243 range on - deer

[searcher]

Bullet construction matters. The energy number doesn't mean that the bullet will transfer all it's energy into the animal. Each bullet has a minimum velocity for it to expand like it's supposed to. I've never even seen a moose much less have any experience shooting them.

My pun about the moose was to illustrate what a .17 cal. 20-grain bullet would have to do to be effective as another larger cartridge when hunting moose. Would one expect a .17 cal. bullet to be driven reliably fast enough to fully penetrate and exit an elk, moose, brown bear or such? Would it be expected to break bones rather than deflect? Would it be able to do this at the several hundred yards that most larger cartridges are capable of? This isn't a debate of bullet construction when there are no such bullets in a 20-grain weight that can do this as well as larger cartridges. One can say this has nothing to do with energy - but whatever they want to call it - it is the same thing.

 

[Doug Casner]

If a bullet doesnt exit . I guess that means all energy is left in the animal . If you dont need a blood trail wouldnt that be ideal? I always shot partitions and bonded hunting deer I wonder if I needed that tough of a bullet?