High velocity bullet impact test

[bigngreen]

bigngreen, Your results with Barnes bullets, though a different caliber vary greatly from our brief (18 years) of experiences. From Fox to moose, we've only recovered one bullet (1992). The bullet recovered was the old, original Barnes X Bullet. This bullet went full length (approx. 5 feet of elk) end to end though a mature ( not huge ) bull elk. The shot was at approximately 100 yards, impact velocity approx 2600 to 2700 fps, the bullet route consisted of three hide penetrations, a shattered pelvis, fully penetrating a gut area of compacted feed, through the diaphragm, through the lung, exiting the foreleg arm pit, reentered the upper leg, missing the bone but fully penetrating the large upper leg muscle, with the bullet found beneath the offside hide. The bullet, had one (1) petal broken off. All in all, pretty respectable performance from any bullet. Since that elk, we've taken, moose, bears, elk, sheep, deer and antelope, and have "yet" to recover a bullet from one of the deceased animals! In my opinion.....far fromm a bullet failure, due to "lack" of penetration! Merely data points from almost 20 years of hunting experiences by myself and my wife! memtb

What cal and bullet?
I have no doubt some have awesome luck with them, I have buddies who do well with them, I'm not one of them, a good many guys I know have had the same issues. I didn't even know that there was a way to make one fail till I shot elk out in the open, in the trees you fire and loose sight, go and see what happened and end up following small drops of blood till it just runs out and they get on a south face and you have nothing to follow and their lost without knowing really what happened, I now know I probably lost elk because of bullet not penetrating the shoulders, I had been shooting them in the shoulder because I was getting small wound channels with lung hits and a lot of running so I started breaking them down, which was all the rage at the time.
Once I took this to the open fields when you don't loose sight of them and see exactly what happened it was eye opening, having multiple shoulder shots with 165's and 168's not get into the chest, a guy just can't keep doing it because of a name on the box.
I still did it two years, then I decided I had to fix it or I was done hunting cause I wasn't going to do that anymore!
Actually switched out and went down in cal to a 270 and loaded Accubonds and Bergers, I actually loaded the Berger for target practice and might shoot an elk with them, by the end of that season I was shooting all Bergers, it was unreal the change!! I didn't have to shoot anything in the shoulder, one round in the lungs and they stagger a few steps and roll over. I was helping in a cull hunt and that gun sometimes would have 4-5 guys a day use it since I could dial it on the longer shot in the fields. As soon and my family and buddies saw me just rolling elk every shot soon every one was loading Bergers, I don't know of one who has contemplated going back.
You gotta shoot what's best for ya, I've had my best results with the Berger after shooting a LOT of Barnes into game, someone may have the opposite results, all it proves is there isn't one bullet every one will have awesome success, the cals and chambering we shoot and range all influence this and make it variable for everyone.

 

[memtb]

I have only one dedicated hunting rifle for all hunting, except varmint, and it gets used occasionally for that....good practice. A .375 AI. I was using the original X bullet, as I was disappointed with the penetration of the cup and core Bullets of the time. Had not the Barnes come out....and a friend of mine and Randy Brooks did extensive testing on deer with lightweight Bullets in a 6 MM on many mule deer ( extra permits were readily available at the time), I may have never tried them, and would have gone to the Partition. The aforementioned elk was my first with the Barnes, I considered it a complete success, achieving my desires for massive penetration, with minimal weight loss. If my memory serves me correctly, after loosing one petal, the residual weight was 257 grains. I choose "not" to go light for caliber Bullets as promoted, preferring to stay with bullets of weights considered conventional in cup and core circles. I rarely get "bang flops", as a I rarely spine shoot....but no animals have gone far or are hard to track. The "only" animal we (wife and I ) have shot, that left a minimal blood trail ( near nothing for approx 30 to 40 yards) was with a very low chest shot on her antelope, from her .338 WM with 225 TTSX. Had it been a Whitetail in heavy cover, it would have require a bit of aggressive searching for blood trail. Antelope only went another 50 or so yards beyond the blood trail origin. Several years ago, I took a mule deer buck, center mass, behind shoulder ( lungs), leaving a 6 to 8 feet of blood spray pattered across the snow....the deer went less than ten feet. The bullet was again, the 270 grain Barnes. They've simple been so good for us, I can't imagine changing! memtb

 

[Raudy707]

@bigngreen I do have a question I'd like your experience and point of view on:
It's no secret you are a huge advocate for Berger bullets and not a big fan, ha to say the least of Nosler or Barnes... but I have seen you also mention that certain weight bullets even in the Berger's have not performed well. I ask because my 280 AI shoots the 168 grain VLD H in a disgusting 0.313 5 shot group at 100 and I've always thought about trying them on elk but have my reservations. You also mentioned the 185 in 30 cal don't do well compared to the 210. Sounds like the the 210 is an elk killing hammer! What grain bullet in .284 would you recommmend a guy use if he's going after elk? Would the 175 or 180 be better? Right now as I mentioned I have been using the 168 grain ABLR and they are impressing me with their results albeit I have a small pool sample of 2 mule deer and one elk and nothing under 200 yards. They are under 0.5 MOA and 2920 fps vs 3030 with the 168 Berger. Negligible difference really. When you have a minute if you don't mind sharing, expand on the Berger weight bullets you have had good and bad luck with on elk please. Thanks!