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The Big Bad 10MM

7K views 63 replies 45 participants last post by  FINALYBOUGHTAHOUSE 
#1 ·
I recently was witness to the Killing Power of the Big Bad 10mm.

A farmers cow got out into the roadway and was hit by a small car(totaled) and had a badly broken leg and traffic stopped because the road was blocked.
A few minutes later the farmer arrived and as the group/crowd gathered it was determined that the cow would be "put down" to end its suffering..
I go to my pickup truck to get the old lever rifle I always carry.

About that time Local cop arrives as I am about to shoot down the standing on 3 legs cow..
He tells me to "stand back"..as he draws the BIG BAD 10mm from his holster and tells everyone to look away because he is going to "dispatch" the animal..

I offer him my rifle and he says(with a smirk).."I don't need that. I have a 10mm"

He fires body shot..BANG!..The cow MOOS and runs on 3legs. dragging broken leg behind..He fires 3 running shots BANGBANGBANG!!
Cow stumbles but keeps running..now cop is running/firing behind cow..BANGBANG,,finally cow goes down..

He turns around to crowd and says.."im sorry you all had to witness that but sometimes animals have to be put down to end the suffering"


He holsters weapon and walks towards crowd to try and clear traffic
As cow tries to get up and is bleeding and crowd cant believe it..
Women/children crying..men are saying,"why didn't he use the rifle"?
Women yelling.."let itlive..stop shooting it"..

Cow still trying to get up//

Cop draws the "Big 10mm again and empties it..Cow goes down again and at the point cop is looking at his pistol and wondering what the heck is wrong?

I don't even know how many total shots he fired into the poor cow..

At that point you could still see the cow laying in the ditch bleeding/breathing/moaning




I finally walked back to my truck and put the rifle away and waited for traffic to start moving..

10mm?..No..Not impressed.
 
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#2 ·
CSB?
I shot a deer with a 155 gr. 10mm XTP - deer ran about 40 yards and fell over, heart shot.
The exit hole on heart was bigger than a quarter.
Impressed? Yea.
 
#8 ·
How is that impressive?

You shot 100lb animal in the heart and it ran 40 yards?..no wonder the 700lb animal ran off after being body shot..


That 10mm was NOT the tool for the job(in my opinion)
Poor shot placement and using a handgun/carry gun instead of a rifle were 2 of the mistakes he made.
 
#3 ·
One wonders about shot placement.

Secondarily, whether officer was using light 10mm loadings. IOW, not even close to Buffalo Bore (or similar). A light load with JHP might not penetrate sufficiently for a cow.

But my first bet is on dubious shot placement.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Yes..I witnessed it and shot placement was THE single biggest mistake the over confidant in his weapon officer made..
The guy clearly was NOT a hunter or had even grown up on a farm or around large animals..
I have seen a butcher come out to my Farm and have him dispatch a large beef for slaughter with 1 well placed 22 round to the animals head.

I knew immediately this wasnt going to turn out well.. but to see the shocked look on the officers face that his BIG 10 wasn't killing the large cow and the shock from the crowd at what was happening was really sad..


It sounded like he fired 10+ rounds into the animal..
I'm pretty sure the gun was empty and he was reaching for his backup magazine as I walked away..
 
#5 · (Edited)
***! I don't know anything about putting down animal's but why would he use a body shot to start? This has nothing to do with the abilities of the 10mm but rather the lack of ability by the cop. Sorry to hear he caused so much needless suffering to the animal. Guess they don't have IQ-tests to become a cop in that jurisdiction.
 
#7 ·
***! I don't know anything about putting down animal's but why would he use a body shot to start?
The cow had gotten up from the accident and was standing in ditch on 3 legs dragging broken leg..
I guess he didn't feel he could make a good head shot.

But where on body he aimed to make first shot?..beats me?
Where he was aiming with multipile follow up shots?..I don't know?

All i know was he was staring at his empty gun ..then cow..then back at his gun wondering?
 
#13 ·
When I was a deputy coming home from work I came upon an accident where a car had struck a deer. The deer crawled into some briars/vines and needed to be put down.

Some good old boy was walking with his scoped .270 rifle around saying I'll kill it. I didn't want to walk into the stickers/brush and asked him to dispatch the deer. He stot the shoulder and started bragging he blew the shoulder out. The deer was still alive.

I walked in the briers(tore the heck out of mu uniform), put my 9mm to its ear and killed it immediately.

Shot placement is everything.
 
#14 ·
That 10mm was NOT the tool for the job(in my opinion)
Not the caliber that was at fault. 10mm's have been used to take down cape buffalo. As others have stated, it was probably bad shot placement or substandard ammo.

Just goes to show you that the energy dump theory of incapacitation doesn't work so well when the target is able to absorb the dumped energy. Penetration and a large permanent wound channel is a better route to take.
 
#17 ·
No..and I actually started feeling sorry for him

He seriously thought he had a magic 10mm gun..I guess reading lots of internet stories and gunshop talk had convinced him he was carrying Clint Eastwoods mdl29..

You could see the confusion on his face as he kept shooting and shooting and it was not having much effect on the very large animal..
 
#19 ·
I actually think the local cop made a very poor choice turning down a rifle for a handgun (even a 10mm)
The rifle is easier to shoot more accurately and has more energy than the 10mm

10mm..have nothing on a 30-30....Yes..they are good handgun rounds..note: handgun rounds....But a 30-30 carbine is superior.
30-30 if you are looking for quick easy shooting of a powerful round. Preferable to any hand gun round.

Almost double the muzlzle velocity
and almost double muzzle energy

Caliber: 30 Carbine
Brand: Remington UMC FMJ
Bullet Weight: 110 grains
Muzzle Velocity: 1990 fps
Muzzle Energy: 967 ft lbs

vs.

Caliber: 10mm Auto
Brand: Remington UMC FMJ
Bullet Weight: 180 grains
Muzzle Velocity: 1150 fps
Muzzle Energy: 529 ft lbs
 
#28 · (Edited)
You may have confused the 30-30 cartridge ballistics common to many lever action rifles (and some handguns like the TC Contender ) with the less potent .30 Cal M1 Carbine round in the ballistics cited above.

Caliber: 30 Carbine
Brand: Remington UMC FMJ
Bullet Weight: 110 grains
Muzzle Velocity: 1990 fps
Muzzle Energy: 967 ft lbs
:confused:

The venerable 30-30 round is significantly more powerful. ;)

Caliber: 30-30 Winchester 150
Brand: Winchester Power-Point
Bullet Weight: 150 grains
Muzzle Velocity: 2390
Muzzle Energy: 1902

As for killing cows, there's not much magic to it, but any job can be botched I suppose, regardless of the tools used.

Just surprised that an audience residing 2 hours from a local news station would be so unfamiliar with how to more efficiently address such things as injured livestock.

My grandfather's old 1918 vintage S&W Regulation Police with its "anemic" 38 S&W cartridge is probably a more proven hog and cow killer than any firearm we are currently toting around simply due to its usefulness for such things back in the day when folks processed their own meat.

Caliber: .38 Smith & Wesson
Bullet Weight: 145 grain
Bullet Style: Lead Round Nose
Muzzle Velocity: 689 FPS
Muzzle Energy: 153 ft.-lbs.

 
#26 ·
Sounds more like you are pissed he didn’t use your rifle instead of his handgun.

As has been pointed out by many in here, a well placed shot from the handgun would have put the cow out of its misery.

Didn’t need a 30-30 to do the job. The 10mm was more than needed to do it. Barney Fife was the problem, not the tool.
 
#30 ·
Did he make the body shot because the cow wouldn't let him get close enough to make a headshot? Also, shouldn't a headshot on a cow be to the back of the head to avoid a potential ricochet? I've shot wild pigs in the head, but I've always aimed at their ear, broadside, never to the front of the head for fear of a ricochet or having it just get stuck or lodged in the skull and not penetrating enough to kill. Anyway, I know little about cows. Have only milked and fed them one time in my life at my wife's family's ranch in Mexico. When her family killed a cow for butchering, they just used a curved knife to puncture the back of the head and it dropped immediately. Of course, the cow was oblivious to what was about to happen before that, and I suppose it was so used to humans feeding it that it didn't care to have the butcher lead it to the back of the ranch house and stand next to its head before dispatching it. Anyway, just asking about the headshot out of curiosity.
 
#32 ·
Yes I would most assuredly suggest to anyone with half a brain.

To steer clear of 10 mm handguns.
 
#33 ·
Poor decision making regarding shot placement - obviously a green ignorant Rambo cop wanting to flex his wanna-be muscle. The 10mm is more than adequate to dispatch a cow, via head shot. You don't dispatch that large an animal (up to 1600 - 1800# or more) in the vital region - will take a looong time to die. Yes a .22 will work, but it's not optimal - I've seen them ricochet off, several times. Centerfire rifle is ideal, they're out before they hit the ground, if you know where to put it.
 
#36 ·
Worst fail I saw with .22 was a mature Hereford bull with a broken hip. Probably 2200#. Guy went out with a .22 rifle and 13 rounds. Came back and said the deed was done. A week later we were out rounding up that section and I come across the bull standing on a hill. Wife’s cousin lived close so went and got his 30.06. One and done.
 
#34 ·
Yep, head shots only if you want a cow to drop. I would guess he had SD ammo and it wasn’t getting anywhere near a vital organ. He’s lucky he didn’t get stomped or a bunch of other people hurt. Most any cow has a limit to the pain it will tolerate before becoming violent.

You would think rural departments would have some training in scenarios like this.
 
#37 ·
I’m curious about all this discussion of rounds, rifles, handguns, etc. for Gods sake people a damn car hit it and the cow was alive. What kind of car? How much did it weigh? How fast was it going? How was the impact placement. I bet the “energy” was much higher than any round available at the time yet the cow was up and about. Maybe they should have used a Buick, or a 1 ton truck at 70 mph. You know, vehicle placement is still critical no matter how much energy you hit it with. Penetration is also critical.
 
#38 ·
The Cop doesn't need to have a hunting background to be able to make the right choice. He should have a basic knowledge of which parts of the body lead to a higher probability of a quick stop/death in human's and should be able to use that to know his best chances are a head shot. And a basic knowledge of the relative ballistics of handgun-limitation's vs rifle. This is what makes his choice even more bizarre. He is lucky the cow after being wounded didn't trample bystanders. They should send this cop back to Cop-basic-training, maybe he will not sleep through it the second time.
 
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