Performance of 6.5 SS and 140gr Cutting Edge bullets.

Very good documentation Rhian! Too bad you couldn't have found the bullet but I think the banana bullet theory is likely correct. That is about the only way it would turn that angle as well.......Rich
 
Nice bull Rhian, congrats. Good thing you didnt ruin any backstraps with that neck shot. :D

I'm not entirely sure about the CE bullet but I know this rifle and load go where I dial, this is the second shot on animals I've taken with this rig, the first was a coyote that would not come in to the caller so I whacked him at 786 yards.
You probably just jinxed me and I'll blow a hole through the back straps on my cow, at least I'll have you to blame :D
 
Lol, i hope that goes through your head before you press the bang button, "Dont spine her, dont spine her, i will never hear the end of it" :D
 
Rhian,

I seem to have something to say about every thing. :rolleyes: That bullet performance is no exception.:)

Bit of history.

Many moons ago went hunting with some traditional muzzle loader fellas. Both had hand made "long rifles" Kentucky type. One was a 58 cal. Bruised the hell out of every one's shoulder that shot it. Even just once. Mine included.

He thumped a nice muley buck at a bit over 200 yes. Hit it in the neck. That big 58 cal round ball killed the buck deader than a door nail. DRT as we say.

It didn't break the neck. If fact, it didn't break any bone at all. It simply conformed to the curvature of the neck bone. Pure lead is pretty soft stuff. I think softness of the projectile is key but so is hardness.

Next experience is with those HAT bullets from awhile ago. They had very large Aluminum tips with is very long and large diameter shank that set deeply into the 252 grain 338 bullet.

Every one I did terminal testing on followed to some extent the alum tip as it bent instead of coming straight back into the core and opening the jacket. I also "think" the jackets were quite hard.

Thus the tip started to go a direction, the rest of the bullet followed it through the media resulting in a very non-straight wound channel and a banana bullet at it's final resting place.

I'm thinking your bullet followed suit. The petals begin to open and peel off after several inches of penetration. I think about 4" is what I observed in the gel videos I watched.

In your case there wasn't 4" of flesh, or enough flesh for the petals to begin to open. If being made to open make them "softer" than the rest of the bullet, that bullet simply ricocheted off of the vertebrae and took an easier path. Which in this case worked just fine.

I feel that if you would have hit a shoulder blade or rib perpendicular you would have seen a bullet function as design.

You may wish to consider a bit heavier bullet. Ever hear of a 375 SS?:D:D

I have been doing some very serious study and evaluation of which CE offering for the 375 AM. Trajectory wise, from 330 to 400 grains there is marginal differences. All have sufficient energy to 2900 yards to kill something. :rolleyes: Thus, it seems, the ability to make POA and POI the same is the deciding factor.

You were able to put POI within an inch or so of POA and that was key. Anything that happened after that is just stuff to talk about.

You're doing an exceptional job.!!!

BTW, did that 700+ yard yote die?:D
 
Congrats on a good shot and some tasty meat! I can't wait to see the "lack of bullet evidence" I think you scared him and he fell off a cliff!:D......rich
By the way; don't you know you can't kill an elk with a little cartridge like that!
Of course...We all know that!!! Just like that other member on here didn't kill a giant moose @ 900-something yards with a plain-old 7mm RM... :cool:
 
Of course...We all know that!!! Just like that other member on here didn't kill a giant moose @ 900-something yards with a plain-old 7mm RM... :cool:

Ya know, I don't remember anyone ever saying you couldn't kill and elk with a smaller cal... I do remember some folks including me say that bigger cals do it better... there is a difference...
 
Ya know, I don't remember anyone ever saying you couldn't kill and elk with a smaller cal... I do remember some folks including me say that bigger cals do it better... there is a difference...
Aw, come on man...We're just pokin a little fun about previous made comments from other threads. Honestly, I wasn't even referring to your comments on the subject.

I've read on here so many times, and I've met so many stupid locals in my area that are whitetail deer hunting with .338 Lapuas & RUMs to kill 110 lb does inside of 300 yards, that it makes me sick how stupid some people can be. Just go buy a .308 Win if you never plan on shooting deer beyond 500 yards. And if that's "not enough gun", then you need to give me all of yours and go play in traffic.

Also, that new "bigger is better" caliber trend seems to be making way around these parts pretty prevelantly now, so I've been noticing sort of an influx of stupidity in my area with the local deer hunting populus, judging by plenty of conversations I've been having, now that rifle season is less than a month away. LOL If you hunt out of state for big game, then having something like that is 1 thing, but if you never hunt anything larger than whitetail deer, most people will never need anything larger than a .280 Rem or a 7mm RM at most, because around here people think 500 yardd shots on deer is impressive (I don't think it's all that impressive, but it's applaudable for folks in my area).
 
I've read on here so many times, and I've met so many stupid locals in my area that are whitetail deer hunting with .338 Lapuas & RUMs to kill 110 lb does inside of 300 yards, that it makes me sick how stupid some people can be.

That must be driving you crazy! LOL :D

Hey, if a guy wants to shoot a little whitetail doe with a 338 LM, why not? At least he will be ready for the zombie apocalypse :D

It's all good Mud, back to the thread now :)
 
That must be driving you crazy! LOL :D

Hey, if a guy wants to shoot a little whitetail doe with a 338 LM, why not? At least he will be ready for the zombie apocalypse :D

It's all good Mud, back to the thread now :)
Oh trust me, it drives me nuts. There are only 3 reasons why I shoot does. 1) for meat (they taste better than bucks), 2) my club has a 2 doe minimum policy, and 3) because more does are born than bucks in our area, so population control is a necessary part of property management.

My buddy I was talking about before that had bought a .338 LM, put a couple boxes through it and sold it. I should have bet money it, because it happened like clockwork, so no, he's no longer ready for the zombies. :D
 
Congrats on the bull and nice shot Rhian!

Roy, interesting observation.

Rhian, how many inches of flesh to where the bullet struck the vertebra?

Wonder how annealing the CEB's would work?

Very little meat was hit before bone, at max a couple inches, it was a hard hit and I knew it would be but I wanted to see exactly what it would do with that kind of hit, especially after seeing the bullet not open on a 2x6 and a dirt pile at a grand. I do suspect they will open well if I stick one through the ribs which I will but I wanted to get as broad a function test as I could and a hard bone hit like the point of the shoulder or neck is part of that.

I don't think annealing would do anything to these bullets, they are very soft already, you have to be careful with them or you can damage the tips, if you drop a bullet on the concrete while loading them it's toast they are that soft.
 
Very little meat was hit before bone, at max a couple inches, it was a hard hit and I knew it would be but I wanted to see exactly what it would do with that kind of hit, especially after seeing the bullet not open on a 2x6 and a dirt pile at a grand. I do suspect they will open well if I stick one through the ribs which I will but I wanted to get as broad a function test as I could and a hard bone hit like the point of the shoulder or neck is part of that.

I don't think annealing would do anything to these bullets, they are very soft already, you have to be careful with them or you can damage the tips, if you drop a bullet on the concrete while loading them it's toast they are that soft.

Well it was a good test, one that I didn't think of. A mono and a cup and core will certainly act differently in different circumstances. I wonder if there is a way to get them to open a little quicker or act differently on hard surfaces?

Being copper, they would be softer than the guiding metal jacket bullets.
 
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