE BULLET GOING OFF PATH, DEVIATING, GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, ALL OF WHICH EFFECT PENETRATION.

[sixshot]

These studies are very hard to do. I remember years ago in Shooting Times (I think) where a guy did this very thing on a large herd of goats. It seems it was a pretty controlled type of shooting study & I have no idea of the outcome although I probably still have that article somewhere.

I also remember some of Elmer Keith old articles where he went to slaughter houses & shot those big range bulls they brought in to butcher. He was head shooting them & then they would find the bullets, mostly cast, lodged back in the heavy neck muscles somewhere. This gave him some idea of how well his bullets held up & what alloys worked best. Some would simply flatten out on the skull plates of those big 2,000 lbs & bigger bulls. Don't recall if they ever let him do any shoulder shots, probably not!

Dick

[whitworth]

And this is why we established the Bovine Bash. Real world testing in flesh and bone. Deer don’t provide a lot of resistance, however bovine do... That said, it’s an expensive proposition. I used to do some wet newspaper testing, but even that is a bit or miss IMHO.