XP3 vs. BT vs. AB

[300WSM]

Has anyone had any experience with the XP3 bullet? It is only available as factory loaded only and I'm not sure if Win makes this bullet in house or not but was curious as to actual real world performance.

Also how does it perform and compare to our beloved ballistic tips and AccuBond?

Essentially I'm curious about the terminal performance


Thanks

P.S.
This may have been discussed on this forum but I can't get the search feature to work right.

 

[SJB358]

Great question. Looks like an upgraded Fail Safe to me. I have never heard of a field report though.

 

[300WSM]

Just a bump.

 

[SJB358]

Wished I had more intel for you but since you can't get them as components I don't hear much about them. Are you going to try them in your WSM?

 

[billbam]

I shot a big cow 2 years ago in Colorado with the XP3's and hit her on the run further back than I wanted, breaking her hips. Followup shot was where the first one should have been. Did not recover any bullets. This was with 300Wm 180 's. I think they are closer to the Fail Safes than the AB. I read that some had issues with accuracy but they shot pretty good for me. I also used them 2 years prior to that and shot a muley quartering away and he just folded up, complete pass through. I think they listed muzzle velocity at 3,000 fps with them

 

[jmad_81]

I have always liked the looks of the xp3. But they are not available to the reloading public so have never tried them. They look pretty dang stout! There is a pretty big difference in bullet construction in the three bullets you listed. I know the nosler webpage has some good info on the AB and BT. I would guess winchester would have something on the xp3 on theirs.

 

[300WSM]

Wished I had more intel for you but since you can't get them as components I don't hear much about them. Are you going to try them in your WSM?

I prefer 180 gr bullets in any 30 cal magnum and if I could get them in component form I would give them a try as I'm sure others would as well.

The terminal picture they promote does in fact look pretty "darn stout" as someone said and combined with a .527 coefficient number which is higher than any other poly tip bullets 30 cal 180 gr....... atleast that I can find.

30 cal 200gr has a higher COE but again I prefer 180 gr for a 30 cal magnum.

Another reason why I asked on the real world performance because the actual fail safe bullet in which it does seem somewhat simlar....was not a good all around bullet. Of course the photo they promoted on the fail safe was impressive but......it might have been great on heavy game but not very good on deer sized game.
Maybe in the end the COE number is just that on these and they don't shoot that great due to a potential number of reasons or they don't perform well on ALL bigger game.

 

[300WSM]

The more I look at the Win lineup of bullets I don't see much of the fail safe bullet in the XP3 other than it being black.

I do however see a fail safe bullet in the power core. It isn't black and there are some weights that are NOT duplicates of the fail safe but that thing sure looks fail safe to me.