recovered bullets from newspaper

remingtonman_25_06

Handloader
Nov 17, 2005
2,807
402
I shot these 5 bullets into newspaper placed at 50 yards. Usually I soak the paper longer, but I was in a hurry. The test was kinda tough on these bullets. From left to right is the 140g sgk, 140g AB, 150g btip, all out of my 270. The 4th bullet is a 165g scirocco out of my 300 RUM, the last is a 250g sgk out of a 338 WM. The sierras of course lost there inner lead core and all your stuch with is a jacket cup basically. The sciroco did not hold up as well I thought it would. The 140g ab and 150g btip help up pretty good. I was surprised at the 150g btip, usually they shed there inner core as well, just like the sierras. I assume the heavy weight of the 150g and its construction helps it greatly in aiding blow up expansion so commonly thought of with btips.

rkzed0.jpg
 
Rem Man,

Thanks for sharing your test data.
How much penetration did those bullets give you?

JD338
 
Rem man:

Firing bullets into semi-dry newspaper is a brutal test. Having said that, there is not one bullet there that I would say performed adequately. I've recovered Partitions from the sand bank backstop at my rod and gun club that looked better than those. That 's why they're all I load. Like JD338 said, how about penetration. That is, after all, the bottom line.
 
Well lets see guys, I did not exactly measure penetration, but I do remember roughly how far they went, and in what order they penetrated the farthest. The big 250g sgk penetrated the farthest, probly going around 10". The 165g scirocco was next going about 8". The 150g btip and 140g ab went about 7", and the 140g sgk went about 6". Those are rough estimate numbers. They did not retain all that much weight, those numbers are as follows. The 250g retained 102.5g for 41%. The 165g scirocco retained 100.7g for 61%. The 150g btip retained 63.2g for 42%. The 140g AB retained 75.5g for 54%, and the 140g sgk retained 59.4g for 42%. I guess the sciroco all in all did hold up more weight, but the bullet was flat as a pancake. The 140g AB looks bad in teh picture, but the base of the bullet was not level so in the pic, its crooked, however it only peeled back to the bonded part that it should have. In my opinoni, the AB did the best. The 150g btip was also a surprise to me. The sierras lost there core, and the scirocco was flat as a pancake, even though it did hold up more % weight then any others. All in all, it was a pretty tough test for those bullets. At least it gives one an idea of what your bullets to expect if they hit bone, which is where I like to aim to anchor game on the spot. Thats why I use newspaper, I hear its kinda hard media, and since I like to shoulder shoot animals, I figure it gives me a rough indication of what to expect.
 
Dry newspaper is almost equivelant to shooting bone...not flesh.
 
Rem Man,

Try shooting into 7-8 gallon milk jugs filled with water and put in a single like on a 2x12 plank. You will recover most of those bullets in jug 6 or 7 and the bullets will not be caked with paper. Water is actually a brutal test media for bullets.

JD338
 
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