Can any arrow shooter hit harder than a .22 bullet?

Question

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Answer 1

I have personally experienced this for myself:

A .22LR round is fast enough to enter the body of a large animal (a deer, for instance), but doesn't have enough energy to exit the animal once hitting it.  In effect, the bullet ricochets inside the body, "scrambling" whatever is inside.  

An arrow is large and fast enough (assuming you have the correct amount of force in the bowstring) to pierce into the skull, and come out the rear, only cutting wherever it hits in the brain.  In a freak accident, the deer COULD survive, though with some serious brain damage.

So, if a deer is shot in the head with a .22LR round, it could be potentially more deadly than an arrow.

In Pounds of force specifically, the arrow COULD probably hit harder, but the .22 is still deadlier.

Answer 2

Projectile velocity is measured in feet per second. A .22 has far more velocity than any arrow, but the small caliber does not necessarily mean it will do more damage, or be more lethal.  

Answer 3

  I don't really know about the harder part, but I do know that the arrow is much more deadlier on big game then a 22 is. For example, you can hunt the big 5 in Africa with a Bow and arrow- The bow has been known to kill elephants, cape buffalo, lions, and Rhino's- I don't believe the 22 will do so. The arrow kills by cutting and penetrating, causing the animal to bleed to death. Here is a test you can do concerning the penetration of an arrow- take a feed sack and fill it with sand- shoot it with a 30.06- then shoot it with the arrow- the 30.06 will not go through and through the sack of sand- the arrow will, with the proper broadhead on the arrow.

Answer 4

You can calculate the kinetic energy for each if you have the weight of the .22 bullet in grains, the weight of the arrow in grains and the speed of each in feet per second.  The formula is:

Square the velocity of the bullet or arrow and multiply that by the weight of the bullet or arrow.   Take the number that you get and divide it by 450400 and you will have the kinetic energy.  The kinetic energy is the force with which the projectile hits the target.  

Answer 5

a arrow is more deadly then a 22 cal...actualy with the right tip on the arrow, I have seen it go through two bullet proof vests...plus they are now using arrows in africa to hunt the big five

Answer 6

by hit harder i guess that your mean foot pounds(ft. lb.)

well a 70lb. bow at 30 yards with a  525 grain arrow can produce up to 235 FOOT POUNDS while a 22 LR Bullet with a 40 gr can produce up to 104 ft lbs, a 31 gr copper-plated HP bullet can hit up to 141 ft lbs

so ahh a bow could but ahh depends on what kind of 22 your using( 22 short, 22 long, 22 lr, 22 mag)

Answer 7

Well, look at some of the technical stuff:

A .22 bullet, whether jacketed, hollow-point, etc, weighs about 36 grains (2.34 grams, or .0819 ounce - 1 grain = .065 gram, multiply .065 by 36 = 2.34 grams, 1 gram = .035 oz, multiply 2.34 by .035 = .0819; my math may be wrong...) A hunting-weight arrow made for a 50 lb draw-weight bow should weigh approx 500 grains (1.1421875 oz, approx); weight for hunting arrows is based on approx 10 grains for every pound of draw-weight.

Since I am not the greatest at math, I won't even try to give you the formula for figuring foot-pounds/feet per second/grain weight; that can be found on the web. I do know, however, that because of the .22's low mass, it will expend all of its energy in a very short amount of time compared to the arrow, which travels at least 1030 fps slower at the instant of "firing" (and at least 770 fps slower at 100 yards - if the arrow were able to retain its initial speed over that distance). Consider this:

A .22 bullet, even when put into a deer's "vitals", will most likely not kill the deer -- but the arrow will. Even at its much greater velocity, **the .22 bullet does not generally have enough mass to retain enough kinetic energy/momentum to cause fatal damage at "normal" hunting distances**. Even with woodchucks and racoons, shooting them in the head, I have often had to shoot two or more times to kill the animals when using copper-plated hollow-point .22 LR ammunition at "normal" (50-80 yards) small-game distances; the bullets just do not retain enough energy to effectively penetrate their skulls at that distance. When using a 500-grain arrow tipped with a hunting blunt, it takes only one hit in the head, even at a "close" 30 yards.

A deer's skull is thicker than a woodchuck's skull. Think about it.

The real advantage of the .22 over arrows is greater accuracy at longer distances...but that does remove the challenge of small-game hunting.

Answer 8

A .22 is faster, but the arrow hits a lot harder.

Answer 9

Any bullet induces trauma which incapacitates and/or kills.  It does this by transferring energy onto its target.  An arrow transfers very little energy onto its target.  Unless you hit a major organ like the brain or severe the spine an arrow kills by bleeding.  In other words, a deer shot with a bullet (even unethically with a .22) will die of shock and trauma caused by the transference of energy and death can come rather rapidly.  A deer shot with an arrow essentially bleeds to death.  Which is why I don't bow-n-arrow hunt nor do I use a .22 on deer.

H