Legalities of Hunting with FMJ

Humane bullets...

All bullets kill.

Some kill faster than others.

Expanding bullets tear up soft tissue pretty bad. FMJ's at least have the possibility of making a "neat" hole.

But "dumdums" from rifles and piano wired shot from shotguns will literally rip a limb off. Not pretty at all. Effective though.

Clarification though, the US is a signatory member of the Geneva Convention. But the Geneva Convention is not the limiting document on expanding bullets. The Hague Convention states, "The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions."

The "pierced with incisions" refers to dumdum's. When I last got a legal brief on the Law of Land Warfare the presenter showed pictures of dumdum wounds coming from some of the conflicts in Africa. It was rather brutal.

Jimro
 
The Soviet 5.45x39.5mm in FMJ was also designed to tumble upon impact making very nasty wounds just like the 55gr 5.56x45mm did. The 5.56 was much more effictive with it's original 1:14" twist but when it failed the cold weather test for accuracy they bumped it up to 1:12" and took away some of it's effectiveness. Now that the 5.56 is using a heavier bullet and the 1:7" twist it's working better at long range but I'd still not use FMJ on big game.
 
I shot a box of 20 grain FMJ through my .17HMR. Not sure what they'd be good for though. I think I'd prefer the XTP/Gamepoints for hunting anything bigger than a Woodchuck or PD.
 
I've read in several posts here that "the 5.56mm/ 5.45mm was designed to tumble into flesh, and cause immense wound damage." (Yeah I saw the Top Ten show too on the Military channel) Not true. It wasnt "designed" to do this... Thats just the byproduct of a small calibre/ high velocity round. And it doesnt always do it either. The small round was merely developed to save weight and make the rifle easier to control under full auto. Nothing more.

The militarys use of FMJ is simply a matter of reliability in automatic rifles. Even military bolt actions jam with soft points. Just ask anyone whos tried to cycle Remington Cor-lokts in their Mauser K98s. Join the Military and they will expalin all of this to you. Believe me...I know.
 
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