Bullets and Broadheads: Lessons Learned from archery hunting applied to Ballistics and a new shirt

Based on the mathematical evaluation of energy on target, or the Taylor Knockout Formula, there's no way in hell an arrow going 175-300 FPS should ever be able to kill every game animal in North America, yet each fall and for every fall for the last countless millennia, it's happened. For the last year or so, Walter has been on his own bow hunting journey and has learned a few things that made him think a bit differently about hunting and especially terminal ballistics.

Shot placement is paramount. The sharpest 2.5-inch expanding broadhead or .338 Lapua magnum hitting an animal's guts will not kill it fast enough to recover it in a timely manner. Hunters and bowlers must practice and focus on marksmanship and accuracy first; without this, every other variable is moot.

Unless a bowler is interrupting the central nervous system, projectiles kill animals by making them bleed. Broadheads on an arrow have sharp blades that cut tissue directly, while bullets expand and sever tissue. Broadhead design is pretty amazing these days, and arrows are incredibly efficient at killing game. Both of the last two animals Walter killed with an arrow, a 200-pound wild pig at 25 yards and a blacktail deer at 70 yards, died within 30 seconds within 10 yards of where they were shot. With the exception of central nervous system shots, Walter has never seen an animal die like that with one bullet. In the last year, Walter has shot a dozen or so animals with a rifle in the vitals; every single one of them ran further than 50 yards. "But Walter, how could that happen? Rifle bullets are going 5-10x the speed, and I thought speed kills, and also they have so much more energy on target calculated by mass times velocity squared?!"

The energy on target metric is complete bullshit because it does not account in any way for bullet performance. The same goes with the Taylor Knockdown Formula. Walter has talked at length with David from Discreet Ballistics about this, and the best solution, in their eyes, would be to calculate the volume of a wound channel by shooting ballistic gel and then filling it with an epoxy or plaster and then measuring the displaced volume of that cast.

As far as Walter can tell, velocity is only important as it is the primary method involved in bullet expansion with traditional cup and core and mono metal bullets. Match-type bullets or solid copper bullets like the Barnes or CX rely on deformation and metallurgy to expand on target, and this requires velocity to work reliably. "But Walter, what about my 6.7 Power Stroke liquifying coyotes because of hydrostatic shock!" Walter doesn't buy it; instead, Walter suspects that that 105-grain match bullet impacting at 3500 FPS is grenading into a million pieces and disrupting tissue in a cone shape based on that rapid disintegration.

Well, that's fucking interesting, Walter, but how can I incorporate this into my bowling? The first thing you can do is hit the vitals of the animal you are hunting. Practice hitting small targets and distances that you would actually shoot at. Pick a platform that a blower shoots well, not what some fud at the gunshop tells you you need. Walter likes to assume that in real-world conditions he will hit 2 MOA targets, so take the size of the animal vitals you are hunting and divide it by two, and that's a good approximation of a max range. Take for example a deer that has a vital size of around 8-10 inches; divide this by two and take shots at targets in that range.

Next, a bowler should be very focused on projectile selection, balancing accuracy, expansion, and ballistic coefficient inside of their desired range. Some projectiles are accurate and ballistically efficient but don’t expand. Other projectiles expand but aren’t efficient or accurate. A balance of these three is necessary for good hunting round. This mindset is at the core behind the creation of Walter's upcoming commercially available HOTLOADS, but those aren't ready yet. Walter is designing projectiles from the ground up, and this takes time. In the meantime, head over to Walter's web store and order yourself a company tee here.