35 caliber sectioned and recovered bullets

Thought I would start a new thread instead of hijacking another please feel free to add your own pictures.

First up Nosler bullets, left to right
250 gr Partition 2556 fps, 176.3 gr (70.5%) .682" 6 water jugs
225 gr Partition 2715 fps, 149.2 gr (66.3%) .663" 6 water jugs
225 gr AccuBond 2725 fps, 178.5 gr (79.3%) .668" 6 water jugs


225 gr Trophy Bonded 2700+ fps, 209.8 gr (93.2%) .708" 6 water jugs
225 gr Sierra 2674 fps, 195.8 gr, jacket core separation .813" 4 water jugs
200 gr Hornady spire point 2756 fps, 140.3 gr (70.2%) .640" 5 water jugs


250 gr Speer spitzer 2498 fps, 179.2 gr (71.7%) .609" 6 water jugs
250 gr Speer G.S. 2642 fps, 201.2 gr (80.5%) .661" 7 water jugs
225 gr Barnes TSX 2661 fps. 224.9 gr (100%) .736" 7 water jugs

gerry,

Those are some great pictures and recorded data.
What cartridge did you use, 35 Whelen?

JD338

Very cool! Thanks for sharing that. How did you cut the bullets in half and keep them in such good shape?

Gerry,

Most instructive and informative. Thanks for posting.

Very cool! Those are some sharp looking bullets!

JD338,
The cartridge is the 35 Whelen.

Atmosphere,
I put the bullets into a vise and went to work with a rasp, when I got close to half way I used a finer file and at the end some fine sandpaper or emery cloth. I takes a few minutes for each bullet but the end result makes it worth it :grin:

Very informative! Although I do not own a .35 Whelen, the data will probably translate to the .338 Federal, .338 WM and .340 Bee just as well. The surprise for me is the Speer and Hornady spitzers and how much weight that they retained through the jugs. This after hearing others horror stories for years about how the .338 and .358 diameter, 200 grain, cup and core bullets just distintegrated in anything bigger than a jackrabbit.

Thanks for the hard work and pics.

At moderate velocity the standard Speer and Hornady bullets did quite well in these tests I'm sure they would do very well in the 338 Federal but in the bigger 338's the premium bullets would be better at closer range I would think, hopefully someone out there can post some more results. As for the bullets I tested the 200 gr Hornady would be great for all but the biggest game and the 250 gr Speer would be great for moose and even grizzly. I like the 225 gr bullets especially the Accubonds, they will work for anything from blacktails and stone sheep all the way to moose. The discontinued Ballistic Tip did exactly that for me, the AccuBond will do it even better :lol:

In the ,340 Bee, I use the 225 Partition as my go-to elk bullet. However, I do use the 200 gr Hornady's and the 200 gr CT Silvertips as bullets for the .338 Federal. I have always had good luck with these bullets on lighter game even in the .338 Mag. I think that they will work fine at the 2600 fps or less velocities of the .338 Federal evan up to and including small elk. I can and have some 210 partitions and Barnes 210 bullets for use on elk in the .338 Federal. They should work fine at 2600 fps, even on elk.

Nice work, I shoot the 200gr Hornady SP from my .358 Win. Looks like it held up great.

Great writeup and pictures thanks for sharing. !!!

Great job Gerry. Scotty and me gotta step it up next time we test bullets.

Gerry, here are a few 35 Whelen bullets I have recovered out of wood and the ground. They are all about the same as yours, right around 170gr's or so (250gr PTs). I love them! Can't wait to hunt with them this year. Very excited to see how they work on game.

Found in the dirt






Found under the skin of a large chunk of red oak





Here is another I dug out of a piece of another block of oak, it is a little mangled cause of me digging at it with my knife







Here is a 225gr TSX I recovered from a black bear shot, hard quartering to me. Broke the front leg, and traversed the body, smashing the hip and coming to rest under the hide. Lost one petal.







Overall, I think the predictable performance of the PT is very nice to see. It is TOUGH! I wouldn't worry about hunting anything with it, anywhere. Plus, they are very accurate outta my CDL. The Speers 250gr Hot Cor's shoot just as well and make a nice load for a little less money. Scotty

gerry":3inxb4wk said:

Thought I would start a new thread instead of hijacking another please feel free to add your own pictures.

First up Nosler bullets, left to right
250 gr Partition 2556 fps, 176.3 gr (70.5%) .682" 6 water jugs
225 gr Partition 2715 fps, 149.2 gr (66.3%) .663" 6 water jugs
225 gr AccuBond 2725 fps, 178.5 gr (79.3%) .668" 6 water jugs

225 gr Trophy Bonded 2700+ fps, 209.8 gr (93.2%) .708" 6 water jugs
225 gr Sierra 2674 fps, 195.8 gr, jacket core separation .813" 4 water jugs
200 gr Hornady spire point 2756 fps, 140.3 gr (70.2%) .640" 5 water jugs

250 gr Speer spitzer 2498 fps, 179.2 gr (71.7%) .609" 6 water jugs
250 gr Speer G.S. 2642 fps, 201.2 gr (80.5%) .661" 7 water jugs
225 gr Barnes TSX 2661 fps. 224.9 gr (100%) .736" 7 water jugs

Click to expand...

Gerry, thanks again for posting all of those pictures. You really got my wheels turning and I imagine Mike's are spinning at twice the speed as well! That 225gr AB looks really good. I haven't shot one out of my Whelen, but man, looking at that, I need to give it a try. Thanks for the time to post all of those. Scotty

Thanks for posting your pics Scotty, any of the Nosler bullets will work very well along with the Trophy Bonded and the Barnes TSX. The TSX sure performed well on your bear smashing a lot of bone, the last moose I shot was with my Whelen and the 225 gr TSX it worked very well. I haven't shot any game with the AccuBond load, I would have this spring but I opted to use my 375 Ruger 260 gr AccuBond load instead since the gun needed it's first kill.

I recently pulled all of my loaded TSX rounds. Just don't see the need for them being as I am doing 2600+ with the 250gr PT and since I can buy them as 2nds a few times a year, they are much cheaper to me. Plus, the PT's shoot just a touch better. This takes nothing away from the TSX though for performance. They also zipped through a quartering to bull elk at 150 yards and left him dead FAST. This was the first time I saw the effect of a larger diameter bullet taking the fight outta an elk, immediately!. It changed my way of thinking about elk. The TSX did well. The PT does have a bit better BC as well and I think they would open up a little easier on a longer shot, that is just my thinking though. They did run mid 2700's in my rifle, so they weren't slow by any stretch.

I believe I am going to hunt moose next year, so the Whelen with 250's and the 45-70 with 300gr PT's will be going. Can't think of two better moose rifles.

Again, that AB looks like it should be a perfect bullet weight for anything you would hunt with the Whelen. Seems like Nosler hit a homerun with that bullet. Might give them a whirl the next time I see some for sale. I would think I could get them into the 2700's pretty easily and man, look out 30-06's! Scotty

Left is a 250gr Hornady Spirepoint@2825fps fired from a 358 Norma Mag, retained weight 140 gr.
Right is a 40 cal Speer 180gr Gold dot. It's my daily carry load retained weight 178 grains.

Whoa, those look pretty good Randy! That GD is a very impressive bullet. Hornady doesn't look too darned bad either! Scotty

That 180 looks like the one I shot through three milk jugs with my G35 40cal.

velvetant

Those both look good!

JD338