I have seen several deer that were neck shot not quite right drop in their tracks and then a few minutes later get up and run off without leaving much if any of a blood trail. A lot of neck shooters I knew were also big believers of cutting a deers throat ASAP so it could bleed out. I often wonder how many of those deer were not quite dead at that's point and we're finished off by that.

I like a neck shot on hogs but it is kind of apples to oranges.

1) the animal itself, body type

2) shot placement, shocking strike on vitals

3) bullet construction, soft or hard jacketed/cast, shape of point

4) bullet velocity, higher velocity will add to the shocking ability of the bullet

5) the activity of the animal at the time of the shot, if the animal is amped up good chance it will run a ways, at rest and relaxed, might drop at the spot of being hit.

Personally I believe heavy large caliber bullets running 1900-2200 fps will put more of a thump on a large body animal than a lighter, smaller caliber bullet. Noticed I said large body, I don't believe it applies to whitetails, a 24-30 caliber Ballistic Tip will hit deer like lighting and cause a bigger shock effect than a large slower caliber bullet, even with a not so great shot placement. Screaming BT's just seem to turn their lights out.

Now having said that, I have seen large hogs, in a relaxed state take short range hits with large bullets and high tail it out of the area. Have seen 300-350 pounder take a good shot from a 7-30 Waters with a SST bullet out of a 14" TC and drop on it's nose.

My biggest hog, 600+ pounder was hit with a heavy jacket 400gr SP from a 405 Winchester, doing 1900 fps and it rolled on it side and never moved an inch. Hit a almost 400 pounder with a 400gr heavy jacket SP from a 416 Ruger, decent shot placement but upon being hit the hog turned hard right and came downhill straight at me with only it's rear end working, her chin to chest was dragging on the ground, bulldozing is what I call it, took two more 400 grainers to stop her.

It the end the only way to ensure a drop shot is a head shot with a cannon like a 416 Ruger, very messy with no head left but it won't run. Other than that it is a crap shoot what the animal will do, just too many factors involved.

Gunner

We have shot a number of deer with the 5.56mm loaded with bulk Nosler 55gr soft points and when shot like this have always dropped into their tracks so hard they bounced.

We have shot a number of deer with the 12 bore Express rifle like this and they have all dropped in their tracks so hard they bounced.

The pigs shot with the .72 caliber round ball also went down without any drama.

Cheers,

Byron

Back to an earlier comment. The .358 STA was built on a Eddystone Model of 1917. Nicely done but, like all P14/M1917's, it's a heavy beastie. My only complaint is that it has a brake so, in addition to being heavy, it's obnoxious as well.

Funny story. I have contemplated removing the brake but wanted to try an experiment first to see the effectiveness of the brake. Fallout from an engineering project in the past left me with some high temp silicone rubber sheet. I cut a piece to fit around the barrel end to end and then fit a piece of a pop can cut to wrap around the rubber. all secured with cable ties. The thought was to shoot it as is and then install my cobbled up blocking and see if the brake made any real difference. Well, I did just that. But, when I touched off the rifle with the blocking in place, it blew the whole apparatus to flinders. We recovered a very small, very scorched bit of the rubber but nothing else. Good for a laugh even if it didn't answer the original question.

I hope to fill the void of a .35 Epps in the near future. Need to get my butt in gear on that.