Suggested Bullet Testing Medium

[Guest]

This off Season, after the Hunting Seasons are done, I want to Test my Nosler bullets and some Barnes Blue Bullets I have left over along with some TSX Bullets out of my 300 Ultra Mag at 100 yds. for Expansion testing purposes. I'm going to test the E-Tip vs. the Barnes TSX also.

Any suggestions? I know about the wet news paper etc. Just looking for what ever you guys used that may be an alternative.

Thanks,
Don

 

[Guy Miner]

I haven't use it, but the bullet test tube looks interesting: http://www.thebullettesttube.com/

Wet newspapers are a good test material, but are a real pain to deal with. Heavy, water-logged newspaper isn't easy to move around or dispose of.

Dry newspapers & magazines are tougher and can be bound together. A mere foot of them will stop a soft-point .375 H&H. If you use magazines & catalogs, it will really stress a bullet and often causes them to completely come apart. Here my .500 makes the .44 look small...

I often use a row of one-gallon plastic milk jugs, filled with water. We seem to have a never ending supply of them at the house, they're essentially free. Easy to transport. Easy to clean up. And they do a good job of catching bullets. Most soft-point hunting rifle bullets end up being caught in the 5th - 6th milk jug. The tougher, deeper penetrating soft point bullets sometimes make it to the 8th jug.

Regards, Guy

 

[Guy Miner]

Remnants of 270 gr Hornady .375 bullets fired into the dry magazines/catalogs bound together - at 20 yards:

Nosler 260 gr AccuBond recovered from the milk jugs, also at 20 yards:

Several hollow point handgun bullets recovered from the milk jugs:

Due to my range setup, it's easiest for me to do my testing at 20 - 40 yards, and I do most of it at 20 yards for consistency. This year I'm going to vary the muzzle velocity more, to simulate hits at longer range. One thing I like about the gallon-jug test is that it's very repeatable. Shooters from California, Florida, Wisconsin, or wherever can duplicate what I do here in Washington, using their own bullets & muzzle velocity if they want to compare results.

I have had some bullets come apart completely when they hit the jugs, with nothing but a few jacket pieces left to recover. Pretty well ruled those out as serious big game bullets.

Regards, Guy

 

[FOTIS]

Great Job Guy!

 

[JD338]

I use water filled milk jugs to test bullets. Its fast and easy but only 1 shot for warer jugs. Wet phone books work well and you can sometimes squeeze in 5 bullets.

JD338

 

[Powerstroke]

I have to say I stole the milk jug idea from one of JD's posts quite sometime ago.

As Guy mentioned - I generally find my tougher bullets in the 5th & 6th in line.

Guy - WOW - great test results !

 

[Powerstroke]

Sorry -
Forgot to mention the dual purpose of the milk jug -

Winter time entertainment once there is snow on the ground. A little bit of red food coloring in the water and they work great for long range targets :lol:
Just make sure you get to your shooting grounds before they freeze.

 

[JD338]

Mark,

You can really hone your long range shooting skills with water bottles. :wink:

JD338

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the input. It gives me time to start collecting some items for testing.

Don

 

[SJB358]

Same here, I have used Water jugs and they seem to be the easiest to clean up. Just bring a large trash bag and they usually all fit right back in! Plus, like Guy mentioned, it is a repeatable test. Scotty