Sarah Palin's bad shooting: Maybe it was a good thing.
| Dec 12, 2010Since Alaska former, half-term Gov. Sarah Palin appears to be among everyone's favorite topic of discussion these days, here's something for hunters to talk about: The so-called varmint rifle with which she shot at and repeatedly missed a caribou in TLC's "Sarah Palin's Alaska'' was a .225-caliber Winchester. Given that, were the misses a bad thing or a good thing?
Here's some data to help the debate:
The .225 Winchester is a big sister of the .223 Remington, which is generally considered underpowered for hunting whitetail deer. A really, really big whitetail buck is about the size of the small caribou cow Palin shot. There is considerable debate among hunters about shooting deer with any of the .22-caliber center-fire cartridges, of which the .225 is one.
This said, however, it must be noted the semi-automatic Ruger Mini 14 rifle is popular in the Alaska Bush, and the Mini 14 shoots the .223. The cartridge has been used to kill a lot of caribou. It is also somewhat notorious for wounding losses.
"Wounding loss is quite high because caribou are a herd animal,'' one study from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game concluded. "If a caribou is not knocked down with the first shot, it may be lost in the herd and another caribou shot until one eventually drops.''
The .223 is not prone to knock caribou down on impact even if they are vitally wounded, but that is not a vital concern in Arctic Alaska, where there are about half-million caribou and very few people. The limit on caribou there is five per day, and some biologists have privately made an argument that wounding loss in some places might be a good thing. The Western Arctic caribou herd has for years been growing at a pace that threatens to overtax its range. Dead animals don't graze.
But wounding loss isn't why the Mini 14 is popular. It is popular in rural Alaska for the same reason it is popular among coyote-shooting ranchers in the West. It's comparatively cheap, reliable, shoots well, has a big magazine, doesn't kick much, and fires ammunition that doesn't cost a lot. Part of the reason for the latter is that the smallish .223 cartridge contains less brass and power than larger cartridges. Part of the reason is the cartridge started life as a U.S.
civilian version of 5.56x45mm NATO military cartridge, and the availability of Army surplus ammo drives down price.
You can order a box of 50 .223 from Cabela's Inc. today for $21.99, or at least you could if you had access to UPS ground shipping.
Shooters in the Alaska Bush, where there are no roads, don't, but they'd love to be able to buy .223 at that price. Still, in the Bush, as anywhere else, .223 ammo is cheaper than ammo for most any other centerfire.
Sarah Palin clearly doesn't face an economic incentive to shoot a small gun.
She's now a millionaire. There aren't many of those in rural Alaska. Most rural residents shooting .22-caliber centerfire rifles have an economic reason to do so. Consider that the cheapest .30-06 ammo on the Caleba's website today goes $19.99 for a box of 20 with full-metal jacket bullets, and hunters reading this know FMJ bullets aren't the best for hunting caribou. They tend to punch holes in animals instead of mushrooming after impact and maximizing the killing damage done.
Killing damage as it relates to bullet diameter and bullet behavior after impact is a much debated subject, but in general there is agreement that the bigger the hole the better as long as the bullet stays intact. Little bullets are at a disadvantage in killing because they cannot expand the hole as much. A .225 Winchester or .223 Remington bullet (.22 caliber) might mushroom to the diameter of that .30-06 full-metal jacket (.30 caliber) on impact, but a good quality .30-caliber partition bullet of the type normally used for hunting will mushroom to the diameter of a .44 caliber or more. (If you want intellectual ammo for a debate with friends, you can get a primer on bullets here.)
Bullet size is, of course, only part of the issue. The other big factor is energy, a measure of power. Energy is dictated by the weight of the bullet and the speed at which it is traveling when it hits.
Speed is more important than weight; energy = mass + velocity squared.
So here are some numbers for speed and energy for cartridges at 100 yards, the distance at which one might expect to shoot a caribou:
You can see there that the .225 Winchester is slightly more powerful than the .223, but less than half as powerful as the .30-06. By way of comparison, the .30-30 Winchester, an old mainstay among deer hunters in the north woods of the Lower 48, pushes a 150-grain bullet out of the muzzles at only 2,390 feet per second and produces an energy of only 1,296-foot pounds at 100 yards. It is slightly more powerful than the .225 Winchester, but not by much.
Some would consider the .30-30 marginal, if not inadequate, for shooting caribou, though it -- like the .223 -- has killed a lot of those animals. Many would consider all of the .22-calibers -- from the .22 Hornet through the .223 to the .22-250 Remington to the .223 Winchester Super Short Magnum -- to be inadequate for deer, let alone caribou. And, in fact, some states ban anything smaller than the .243-caliber for deer hunting.
Still, it has been observed, that in the hands of a good shot who has a little luck any big game animal on the North American continent -- up to and including a grizzly bear -- can be killed with a .22 rimfire with a 40-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 1,255 feet per second and a meager energy production of 140-foot pounds at the muzzle. That's down to 92-foot pounds at 100 yards.
Suffice to say, what a hunter could do and what a hunter might want to do are two very different things. One would have to be crazy to go hunting grizzlies with a .22 rimfire. A .22 centerfire for caribou is, however, open to a lot more discussion, maybe even some debate.
In Palin's defense, shooters unanimously agree, the deadliest rifle is the one you shoot best. The odds of wounding go down and the odds of killing go up as cartridge size increases, but only to the point where rifle recoil becomes punishing and a hunter afraid of it starts to flinch and miss the target. Palin obviously knew enough about the recoil problem to inquire about the "kick'' of the rifle she was handed after giving up on her .225 (a childhood rifle, like kind a father would buy a daughter?) after all those misses.
Had she hit the caribou with the .225 -- given the shooting display -- her hunting party would likely have been chasing a wounded animal across the tundra. That is not a criticism of Palin. There is unlikely to be anyone in Alaska who has done much caribou hunting who hasn't at some point found herself, or himself, chasing a wounded caribou across the tundra. Responsible hunters like to be more humane than wolves in their killing of Alaska big game, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Still, a big gun generally helps. The rifle Palin was handed in the end was a .300 Winchester Magnum, the big brother of the .30-06. It is the gun with which she finally made the kill. The 300 Win Mag sends a 180-grain bullet hurtling down range at more than 3,000 feet per second. It produces nearly 3,000 ft. lbs of energy at 100 yards. It is equivalent to getting dumped on by a ton and a half of force. It will kill quickly and cleanly. That is what has made it among one of the more popular cartridges in the 49th state.
Some years back, Lee Rogers, then the range master at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Rabbit Creek Range in Anchorage, conducted a survey of the rifles used by 1,848 Alaska hunters. He found the most popular big-game cartridge in use was the tried and true .30-06, but it was followed closely by the .300 Winchester Magnum and the more powerful .338 Winchester Magnum. Lee reported those three cartridges combined were used by almost six out of 10 Southcentral hunters.
Lee also looked at cartridges by caliber, a Fish and Game publication noted. The 30-caliber came in first with the .338-caliber a distance second followed by the 7-mm-caliber. Rodgers did not report meeting any hunters practicing with or sighting any .22-caliber centerfire rifles in preparation for the hunting season.
All of which leaves this question hanging out there: Did Sarah Palin go off under-gunned?
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com .
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/voices/medred/7805-sarah-palins-bad-shooting-maybe-it-was-a-good-thing?showall=1
Here's some data to help the debate:
The .225 Winchester is a big sister of the .223 Remington, which is generally considered underpowered for hunting whitetail deer. A really, really big whitetail buck is about the size of the small caribou cow Palin shot. There is considerable debate among hunters about shooting deer with any of the .22-caliber center-fire cartridges, of which the .225 is one.
This said, however, it must be noted the semi-automatic Ruger Mini 14 rifle is popular in the Alaska Bush, and the Mini 14 shoots the .223. The cartridge has been used to kill a lot of caribou. It is also somewhat notorious for wounding losses.
"Wounding loss is quite high because caribou are a herd animal,'' one study from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game concluded. "If a caribou is not knocked down with the first shot, it may be lost in the herd and another caribou shot until one eventually drops.''
The .223 is not prone to knock caribou down on impact even if they are vitally wounded, but that is not a vital concern in Arctic Alaska, where there are about half-million caribou and very few people. The limit on caribou there is five per day, and some biologists have privately made an argument that wounding loss in some places might be a good thing. The Western Arctic caribou herd has for years been growing at a pace that threatens to overtax its range. Dead animals don't graze.
But wounding loss isn't why the Mini 14 is popular. It is popular in rural Alaska for the same reason it is popular among coyote-shooting ranchers in the West. It's comparatively cheap, reliable, shoots well, has a big magazine, doesn't kick much, and fires ammunition that doesn't cost a lot. Part of the reason for the latter is that the smallish .223 cartridge contains less brass and power than larger cartridges. Part of the reason is the cartridge started life as a U.S.
civilian version of 5.56x45mm NATO military cartridge, and the availability of Army surplus ammo drives down price.
You can order a box of 50 .223 from Cabela's Inc. today for $21.99, or at least you could if you had access to UPS ground shipping.
Shooters in the Alaska Bush, where there are no roads, don't, but they'd love to be able to buy .223 at that price. Still, in the Bush, as anywhere else, .223 ammo is cheaper than ammo for most any other centerfire.
Sarah Palin clearly doesn't face an economic incentive to shoot a small gun.
She's now a millionaire. There aren't many of those in rural Alaska. Most rural residents shooting .22-caliber centerfire rifles have an economic reason to do so. Consider that the cheapest .30-06 ammo on the Caleba's website today goes $19.99 for a box of 20 with full-metal jacket bullets, and hunters reading this know FMJ bullets aren't the best for hunting caribou. They tend to punch holes in animals instead of mushrooming after impact and maximizing the killing damage done.
Killing damage as it relates to bullet diameter and bullet behavior after impact is a much debated subject, but in general there is agreement that the bigger the hole the better as long as the bullet stays intact. Little bullets are at a disadvantage in killing because they cannot expand the hole as much. A .225 Winchester or .223 Remington bullet (.22 caliber) might mushroom to the diameter of that .30-06 full-metal jacket (.30 caliber) on impact, but a good quality .30-caliber partition bullet of the type normally used for hunting will mushroom to the diameter of a .44 caliber or more. (If you want intellectual ammo for a debate with friends, you can get a primer on bullets here.)
Speed is more important than weight; energy = mass + velocity squared.
So here are some numbers for speed and energy for cartridges at 100 yards, the distance at which one might expect to shoot a caribou:
-- .30-06 Winchester, 180-grain partition bullet, 2,588 feet per second, 2,677-foot pounds of energy.
-- .225 Winchester, 55-grain pointed soft point, 3,066 fps, 1,148 ft. lbs.
-- .223 Remington, 60-grain Nosler partition bullet, 2737 fps, 998 ft. lbs.
Some would consider the .30-30 marginal, if not inadequate, for shooting caribou, though it -- like the .223 -- has killed a lot of those animals. Many would consider all of the .22-calibers -- from the .22 Hornet through the .223 to the .22-250 Remington to the .223 Winchester Super Short Magnum -- to be inadequate for deer, let alone caribou. And, in fact, some states ban anything smaller than the .243-caliber for deer hunting.
Still, it has been observed, that in the hands of a good shot who has a little luck any big game animal on the North American continent -- up to and including a grizzly bear -- can be killed with a .22 rimfire with a 40-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 1,255 feet per second and a meager energy production of 140-foot pounds at the muzzle. That's down to 92-foot pounds at 100 yards.
Suffice to say, what a hunter could do and what a hunter might want to do are two very different things. One would have to be crazy to go hunting grizzlies with a .22 rimfire. A .22 centerfire for caribou is, however, open to a lot more discussion, maybe even some debate.
In Palin's defense, shooters unanimously agree, the deadliest rifle is the one you shoot best. The odds of wounding go down and the odds of killing go up as cartridge size increases, but only to the point where rifle recoil becomes punishing and a hunter afraid of it starts to flinch and miss the target. Palin obviously knew enough about the recoil problem to inquire about the "kick'' of the rifle she was handed after giving up on her .225 (a childhood rifle, like kind a father would buy a daughter?) after all those misses.
Had she hit the caribou with the .225 -- given the shooting display -- her hunting party would likely have been chasing a wounded animal across the tundra. That is not a criticism of Palin. There is unlikely to be anyone in Alaska who has done much caribou hunting who hasn't at some point found herself, or himself, chasing a wounded caribou across the tundra. Responsible hunters like to be more humane than wolves in their killing of Alaska big game, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Still, a big gun generally helps. The rifle Palin was handed in the end was a .300 Winchester Magnum, the big brother of the .30-06. It is the gun with which she finally made the kill. The 300 Win Mag sends a 180-grain bullet hurtling down range at more than 3,000 feet per second. It produces nearly 3,000 ft. lbs of energy at 100 yards. It is equivalent to getting dumped on by a ton and a half of force. It will kill quickly and cleanly. That is what has made it among one of the more popular cartridges in the 49th state.
Some years back, Lee Rogers, then the range master at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Rabbit Creek Range in Anchorage, conducted a survey of the rifles used by 1,848 Alaska hunters. He found the most popular big-game cartridge in use was the tried and true .30-06, but it was followed closely by the .300 Winchester Magnum and the more powerful .338 Winchester Magnum. Lee reported those three cartridges combined were used by almost six out of 10 Southcentral hunters.
Lee also looked at cartridges by caliber, a Fish and Game publication noted. The 30-caliber came in first with the .338-caliber a distance second followed by the 7-mm-caliber. Rodgers did not report meeting any hunters practicing with or sighting any .22-caliber centerfire rifles in preparation for the hunting season.
All of which leaves this question hanging out there: Did Sarah Palin go off under-gunned?
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com .
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/voices/medred/7805-sarah-palins-bad-shooting-maybe-it-was-a-good-thing?showall=1
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