Long Range Bullets and Terminal Performance

[jwp475]

Originally Posted by uncleB

A lot of times they wont expand at all !!!!!!!!
UB

I keep hearing that, between myself and some guy's that I hunt with and about 50 or so head of game downed have yet to see anything but massive internal damage. Even on the Antelope I killed at 777 yards, I know that distance is not in your league, but with all due respect out to 777 yards they have performed outstandingly on game.

For ranges exceeding 1K I have chosen a different bullet for sure and for certain but, most of the new guys on this forum will find 700 yards to be a long distance.
UncleB you, gg, Kirby, Shawn and others are light years ahead of most on this or any other site with regard to the distances that you have taken game. Keep the impact velocity at 1800FPS or more and I have never seen anything but, superb performance from the TSX.

[jwp475]

Originally Posted by Blacktail

When i first started messing with them in the STW quite a few guys mentioned the pedals were falling off an pinholing stuff. Havent seen it personally but just what i heard.

So what if a pedal flys off? Lead flys off all the time, how is a secondary missile a bad thing?
GS Custom from South Africa makes all copper bullets as well and they advocate shooting them fast enough to blow the pedals off and create more internal damage.

[MontanaRifleman]

It's been an interesting discussion. I'm still leaning toward the 180 gr E-Tip in my 300 WSM. I'll probably be able to give them a good test with antelope this fall if I can get my capabilities up to 700-800 yds.

From what I've seen and heard the TSX's hold together very well except up to extreme velociteis. A Nosler E-tip add shows an some E-Tips next to TSX's shot at 3200 fps terminal and 1800 fps terminal. The TSX at 3200 fps, lost all it's pedals while the E-Tip held together. And the TSX at 1800 fps showed almost no expansion while the E-Tip showed some. I also saw another experiment where a TSX penetrated about 50% farther than an E-Tip through some phone books.

The Accubonds are good bullets but I'm thinking that *maybe* the E-Tips will have a little edge over them ballistically and accuracy.

Bergers are great bullets, but I don't like their explosive nature at high velociteis for the closer shots, and because of their long narrow design, may not be real practical for a WSM?

It will be interesting to see how all this unfolds, really looking forward to making some long shots as I develop the ability.

[MontanaRifleman]

GG, If you don't mind me asking, what was your MV for this bullet and what do you calculate the velocity @ 1300 yds was? And did the bullet expand? What damage did it do? Did it exit?

Thanks,

Mark

[jwp475]

Oh yea, it exited and drop that big Bull on the spot.

[edge]

IMO, the Accubond is the best thing since sliced bread....at all but long long range, and then only since there may be better BC choices!

First ballistic tips open very easily so you will get expansion at all but ridiculously low velocities;
and secondly they hold together very well.

I have a custom smokeless 45 caliber muzzleloader and I shoot 30 caliber 150 grain accubonds in excess of 3100 fps. I discharge my rifle after every hunt.
Last year I shot at a tree and the Accubond went through it, but as luck would have it it centered a second tree about 5 yards further on and I had my portable sawzall with me. The first tree was 47 yards and about 6 inches across. Impact velocity was probably about 2950 to 3000 fps.
I did nick the bullet cutting it out of the tree, but it weighed 107 grains or 71% of its weight, a bit over 1/2 inch across, and a near perfect bonded mushroom!

The only thing I had for size comparison was an old can of obsolete powder.







edge.

[goodgrouper]

Originally Posted by MontanaRifleman

GG, If you don't mind me asking, what was your MV for this bullet and what do you calculate the velocity @ 1300 yds was? And did the bullet expand? What damage did it do? Did it exit?

Thanks,

Mark

Here's the story:
Bull elk @1302 yards....

The bullet left my gun at a tad over 3300 fps. I don't have my ballistics program handy to calculate what the velo was on impact but it was good. Yes, the damage was great and the expansion was superb. We never found a mushroom but we could have easily missed it somewhere in all the mess. It was very difficult to bone out this elk as the area where it died was a steep, small, aspen grove and only one person at a time could get in there to cut.