Copper Bullets?

[Confederate marksman]

Hey Yall,

Anybody have any experience with Hornady GMX or Nosler E tip bullets?
With the ammo shortage going on I had a heck of a time finding any 165.gr ammo for my new .308.
Luckily I ran across a box of Hornadys "Outfitter" line of ammo in the grain weight I wanted. The box I bought were loaded with their GMX bullet. I've never hunted with a Copper bullet and have heard some good things about it. I wanted to see if anybody could give a first hand account of using monolithic rounds on deer & elk. Thanks for your input.

 

[Andrew Massi]

They work great
If you were shooting 165gr lead bullets normally youd drop down to say a 150gr mono.
The monos need velocity to expand so keep that in mind

 

[ButterBean]

I love Mono's, Take a look at the Hammer's

 

[Rich Coyle]

My quickest kill on elk was with a 7mm 130 grain copper bullet.

 

[budlight]

I have great faith in the Barnes X bullets. I have not tried GMX bullet. 30 years ago I bought 405 gr Barnes X and shot them into a soft sand embankment at various ranges to check expansion before a safari. After digging them up 100, 200, 300, 400 yards. they all made the same size X, But the the bullet was longer as the distance went up.

A picture is worth 1000 words. I kept this in my desk. left 62 gr .224 and right 405 grain Barnes X shot out of my 26 inch 458 win mag 400 yards into slightly angled damp sand bank. They take out any plains game including lions. I went mule deer depredation hunt in a farmers field to show my friend what it can do. classic side heart lung at 185 yards blows the deer sideways and @ 8 inch exit hole

I've used solid copper bullets in .277 and 300 win mag and never recovered one. All DRT blow throughs

 

[Weisguy617]

Mono copper bullets a quickly rising trend, especially with the more and more lathe turned options like cutting edge, hammers, badlands, acme. Most of the designs are pretty light weight compared to what your probably ready shooting but that is to maximize the velocity needed for the best and reliable expansion/pedaling

 

[budlight]

Here is some interesting information! Must be 2000 fps to mushroom The other thing is that I ran the GMX .447 BC through the Hornady Ballistic calculator with 2800 fps starting at the muzzle. I have 24 inch 308's and they aren't a power house for speed I use CFE 223 for powder and chrono testing good groups in my 10:1 twist are right at 2800 fps. So at 1000 feet altitude you go under the magic 2000 fps at just over 400 yards

+https://www.chuckhawks.com/hornady_GMX_bullets.htm

 

[Deleted member 107796]

I shoot 130gn GMX out of my 270wsm and 150gn GMX out of my 308 for pronghorn. I load a 130gn GMX for my wife's Ruger 270 and she kills everything from pronghorn to elk with it. About 2x expansion as shown for the Barnes above with very little loss of mass and very easy to dial in a load for.

 

[Battering Ram]

Copper bullets are good to go. Like Massi said they open with speed. You can go lighter and get pass through penetration with them. I've included two pictures of recovered bullets. Both are 30 cal. The first one is an 06 at about two hundred yards. The second is a RUM at 760 yards.

 

[amyjune]

I use Barnes TSX in my .270 Win, .308, .300 WinMag and .338 Lapua. Consistently good results.

 

[azarcher10x]

I've shot Barnes for years. Awesome performance every time, except once. Used a 168 TTSX on an elk, shot from an '06, and it didn't perform @ 500 yards. Turns out, it was from one of the very first batches they made, and they were designed for the magnums. They changed them after that. I shoot them exclusively out of my 300 RUM. Last years elk in CO was 600 yards. DRT.

 

[nicholasjohn]

Hey Yall,

Anybody have any experience with Hornady GMX or Nosler E tip bullets?
With the ammo shortage going on I had a heck of a time finding any 165.gr ammo for my new .308.
Luckily I ran across a box of Hornadys "Outfitter" line of ammo in the grain weight I wanted. The box I bought were loaded with their GMX bullet. I've never hunted with a Copper bullet and have heard some good things about it. I wanted to see if anybody could give a first hand account of using monolithic rounds on deer & elk. Thanks for your input.

I have used that bullet in their 30-06 Superformance load, and I like it. I have only shot a couple of deer with it, both at fairly close range. These were average-sized blacktails that I had rattled in, so both were frontal chest shots. Both bullets exited, and neither exit wound was very big. One exited just behind the last rib; the other exit hole was right next to the animal's anus. The hearts of both deer were detached from the blood vessels, but not blown up. There was plenty of damage to the lungs, but it was not extreme - definitely not the lung soup that guys often talk about. These bullets are not dramatic expanders, but they seem to expand enough. There was not a lot of blood-shot meat around the entry wounds, and the ribs were broken but not exploded. I have no idea what these bullets would do at long range, having never tried them beyond about 75 yards. Everyone here suggests going lighter in weight, which might not be a bad idea. In the 308, the 165's aren't going to be going very fast, but the 150's should be cruising about as fast as the 165's do in the '06. I would say that for deer, the 165 is definitely more than we need - that's probably the elk bullet in this design for 30 caliber cartridges. I think they also load a 180-grain GMX if you prefer for the bigger animals, but I would try the 165's first, provided they shoot well in your rifle. I'm curious to see how they behave on bigger animals, and when they hit bones. I already know that they will fully penetrate deer the long way.

 

[Alibiiv]

Hey Yall,

Anybody have any experience with Hornady GMX or Nosler E tip bullets?
With the ammo shortage going on I had a heck of a time finding any 165.gr ammo for my new .308.
Luckily I ran across a box of Hornadys "Outfitter" line of ammo in the grain weight I wanted. The box I bought were loaded with their GMX bullet. I've never hunted with a Copper bullet and have heard some good things about it. I wanted to see if anybody could give a first hand account of using monolithic rounds on deer & elk. Thanks for your input.

I use nothing but Barnes bullets, have nothing but good things to say about them. They go in with a large entry hole, and exit with even a larger one. I've shot quite a few black bear with them, close range, with great performance. Right now Midway USA has .30 caliber bullets both the TTSX and the TSX hollow points in stock. I used the 180gr TSX to take a bear out of my 30-06, again same results with large entry hole and larger exit hole. On this year's hunt I hunted with Barnes 300 gr TSX FB hollow point bullet out of the 45-70. Due to the size of the hole for the hollow point and the close range that I was shooting that the bullet might blow up without any penetration. That totally was not the case, the bullet performed flawlessly. See the attachments (1) is from the bear that is my profile photo from the 35 Whelen in TSX, (2) is from the 45-70 on this year's hunt, note the size of my hand in the second photo.

 

[Confederate marksman]

Here is some interesting information! Must be 2000 fps to mushroom The other thing is that I ran the GMX .447 BC through the Hornady Ballistic calculator with 2800 fps starting at the muzzle. I have 24 inch 308's and they aren't a power house for speed I use CFE 223 for powder and chrono testing good groups in my 10:1 twist are right at 2800 fps. So at 1000 feet altitude you go under the magic 2000 fps at just over 400 yards

+https://www.chuckhawks.com/hornady_GMX_bullets.htm

Man! Thats food for thought right there!