When a bullet passes through a body, how much kinetic energy does the target absorb?

This is more of a ballistic forensics questions because they are better educated on this subject.

But here you go;

Hydrostatic shock

http://www.scopedin.com/articles/editorials/the-fa...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_shock

As for kinetic energy here is more on that;

http://www.firearmexpertwitness.com/customguns/cal...

http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/GUNS/...

If you read all that and use the calculator the have you will begin to understand how all this works.

I can only give you the observations of both. For example I had a 30-06 with me loaded with 150 power points that usually pass through a deer at close range, But those bullets had been modified by me to rapidly expand on contact in case I saw one of those yotes that’s been killing livestock on our property. So I am walking along and suddenly there is a nice fork horn not 30 feet from me. I quickly fired from the hip and it the little buck in the shoulder. The impact knocked him over and he tried to get up but died quickly. That bullet didn’t pass through that deer, it hit the shoulder and immediately began to break up releasing all of its energy along the way. We found what was left of the copper jacket just under the hide on the far side. The hydra shock spread through its blood vessels rupturing them. When we skinned the deer there was a very large purple area where the bullet hit, blood veins were turned purple all the way to its front leg and down almost to its hoof, it also spread up and along the spine turning part of the back strap purple blood shot and made it up to the neck. And we were surprised to find the eye on that side was solid red from the shock wave destroying the vessels of the eye. There was massive internal bleeding, internal organs were severely damaged from the shock wave. I swore to never do that again because it destroyed so much meat. But because I compromised the bullets integrity by scribing fracture lines down the copper jacket with a razor knife and I also drilled a deep hollow point into the soft point, it turned into a high fragmentation bullet. And that’s why the bullet used up all of the 2800ft lbs of energy in that deer. So blood vessels that can hold 60 to 100 psi had a massive surge of thousands of psi; they exploded. Muscle and flesh were turned into purple mush.

Now had I shot that deer with a fmj bullet where no bones were hit the bullet would pass through and only release a small amount of its energy. Basically drilling a hole through it. And with such a wound the deer could run for a long distance before internal bleeding killed it.

I have seen this with had guns. I shoot grouse with very low velocity lead wad cutters in a 44 magnum and it just punches a hole through them; little meat loss. I accidently used a super high velocity XPT hollow point round (handloaded) and shot a grouse only to see it explode into a puff of feathers; it blew it up big time! All I could find was its legs, wings and a pile of feathers on some skin.

So when you study on this remember that its a combo of things; bullet design, bullet speed, rate of bullet spin, distance to target, where it hit the target and what that area is made of, etc etc.

The simple physics of it is as follows:

The kinetic energy of the bullet is 1/2*m*v^2, so you can take the mass and velocity of the bullet when it hits the target and calculate the energy. Then do the same for the bullet as it leaves the target. The difference in energy was imparted into the animal, and you can divide the difference by the initial energy to get a percentage of energy delivered into the target. This is assuming of course that the bullet stays in one piece, which may or may not happen in a real situation. Also, while deer hunting, I find that it's really hard to get a deer to line up between two perfectly aligned chronographs.

With today's ammunition and the impressive technology we have access to, you may be able to find a bullet has the exact right amount of expansion to dump all its energy into the target, while still punching a big enough entrance hole to ensure a quick kill or large blood trail.

Stopping power is more than just kinetic energy alone, or velocity alone. It is a combination of energy, velocity, bullet construction, shot placement, and the state of mind of the person or animal shot. To explain, let me mention a story that Evan Marshal, a noted ballistic, and stopping power researcher, told of two shooting victims. One was a bankrobber. He'd caught 4 full power .44 RemMag slugs in his torso. The bandit WALKED to the ambulance, survived and stood trial ane was convicted. He refused to die. The other was a rookie cop who'd been shot throught the fleshy part of his upper arm with a .25 ACP. It was the kind of wound that required only cleaning, and a bandaid on each side with light duty assignments for a week. The young cop went into shock and died. He'd been shot and he believed that gunshot wounds were invariably fatal. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating the use of .22, .25, or .32 handguns as great self-defense cartridges. I am simply indicating that there are times when caliber and power do not influence the outcome. I wish I had some sort of magic formula to use to tell you what the best cartridge choices would be, but I don't. I can tell you that I, and most experienced gun cranks will tell you is that the .38 SPL is the minimum you should consider for a serious defensive round. Not because of it's tremendous velocity or power, but because it has a long track record as a good manstopper. Are there better defensive cartridges than the .38 SPL? Sure! The .357 Mag, .41 SPL (not magnum), .44 SPL, .45 LC, .45 ACP are lots better in power and velocity and energy, and the 9 mmP is at least as good as the .38 SPL. When it comes to hunting, over penetration is good. Especially if shot placement is less than perfect. It makes another hole to let blood out and air in, it makes tracking easier, and it speeds the time it will take for the animal to bleed out. Defensively speaking, over penetration can be bad, mainly because it endangers innocent bystanders. That is one reason FMJ bullets and nearly all .41 Mag and .44 RemMag ammo is terribly over powerful for defensive use. But like I said, I have no magic formula. All I can tell you is to study the problem from both sides, because neither school holds ALL the truth. Caliber, velocity, bullet weight, bullet construction, and shot placement are all variables to consider. Ignoring any of those factors can lead to error. BTW, no handgun round has enough velocity to create a lot of hydrostatic shock. That requires 2000 fps or faster. Doc

If you know the kinetic energy of the bullet before it hits the deer and the kinetic energy of the bullet after it passes through the deer, you can calculate the difference and come up with the answer. I did shoot a buck from about 100 yds straight into the chest. I found the bullet just under the skin on a back hip. It dumped all of its kinetic energy into the buck.

Depends on the type of bullet, it's weight, and the velocity at the time of impact.

Energy varies by range. As the bullet travels it loses speed. Thus less energy. That is why they make ballistic charts for ammo. http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource

m.x v =k