After shooting a red squirrel at 77 yards, I decide to conduct an autopsy and recover as much of the bullet/pieces as I could. I don't recommend this as a pre-dinner exercise.

gunwriter

May not be the best choice if eating is the intention...but they do do down in a shower of sparks when that happens.

WOW! :eek:

Looks kinda a grenade effect, eh?

WOW! :eek:

Looks kinda a grenade effect, eh?

Yeah, KDUB; it's shrapnel city! It's no wonder the animals fall like stones. If the hydroshock doesn't get 'em, the thousands of wounds caused by the thousands of little pieces of metal has got to start the bleed-out rapidly enough to drop blood pressure, lead quickly into shock and then death. It's an awesome round for small varmints/vermin.

gunwriter

SO ! Evedentally you didn't head shoot the rascal in the head . . . isat rite?

SO ! Evedentally you didn't head shoot the rascal in the head . . . isat rite?

No, kramsey, I didn't. He was lying on a limb, facing my direction. I aimed for his head but hit him in the brisket instead.

gunwriter

Did you weigh all of the recovered pieces by any chance to see what percentage stayed in the animal. It is obviously quite a large percentage, but it sure nice to know that nothing very large is still flying downrange after impact to strike unintended targets.

Did you weigh all of the recovered pieces by any chance to see what percentage stayed in the animal. It is obviously quite a large percentage, but it sure nice to know that nothing very large is still flying downrange after impact to strike unintended targets.

lostinVT,

I didn't weigh the pieces; quite honestly, I didn't even think about it. I was intrigued with the total disintegration of the bullet inside the animal. And, to your point about "flying down range;" there was no exit wound, so there wasn't anything to fly down range. I've found that to be quite common with 17HMR tissue trauma. Tiny entry hole, no exit hole, very dead animal, very quickly. Of course, with that tiny, frangible bullet, it's one of the features the design engineers had in mind when they developed it.

gunwriter

lostinVT,

I didn't weigh the pieces; quite honestly, I didn't even think about it. I was intrigued with the total disintegration of the bullet inside the animal. And, to your point about "flying down range;" there was no exit wound, so there wasn't anything to fly down range. I've found that to be quite common with 17HMR tissue trauma. Tiny entry hole, no exit hole, very dead animal, very quickly. Of course, with that tiny, frangible bullet, it's one of the features the design engineers had in mind when they developed it.

gunwriter

Thats just amazing how, at the speed it goes, it doesnt even have an exit hole. Brilliant engineering.

And here I thought these bullets contained no lead,
and were instead all copper.

Wonder how it would work if they were loaded with all copper
bullets.

Dave

G W ! That's very interesting ! How big are the red squirrels in your part of the woods ! Reds here are a lot smaller then Grays and just a might larger then chipmonks ! JAGG