I hope this is the best forum for this...I figure small game is really what I have a question about, so I think so?

I use a .300 Blackout pistol for close in (most of my) hunting. Occasionally I run across Grouse, which are legal to take with any firearm in my state. As I'm not specifically hunting them, that or the .45 are my choices. The Blackout is generally the better tool in terms of making hits, plus it's in my hands when I see the bird.

I've used .45 and .308 to take them successfully, but to be fair, both were subsonic. Neither does anything but pass through the bird. No problem killing them.

However in the Blackout I'm using the Barnes 110gr bullet (at 2200FPS), which expands quite easily. As little resistance as a bird would provide, I expected those bullets to zip through them as well with just an entrance and exit. Wrong. Unfortunately it destroys half of the bird.

Does anyone know if it's the velocity that is doing this, expansion, or both? While it would be a fun test to go get a whole chicken and have at it, I don't likely have the ability to do the testing before I head out next time. But I do have GMX bullets I can load, which I know won't expand nearly as easily as the Barnes bullet.

Again an assumption, but other small game like rabbits might have similar results, perhaps others have experience?

Like most (hopefully all) I don't feel good wasting meat, so I will definitely change how I shoot them, just a matter of whether the Blackout is off the table.

There's a circular relationship partially due to the way that tissues in animals are constructed.

Velocity speeds and magnifies bullet expansion. More velocity, more bullet expansion all the way up to bullet vaporization. The effects of velocity are seen on the bullet and on the bullet's effect on the tissues in a game animal.

The tissues of the game in question have a particular deformation velocity required to tear them along the individual fibers and a likely different deformation rate to tear across them. As muscle tissues in particular are arranged in bundles of long muscle fibers that are tightly packed together, as you move beyond that minimum tearing velocity the excess deformation velocity can tear tissues more remotely located from the actual impact site.

From my experience with an M1 Carbine and grouse, if you shoot them in the back and out the belly there's minimal meat damage. It'll still rip the fucker into bits but mostly the breast and leg meat is not busticated.

Why not swap the .45 for a 22lr?

I would definitely carry a suppressed 22 while deer hunting if it was legal here. Normally when the wife goes with me, she brings a 22 while I have my bow. Always have a CCW on me, but it’s also not legal to take game with a pistol which was carried concealed. I would probably carry the 22 for cross draw to not obstruct my defensive weapon. During gun season I’d be fine with just packing the 22, since I have the deer gun in hand.

Deer hunt with the .45 and small game with the 22. I have had great success so far using 230gr HST +P. It cuts a very nice hole through them, they don’t go far after.

You’ve already got a 300blk with you…