.22-250 vs Pdog

[Colorado Osprey]

He landed a good 7-8' from where I shot him, and the only thing holding his upper body to his lower body was his pelt!

Hydrostatic shock due to temporary cavitation. There is a wave of energy behind a traveling bullet like a boat wake on a lake. This is called temporary cavitation and when it exceeds the dimensions of a soft bodied target, the target explodes due to no more room for expansion. The same thing happens when you shoot a gallon jug of water. The larger the temporary cavitation, and the smaller the soft body target, the less there is left over.

Temporary cavitation can be increased by increasing the frontal area of a bullet by using a larger caliber or shooting a flat nose/wad cutter; or by increasing velocity.

There are plenty of videos on youtube showing this effect in ballistic gelatin.


FWIW, many years ago used a 270 with a flat tip bullet. Shot a prairie dog from rear to front at 50 yards. All that was left was one arm attached to a head.