Last week at the range I decided to test a .25 cal./100 grain Nosler BT out of my .25-06 Ackley at around 3600fps. I have a couple of buddies that have shot about two tons (literaly) of Mule Deer and Antelope with this bullet out of the regular .25-06 at around 3350... and have never recovered one. But, I was sceptical considering the added velocity,and the BT gets a pretty bad rap quite often, so I figured I give it a run.
I used two 3" thick Seattle Metro phone books soaked under water for about 3 days, two 2" phone books (also soaked) and two sheets of 5/8" thick OSB plywood. After soaking, each phone book nearly doubled in thickness. The "deer" was constructed using a 18" deep cardboard box. One of the thick phone books was placed in first, followed by one sheet of OSB, then the two smaller books were placed in the box with an empty cereal box between them for some air space, then another sheet of OSB, and the last thick phone book. There was very little compression and I feel the box was a solid representation of a double shoulder shot on a big bodied deer. Also, I've packed out my share of quarters... and let me tell you this box had them all beat!! Total weight of the box was around 45 pounds.
I hauled the box out to the 200 yard range and set it up. After a couple of shots to make sure all was well I gave her rip. The photos show the results.
The bullet was found about 1/3 of the way into the last book after about 15" of penetration. The front book was totally hammered and had about a 7" diameter bruise where the wet paper was massively destroyed. Both pieces of OSB (shoulder bones) had holes in them the size of a Nickel and there were splinters all over in the second two books as well as the back book. Wound channel was very impressive through the 1st three books. The BT expanded to over .45 cal and weighs exactly 58 grains. The core did seperate from the jacket, but only after I removed the bullet from the book. There were tiny pieces of blue plastic from the tip all over in the wound channel, and a few small fragments of jacket and lead. I'm pretty impressed with the performance, and I think this bullet will give ole' Mr. Mule Deer some serious problems should the opportunity arrise. I'm in the process of soaking up some more books so I can run the same test with the 115 Nosler BT and the 110 AccuBond... I'm just looking for some volunteers to haul these bad boys out to the 200 yard mark. ~JT
P.S. The photos are not actual size!!!
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