Are High B.C. Bullets for Hunting Just Marketing Hype?
Let me start by saying, if nothing else, I hope this leads to a good discussion and we all learn from each other. This discussion is specifically for hunting and not aimed at long range shooting/competitions. Strap in, this will be a long post.
The case for high B.C. Bullets:
High B.C. bullets: Less drop, better at wind deflection, and more energy downrange. It sounds like a hunter’s dream, and Ron Spomer has a great write up on why high B.C. bullets matter past 200 yards:
“Bullet B.C. isn’t worth even considering if you engage all your deer, elk, coyotes or anything else at 100-yards or less. Or maybe even 200 yards. It does begin to matter beyond 200 yards, and can easily be the difference between a hit and a wound or miss beyond that. It costs little or no more to shoot a high B.C. bullet than a really low one, so, given reasonable hunting accuracy, the wise hunter opts for the higher B.C. bullet.
On the other hand, there are many hunters who believe round nose or flat nose bullets hit harder and kill faster than spire points inside of 200 yards or so. I’ve yet to see a description of how this happen…”
The case for bullet construction over high B.C. Bullets:
I bring this up because a recent video series by Little Crow Gunworks (7MM Showdown Parts 1 & 2) is doing a long term comparison of 4 7MM cartridges (280 A.I., 7 RM, 7 PRC, and 28 Nosler) and makes a pretty compelling argument on why bullet construction matters more and kills big game significantly better/faster than a high B.C. bullet because of its terminal performance.
Each video is about an hour long, but I’ll try to briefly summarize it as I understand it:
Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9iDa3LZSnc&ab_channel=LittleCrowGunworks
Starting at 28:00:
-Why he picked the 160 CX bullet over the High B.C. bullets
-Tool used for B.C. calculations: Applied Ballistics. Should be more neutral/accurate than possibly inflated Hornady numbers.
-Hit probability with wind and range differences
-The reticle on a range finder doesn’t always match where the beam is hitting (May account for differences we saw in Backfire challenge?)
-45:00: Sacrificing terminal performance and likelihood of getting an exit wound (blood to track) for 2% more hit probability
-The real advantages of high B.C. bullets for over bullet over .300 just don’t show up in the first 600 yards.
-What does B.C. buy you? A little bit of forgiveness when you don’t know what you’re doing.
-52:00: How adding 300FPS changes hit percentage of each bullet type
-Gordon’s Reloading Tool
Part 2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbLf5LwvZKU&t=516s&ab_channel=LittleCrowGunworks
-Terminal Performance and Terminal Sectional Density
-Why a bullet that penetrates all the way through is better because it lets oxygen in to collapse the lungs and leaves a blood trail.
-Dumping all the energy in a body cavity vs a bullet passing through
-Increasing hit probability: Practice shooting, rangefinder, and reading wind
-How perfect handloads affect hit percentages @ 600 Yards with CX Bullet (+5.5%)
- How perfect handloads affect hit percentages @ 600 Yards with ELD-X Bullet (+3.1% over CX with better terminal performance)
-Variance in hit locations means we don’t know exactly what it will hit (Shoulder bone, spine, lungs, etc.), CX gives insurances that it will perform if not a perfect shot.
-Autonomic Plexus (The insta-kill shot)
Why a monolithic bullet kills faster/better:
One of the video viewers, “… questioned weather the “multiple wound channels” of a target bullet will kill faster/more efficiently than a mono and an exit wound? I have zero medical training, but clearly, I study this stuff in my free time. So here is my response to his question: I didn’t spend enough time on the “lung collapsing” portion of this video. I understand the “multiple wound channel” theory. However, what I didn’t drive home enough, is the fact that if a monolithic bullet rips through chest cavity, let’s say, high in the chest, near the back of the lungs. Rips through at high speed, shatters a rib bone on the way out and blows that bone shrapnel out the hide on the off side, leaving a 1.5" hole. Let’s say it completely misses the heart and only destroys 20 percent of the lung tissue. During the next few lowering’s (attempted breaths) of the animals’ diaphragm, the remaining 80% of lung tissue doesn’t inflate, instead, air sucks in our exit wound and fills the chest cavity with air, instantly compressing the remaining 80% of the lung tissue BECAUSE it has no muscle or bones to support itself. Think of a Ziploc bag. The body’s survival system, increases the respiratory rate, in an attempt to gain oxygen, further speeding up the collapsing process. ANY bodily movement they make, burns oxygen in the system. They start running, oxygen is exhausted quickly, glucose is then burnt in the muscles, shuttled from the liver stores to the muscles, THAT gets exhausted, while the glucose is being burnt, lactate and hydrogen ions are being produced at the cellular level, the lactate goes to the liver and gets turned back into glucose, which gets sent back to the muscle. If they run, in under a minute from impact, there is no oxygen or glucose left in the body and ONLY Hydrogen ions left in the cells, which is WHY your muscles burn when you over work them. Well, imagine that muscle burn you have experienced times 100. The animal is paralyzed by the pain, the lack of glucose or lactate to make their muscles, heart or brain function and they die VERY quickly. When you center punch the lungs with an ELDX or a Berger and destroy 60% of the tissue and say, lacerate the heart but don’t exit the chest. That EXACT same process happens, but MUCH slower, because as long as there is vacuum in the chest, the diaphragm keeps pulling oxygen in and out of the bloody shot up lungs, transferring oxygen to the bloodstream but at a reduced rate. This continues until the lungs fill with blood and the animal “drowns” THEN the process I described above STARTS to occur. This is made obvious by the fact that they run like crazy and spray blood out of their nose and mouth because their diaphragm is a “blood pump” at that point. EVENTUALLY the process I described above occurs and they fall over. But it’s WAY slower. Sometimes 3 plus minutes. An elk can cover 1.5 miles across deadfalls in 3 minutes under these conditions. YOU can’t cover 1.5 miles of deadfalls in 4 hours. Now, if you hit it in the autonomic plexus that I mentioned, the bullet type is pretty irrelevant. You get that light switch effect. But you can’t guarantee the bullet will land there. If you know people medically trained on this stuff, put this in front of them. If they disagree, have them send an email to info@littlecrowgunworks.com with their credentials and why I’m wrong so I can be better informed.”
Conclusion:
I’m continually trying to learn and grow my own gun knowledge and it feels like this topic warrants an in-depth discussion because I want you guys and myself to be successful. If high B.C. bullets are marketing BS, I want to call it like it is. If the Little Crow Gunworks channel is missing the mark, let’s discuss why. I’d just ask you to listen to both sides of the argument and have an open mind. Feels like two very smart and knowledgeable industry professionals making good observations.
*The Little Crow videos use the Hornady CX bullet which I’ve heard can be hard to get shooting well. Part of me wonders if this relates to Jim’s recent video about going from lead to a monolithic bullet and the barrel needs to be cleaned.