**A Look at the Last Stop on a Hunting Bullet’s Journey**
*By P. Massaro | Posted on 11-15-2025*
We ask an awful lot of our bullets, especially those of us who rely on them for self-defense or hunting. We need the bullet to be accurate, we ask it to feed properly from a variety of magazine types, and finally, we want our bullet to perform perfectly once it makes contact with our intended target.
The terminal phase of the bullet—that which begins upon impact with the target and ends upon cessation of forward movement or once it exits the target—is what we’re interested in here. It doesn’t matter what the intended target might be: an African Cape buffalo; that fat, gluttonous woodchuck raiding the vegetable garden; or the 10-point buck of a lifetime. That bullet must do exactly what we need it to do.
However, bullets cannot read minds, so we shooters need to help our own cause by choosing the best product for the scenario at hand. I’ll warn you, there are many choices, as well as many correct answers for the same question. However, if we put things into a proper perspective, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision and achieve the desired results.
### Firstly, Let’s Agree on a Point
Killing an animal quickly depends on massive destruction of vital organs and tissue. I’ve made an errant shot on an African antelope, not much bigger than our deer, while using a .416 Remington Magnum, and it ran over 400 yards before we caught up to it to dispatch it. So, a big, heavy bullet in the wrong place doesn’t do a hunter much good, while a smaller bullet in the heart, lungs, brain, or other blood-rich vital organ will kill quickly.
Some animals seem to be more susceptible to “shock,” while others have a much more subdued reaction to the shot, so there may not be a single bullet that will cover every situation. But we can do our best to choose the best tool for the job at hand.
Generally speaking, **match bullets** are designed for target work only, as they are constructed with no consideration for the terminal phase. I know hunters who use them for big game hunting with mixed results, so I do not recommend them, no matter the accuracy.
I do, for example, frequently employ the Sierra Match King bullets for varmints and smaller furbearers, as they are no more frangible than most varmint bullets and their pinpoint accuracy is welcomed in that realm. But I’m shooting a .223 Remington or .22-250 Remington, and at game the size of a coyote or smaller. They’re hell on woodchucks, foxes, and other small critters of that size, and that’s where the use of match bullets in the field ends for me.
### Varmint Bullets
For varmints like woodchucks, prairie dogs, and the like, there are highly frangible bullets designed for these species. Hornady’s V-Max, Barnes’ Varmint Grenade, and Sierra’s Varminter—these all have very thin copper jackets and are designed to be nearly explosive, giving a very rapid energy transfer.
These animals don’t require a ton of penetration due to their size, and that fast expansion upon impact does all sorts of damage. These bullets are also frangible enough to give proper expansion even at long ranges when the impact velocities are lower. Want to create the famous “red mist”? Serve a frangible varmint bullet squarely on target at a high velocity and it’ll all be over quickly.
### Furbearer Bullets
Furbearers are a different story, as many hunters are interested in best preserving the pelt, and two schools of thought are generally followed. First is to use a full metal jacket (FMJ) bullet, as they do not expand and generally leave small entrance and exit wounds. Second is to use a light, highly frangible bullet, which tends not to exit.
I’ve used both and tend to lean on the FMJs, as the number of coyotes in our hunting area far exceeds the number of foxes. Your mileage may vary, but I’ll say that the FMJs do less damage to fur, but the varmint bullets kill faster, especially on larger Eastern coyotes—unless we’re discussing headshots.
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**Read the rest of this “terminal ballistic” article here.**
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**Topics:** Miscellaneous, Outdoors
**Keywords:** ammo
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**Comments**
**w1n1:**
A large variety of bullet designs exist, used for different purposes. This is one of the reasons you cannot know what kind of wound you will get just from knowing the caliber which was used.
**marktwain:**
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