“Ballistic Testing”
by Solidus.
If you’re reading this, it’s my birthday (August 6)! In the spirit of that, I am giving YOU all a gift. This will be an ongoing series, and yes, I am TAKING caliber suggestions!
Part 1: Experiment begins
Mission Statement: Due to increasing Fluffy population numbers, the Department of Agriculture has decided to conduct a series of experiments on live fluffies, with the goal of determining what the effects of various cartridges, bullet types, and wound placements have on fluffies. Testing shall be comprehensive, but identical results shall simply be referenced to the first experiment yielding the same outcome.
Ultimate goal is to advise best practice on killing fluffies with various calibers and firearm types.
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.22 LR part 1: Pistol.
Firearm used: Ruger “Mark IV” pistol, 5.50” barrel length.
Bullet weight: 40 Grains.
Bullet type: Lead round nose.
Subjects: 2 Stallions. 2 Mares. 1 “Talkie” foal. 1 “Chirpie” foal.
Stallion 1 results:
Subject is restrained, and shot once in the Lungs. Immediately begins to scream and write, complaining of “Wowstest Huwties!” and “Wouwd Noisies.” Subject begins to cough, gurgle. Cough discharge contains blood, with large amount of bubbles. Subject soils himself violently due to pain, and attempts to move, displaying no signs of shock.
Breathing becomes labored, and subject complains, through heavy coughing, of “Bweathy huwties.”
Subject passes out, and expires.
Total time to death: 4 minutes, 16 seconds.
Conclusion: Lung shots with .22 caliber solids are sub-optimal for adult fluffies, as the subject was still fully capable of movement, and made a large amount of noise, repeatedly screaming, complaining of pain, and coughing violently.
Stallion 2:
Subject is restrained, and shot in the head from the front.
Bullet transverses the skull, entering between the eyes, and exiting approx 1” above the base of the skull. Caliber sized entry and exit. Subject immediately collapses, and dies instantly.
Conclusion: Shots to the head are, as predicted, immediately fatal even with a very small rimfire caliber.
Mare Results were largely the same, save for the fact that, strangely, the mare shot in the lungs complained of less pain. This possibly indicates a higher pain tolerance on the part of mares. Further testing will be conducted later.
“Talkie” Foal:
Subject is approached and shot in the chest. Due to smaller size, the bullet pierces both lungs and the heart. Foal collapses, Screaming and chirping loudly, soiling itself before it’s lungs fill with blood. It begins to gurgle and cough up blood, foaming at the mouth and going into shock.
Subject quickly passes out and dies immediately after.
Total time to death: 45 seconds.
Conclusion: Body shots on “Talkie” foals appear to be highly effective, even with roundnosed, .22 LR ammunition. Psychological effect on parents and siblings would likely be severe. Further testing will be conducted on that front.
“Chirpie” Foal:
Subject is shot in the body from the side. The result is similar to the effect of the same round on an orange or grapefruit, with the bullet punching a hole through the target only slightly larger than the entry. The subject squeals loudly, defecates, vomits up a mixture of blood and milk, and dies immediately.
Conclusion: An obvious result. “Chirpie” foals, as newborn fluffies are colloquially known, are extremely fragile. The psychological effect would be huge, but very little is needed to kill a newborn fluffy, and unless specifically attempting to distress and throw a herd into disarray, shooting a newborn foal is a waste of ammunition.
Experimental notes:
Ultimately, while lethal, the .22 LR round nose is ineffective at killing adult fluffies in an expedient and efficient manner unless head shots or heart shots can be reliably had. Further experimentation with the caliber will be conducted, with fragmenting and hollow point ammunition from a rifle being the next tests scheduled.
Necropsy of adult subjects reveals that the projectile broke ribs, and put caliber sized holes through the body, fully transversing the torso and exiting out the other size. Recovered bullets show minimal deformation, and no expansion, obviously. While wound was lethal, it did nothing to physically incapacitate the fluffy until it’s lungs fully filled with blood.
Examination of skulls showed a full transversal of cranial cavity, with a .22 caliber path cut through brain tissue. Unsurprisingly, this was immediately lethal, as the bullet passed through the center of the organ. Due to small size of brain, this is unreliable, as tissue around bullet path had little to no damage beyond minor bruising.
“Talkie” Foal’s chest was opened, and heart extracted for examination. Heart is measured at 12.7mm in diameter, and the .22 caliber hole through the upper ventricles was severely deleterious and quickly fatal. While unintentional, this was useful data and the rate of blood loss can be scaled to adult fluffies to provide a timetable for deaths.
All remains disposed of via incineration, testing room cleaned, pistol returned to armory, next batch of subjects prepared.
Further reports inbound upon completion.
