Quote Originally Posted by Willifish View Post
My 12 year old daughter shot a large cow elk last year at 125 yards with her 243 shooting 95gr sst superformance. She hit the cow just in the front edge of the shoulder broadside. The bullet went through the shoulder meat, spine and was found very expanded against the hide on the other side. I could put my fist through the hole in the spine. The cow flipped over flat on her back four feet in the air and didn't even kick. My velocity readings were about 100 fps less than advertised from her 22" barrel. Hope this info helps.
I am highly encouraged by your daughter's participation in the shooting sports. Let's hope that many others follow her example!

Regarding velocity, most factory loads are listed for 24" barrels. Not all of them are, however. Be sure to check what the reference info is to get a feel for whether your rifle is likely to shoot fast or slow. I used the calculator at http://shootersnotes.com/calculator/velocity-estimator/ to estimate the change in velocity with barrel length using the nominal 3185 ft/sec muzzle velocity with the 95 gr SST. I guessed that the test barrel was 24" but am not certain. Velocities going from 28" down to 16" are"

28" - 3280 fps
26" - 3235 fps
24" - 3185 fps
22" - 3129 fps
20" - 3086 fps
18" - 2994 fps

These numbers are approximate with a rifle-to-rifle scatter in velocity of plus or minus 50 fps about 65% of the time. Hence the observation of "about 100 fps less" is reasonable. It could as easily been about 50 fps and would have been viewed as on the mark.