
When velocity, energy and actual killing power coincide, the rifleman gathers his game—provided, of course, 
he has held right. ; 
Energy vs. Actual Killing Power 
Experiments on Woodchucks Prove That Theoretical 
Energy Is One Thing and Stopping Power Quite Another 
of readers and as such are in- 
clined to form many of their 
conclusions almost entirely from what 
they read rather than from what they 
do and observe in the field. 
Riflemen are technically inclined. 
They like to think in symbols, calcu- 
late results by figures, speculate as to 
what will happen when a certain tre- 
mendous theoretical energy suddenly 
meets a living body. 
Ballistic figures have become a sort 
of fetish by which all things are 
judged. A rifle is declared a killer or 
a game wounder by what it will do on 
paper rather than by what it will do 
on game. The cartridge is judged by 
its energy and velocity without any re- 
gard to the type of bullet it uses. 
That this is a mistake I will try to 
show by some shooting with the .30- 
1906 Springfield. It is needless either 
to knock or boost the .30-1906. It is 
the most highly developed high-power 
660 
A MERICAN shooters are a nation 
By.C. S.. LANDIS 
cartridge in the world. Its average 
ammunition is probably unexcelled in 
all-around high qualities. But merely 
because a charge is a .30-1906 combi- 
nation is no indication that it is a 
killer. 
The kinetic energy of a bullet has 
been almost universally accepted as 
the standard of its killing power. But 
there are limits beyond which no stand- 
ard should be accepted. And this is 
particularly true in the case of bul- 
lets. 
ULL metal-cased spitzer, full metal- 
cased round-point, full metal-cased 
flat point, soft-point spitzer, expand- 
ing point, hollow point, protected point, 
copper tube, and all the other forms 
of bullets of a given calibre and weight, 
if driven at a certain muzzle velocity, 
all have an exactly equal muzzle ki- 
netic energy. Theoretically, they have 
the same killing power, but everyone 
with field shooting experience knows 
, 
that in practice they have no such 
thing. | 
lees .30-1906 Springfield cartridge i 
will kill any game in America when 
properly loaded and the shots are ac- 
curately placed. Its popular loads vary 
but little in muzzle energy and theo- 
retical killing power. For instance, the 
150 grain bullet at 2.700 f.s. develops 
2,400 foot pounds mvzzle energy; the 
150 grain at 3,000 f.s., 3,000 foot 
pounds; the 180 grain at 2,700 f.s., 
2,900 foot pounds; the 220 grain at 
2,200 f.s., 2,300 foot pounds; the 220 
at 2,450 f.s., 2,900 foot pounds; and the 
tiny 110 grains at 3,500 f.s., 3,000 foot 
pounds. No one popular load varies 
much over 300 f.s. pounds or 11% from 
the average of all of them. 
But how they do vary in killing 
power! In some cases and on the 
smaller, but tough species of game and 
vermin, the .30-1906 full metal-cased 
service load is one of the poorest kill 

















