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Ft. lbs. of energy

257izmycal
I have read that it you should have a minimum of 1000 ft. lbs. of energy for whitetails.

With a properly placed shot what do you all recommend for the following animals, if they are average size:

Black Bear
Mule Deer
Roosevelt Elk
Caribou
Grizzly Bear
Kodiak Brown Bears
Moose

I know that most of these animals come in different sizes depending on location. I am just looking for a rough idea of what your suggestions are. I am not interested in minimum caliber ideas, just minimum ft. lbs.


Thanks for your input in advance.

You're a statistic whether you want to be or not.
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Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • aglore
    FPE doesn't mean a whole lot in the real world.

    Example: 240 Wby 100 grain factory load has more FPE at 100 yards than a factory 405 grain 45-70 load does at the muzzle, which would you prefer to shoot a Brown Bear with?

    AlleninAlaska
    Delta Firearms & Supplies
    http://www.galleryofguns.com

    aglore@gci.net
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  • sandwarrior
    257ismycal,

    aglore makes a great point. You need to pick a round specific to what you hunt and how you hunt them. If you are going hunting non-dangerous game you will want a round that will provide energy roughly in the question you ask. However, if going after dangerous game you might want to think about how much of that energy can be instantaneously transferred to the game to provide "stopping power".

    That being said, my general rule is, 1000 lb. for deer, 1200 for caribou, 1500 for elk. You can determine these with any number of external ballistic calculators to give you a rough range of what your rifle is capable of. These are not hard and fast rules and it depends on the shot you get at the animal. It won't take near that much power to put an elk down if you get a slightly quartering to the rear shot. One thing I found interesting while looking at ballistic tables, because I don't normally look the energy values, is that a 300 WSM/300 Win mag have deer killing power with a 180 gr. bullet out to 900 yds. BUT! no matter how I tried to work the zero I could not set it up so that I didn't have to start adjusting the scope by 400 yds. Not to mention if you were off just a shade you would wound the animal as opposed to a clean kill. A .257 Rbts. has killing power for deer/elk at 500/200 yds. While moose are bigger than elk they don't seem to have that determination that an elk does to get away. You can use the same factor as elk or up it if you want to. All this being said you can up the energy factor to anything you want....so long as it doesn't affect your shooting.
    While energy is an important factor I still use shot placement and bullet selection as my main determing factors as to when to, or not to, take a shot.
    Regarding what aglore said with dangerous animals. When I worked in Alaska, I worked with a few guys who had been chased by either a bear or a moose. Their methodology was a good stopping round with good repeatability. Meaning, multiple hits with a large diameter are what will stop a charging animal. Hits are more important than a single high energy round like a .300 RUM .44 magnums were by far the most common choice. -hope that helps

    I forgot to add that I would go in the 2000lb range with Kodiak, Grizzly. It's good to put them down hard. It's also good to have a plan B ...like a .44 Mag, .45 ACP(2 Mags full), 45LC, 41 Mag, etc.

    We have the second amendment so that all the rest are secure....UNK>
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