A number of bullet companies appeal to ideas related to hydraulic shock in their marketing materials. For example, Berger Bullets advertises that hydraulic shock is enhanced by penetrating several inches prior to expanding and fragmenting.
The VLD design is different, penetration before expansion, and as it expands [the bullet] fragments to enhance the wound cavity for massive tissue damage. The VLD will penetrate several inches of hide, muscle, and bone before expanding and fragmenting, causing tremendous hydraulic shock and fragments that wreck the vitals and drops the animal in its tracks.
— Berger Bullets[1]
Barnes bullets advertises that their triple shock bullet has superior incapacitation because it expands quickly and produces hydraulic shock.
Hydraulic shock disrupts vital organs, short-circuiting the nervous system for clean, quick kills.
— Barnes Catalog[2]
The importance of hydraulic shock in the performance of their bullet designs is reiterated in their "Performance vs. Deformance" video.
The bullet expands immediately on impact, immense hydraulic pressure swells the deer's chest, forcing the front legs apart ... death is instantaneous ... The bullet has expended almost all its energy inside the animal.
— Barnes Bullets[3]
In their "Bullet Myths Busted Choosing the Right Bullet: II" DVD, Chuck Yeager explains how hydrostatic shock improves the performance of Barnes Bullets.
The triple shock bullet ... When it hits an animal [creates] a hydrostatic shock wave ... it's a shaped charge...
— Chuck Yeager[4]
Hornady Manufacturing discusses the advantages of remote neurological effects of their law enforcement line of ammunition in their "Hornady Tactical Application Police Ammunition Test Report and Application Guide."
Possibly even more significant is that a study conducted in North Carolina involving shooting large goats in the lungs with high velocity high energy frangible projectiles indicates that the large temporary cavity created by such a projectile can cause a severe blood pressure spike to the animal's brain causing instant incapacitation. In effect it is an artificially induced massive stroke. The test animals had special blood pressure monitoring probes surgically inserted into one of the animal's major neck arteries to the brain well prior to the shooting. When the projectile had a large and violent enough temporary cavity to cause a severe blood pressure spike, the animal was instantly incapacitated. The Hornady TAP rounds have energies and temporary cavity sizes well beyond those shown to cause instant incapacitation in the tests.
— Chuck Karwan[5]
Barnes Bullets "Bullet Myths Busted: Choosing the Right Bullet" video
The bullet must be well placed, open instantly on impact, creating massive hydraulic shock and tissue destruction, while shattering heavy bone.
It is important to create a long wound channel . . .
Gen Chuck Yeager
The triple shock bullet . .
When it hits an animal [creates] a hydrostatic shock wave . . . it's a shaped charge . . .
- ^ The Berger VLD - Best Long Range Hunting Bullet, Berger Bullets (2008). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voyw1H-0CBI&feature=player_embedded
- ^ Barnes Bullets 2009 Catalog, Barnes Bullets, Inc. Mona, Utah (2009) p. 7. See also: Barnes Bullets 2008 Catalog, Barnes Bullets, Inc. Mona, Utah (2008) pp. 4-6.
- ^ Performance vs. Deformance, Barnes Bullets, Inc., Mona, Utah.
- ^ Bullet Myths Busted: Choosing the Right Bullet: II, Barnes Bullets, Inc., Mona, Utah.
- ^ Chuck Karwan, in Hornady Tactical Application Police Ammunition Test Report and Application Guide, Hornady Manufacturing, Inc. Grand Island, Nebraska (2008) p. 56