More scaremongering about centerfire .22's...

[benEzra]

14. You are confusing cavitation with fragmentation.

Last edited Tue Jul 7, 2015, 05:51 PM - Edit history (1)

".. in context I wrote this: .. the .223 was designed for against humans, to incapacitate with grotesque exit wounds & internal fragmentation, rather than a desired quick kill. If cavitation occurs the animal can wander off & be in unbearable pain for days, moreso than with other hunting bullets

If cavitation occurs it would of course add to the incapacitating damage done; other bullets are moreso designed to kill rather than incapacitate as the .223. "

All bullets cavitate; that's what produces the temporary cavity. Rifle bullets cavitate more than handgun bullets. Big rifle bullets like .30-06 cavitate more than small rifle bullets like .223 (and .30-06 can throw a 55gr bullet at over 4000 ft/sec, or a 110gr at 3400, if you want to talk high velocity).

What you appear to be thinking of is fragmentation, which can result in a shallow, nonfatal wound if an inappropriately fragile bullet is used to hunt a big-game animal. And what you don't seem to understand is that fragmentation is a function of bullet choice, not caliber choice. A 55 to 70 grain bonded core .223 bullet designed to stay together on impact will stay together on impact, and penetrate like a scaled-down .270, whereas a 40gr varmint bullet will turn to powder and small fragments upon impact, and penetrate like light birdshot.

Likewise, a 58gr VMAX out of a .243 Winchester at 3925 ft/sec will fragment more violently than any .223, whereas a 100gr Hornady SST out of the same rifle won't fragment at all. So you pick one for coyote hunting and another for deer hunting.

"other bullets are moreso designed to kill rather than incapacitate as the .223."

So .223 Remington should be banned because it's not as lethal as a full-power rifle? Wow. And again, some .223 loads fragment and some don't, just like 9mm, .243, .270, .308, .30-06, and every other centerfire caliber out there; it depends entirely on load choice, not caliber. But with any style bullet, .223 will produce a less severe wound than a more powerful rifle shooting the same class of bullet will, because .223 doesn't have the powder capacity to match the kinetic energy or achievable velocity of the larger calibers for a given bullet mass.