Knock Down Power
So on gun forums someone always bring up knock down power and thinks that a bullet can knock a target off its feet and/or send the target flying; you know Hollywood style. Well a quick consultation with Newton's third law of physics (or Mythbusters for that matter) and we basically see that if the bullet send a target flying off its feet then it probably sent the shooter flying of their feet. That whole conservation of momentum stuff pretty much bust the idea of a bullet knocking down a target.
So in reading an articles on knock down power I came across an interesting theory on what causes that "lights out" effect often seen when shooting big game. The most direct and obvious way to get knock down power it to strike the central nervous system with the bullet. You hit the brain or top end of the spine and almost every time will a animal go down instantly just as if the ground was pulled out from underneath them, lights out.
Now a central nervous system shot is not always desired or possible. Head shots ruin trophies, on really big game like Elephant and Cap Buffalo require very potent rifles, neck shots are difficult especially from the front or at long range so most hunter shoot to put a bullet through the heart and lungs. This shot works equally reliable and offers a much larger shot and works from nearly any angle except directly behind unless you subscribe to the Texas heart shot.
Well some times you put a shot through the heart and lungs and the animal goes down, lights out, and other time you do this and although the heart and lungs have been well hit the animal will go 100+ yard before expiring. In the article the author found research that point to an interesting cause for this very random lights out or not effect with similar heart lung shots on similar animals. The article is rather long winded but at the end he comes to the point.
Knockdown Power By Jim Carmichel
Whereas virtually all of our opinions about knockdown power are based on isolated examples, the data gathered during the culling operation was taken from a number of animals. Even more important, the animals were then examined and dissected in a scientific manner by professionals.
Predictably, some of the buffalo dropped where they were shot and some didn’t, even though all received near-identical hits in the vital heart-lung area. When the brains of all the buffalo were removed, the researchers discovered that those that had been knocked down instantly had suffered massive rupturing of blood vessels in the brain. The brains of animals that hadn’t fallen instantly showed no such damage. So what is the connection?
Their conclusion was that the bullets that killed instantly had struck just at the moment of the animal’s heartbeat! The arteries to the brain, already carrying a full surge of blood pressure, received a mega-dose of additional pressure from the bullet’s impact, thus creating a blood pressure overload and rupturing the vessels.
If this is the key to the “knockdown” mystery, it has answered a lot of previously unanswered questions. It’s certainly the best explanation of knockdown I’ve heard yet, but it also poses a new quandary. How do we time a shot to hit on the beat? Let the debate begin.
Interesting but I am afraid without out a remote heart beat sensor and some why to coordinate it to my trigger this idea does not help me much achieve lights out every time hunting. But it is a cool theory.
So in reading an articles on knock down power I came across an interesting theory on what causes that "lights out" effect often seen when shooting big game. The most direct and obvious way to get knock down power it to strike the central nervous system with the bullet. You hit the brain or top end of the spine and almost every time will a animal go down instantly just as if the ground was pulled out from underneath them, lights out.
Now a central nervous system shot is not always desired or possible. Head shots ruin trophies, on really big game like Elephant and Cap Buffalo require very potent rifles, neck shots are difficult especially from the front or at long range so most hunter shoot to put a bullet through the heart and lungs. This shot works equally reliable and offers a much larger shot and works from nearly any angle except directly behind unless you subscribe to the Texas heart shot.
Well some times you put a shot through the heart and lungs and the animal goes down, lights out, and other time you do this and although the heart and lungs have been well hit the animal will go 100+ yard before expiring. In the article the author found research that point to an interesting cause for this very random lights out or not effect with similar heart lung shots on similar animals. The article is rather long winded but at the end he comes to the point.
Knockdown Power By Jim Carmichel
Whereas virtually all of our opinions about knockdown power are based on isolated examples, the data gathered during the culling operation was taken from a number of animals. Even more important, the animals were then examined and dissected in a scientific manner by professionals.
Predictably, some of the buffalo dropped where they were shot and some didn’t, even though all received near-identical hits in the vital heart-lung area. When the brains of all the buffalo were removed, the researchers discovered that those that had been knocked down instantly had suffered massive rupturing of blood vessels in the brain. The brains of animals that hadn’t fallen instantly showed no such damage. So what is the connection?
Their conclusion was that the bullets that killed instantly had struck just at the moment of the animal’s heartbeat! The arteries to the brain, already carrying a full surge of blood pressure, received a mega-dose of additional pressure from the bullet’s impact, thus creating a blood pressure overload and rupturing the vessels.
If this is the key to the “knockdown” mystery, it has answered a lot of previously unanswered questions. It’s certainly the best explanation of knockdown I’ve heard yet, but it also poses a new quandary. How do we time a shot to hit on the beat? Let the debate begin.
Interesting but I am afraid without out a remote heart beat sensor and some why to coordinate it to my trigger this idea does not help me much achieve lights out every time hunting. But it is a cool theory.