[ditch donkey]

Well I think I'll Wade into this mucky thread.

Me, I like full penetration, two holes. I don't buy into the energy transfer arguement. Animals can absorb huge amounts of energy. They get hit buy cars, and walk away. I know it's not damaging the pulmonary system, but I think it is still relivent, since a collision with a car transfers many more times the energy of a bullet.

As for organs moving while breathing, I don't buy it. I've heard guys say, "I hit him proper, but he must have been breathing out, and I got him in the dead spot between the top of the lungs, and the spine." Thats a poor excuse for a poor shot. I know the diaphram moves laterly, but the point where it is onnected to the animal doesn't move. You either shoot infront of it, or behind it. Good shot, or bad.

I believe in an exit hole, with a large wound channel. One of the main reasons I shoot a 338 win mag is because it makes a bigger hole than a 300 win mag. I currently use 225 gr, barnes, but I am thinking of stepping down to a lighter grain, to shoot faster and flatter. Barnes, or any other monolithic, has excellent wieght retention. My thinking is a bullet that starts, and exits at the same weight, will penetrate, and kill better, than a heavier bullet that os designed to lose half it's weight in the first third of an animal.