Recovered bullets from newspaper

[remingtonman_25_06]

I shot 5 different bullets into wet newspaper yesterday at 50 yards. It was a tough test, I didn't let the paper soak enough. THe bullets were as follows 250g sgk out of a 338 WM. 165g scirocco out of my 300 RUM, 140g AB, 140g sgk, and 150g btip all out of my .270. The scirocco did poorly I thought, and the sierras of course lost there inner core, no surprise there. The AB help up considerably well, as did the 150g btip (surprisingly). Usually the btips lose there inner core just like the sierras. Here is the pic.
From left to right, 140g sgk, 140g ab, 150g btip, 165g scir, 250g sgk.

 

[budlight]

I have a friend who has a large 40 + year old collection of recovered bullets. All in nice cases with a little written story behind each one. People send him bullets.

I've shot bullets into local fine dry sand embankments and near duplicated recovered bullets. Of coarse other than major bone strikes.

I'm also a firm believer in Barnes bullets. I just wish that they would sell heavier boat tail bullets for each caliber.

Hey, at least your out there testing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Buffalobob]

I told you so. That newspaper is hard to get wet.

While you can still remember. Record what was the penetration depths. Secondly, try to remember what you saw when you found the actual bullet. If there is a "dry spot" the bullet will act like a "paper punch" and build up layers of paper in front of it and it is the front paper that is absorbing the damage and the bullet is 30 pages back just pushing a wad of paper through the rest of the newspaper. This obscures the fact that the bulllet is fragile or tough. You simply do not know when the bullet "pushes " paper. Retained weigth becomes meaningless because the newspaper did not provide a realistic simulation of animal tissue reacting to the bullet. If the bullet was not "pushing paper" then you can have a little more confidence in the results but I would shoot at least three of any bullet you are actually considering for a large boned animal so you have an understanding of repeatibility of the bullet behavior.

I apologize for raining on your parade, but there is a lot of "issues" with this kind of testing and you need to understand what you have seen. I have been there , done that, and erred. Just trying to help you not beat you up.

 

[mo]

When shooting into wet newspaper what's a good number of pages to start out with?


moe

 

[älg]

Looks like the accubond was the worst one; he scirocco does not look that bad in the picture.

 

[Buffalobob]

Penetration will be on the order of 12-14 inches with a Nosler partition at high speed.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Well lets see guys, I did not exactly measure penetration, but I do remember roughly how far they went, and in what order they penetrated the farthest. The big 250g sgk penetrated the farthest, probly going around 10". The 165g scirocco was next going about 8". The 150g btip and 140g ab went about 7", and the 140g sgk went about 6". Those are rough estimate numbers. They did not retain all that much weight, those numbers are as follows. The 250g retained 102.5g for 41%. The 165g scirocco retained 100.7g for 61%. The 150g btip retained 63.2g for 42%. The 140g AB retained 75.5g for 54%, and the 140g sgk retained 59.4g for 42%. I guess the sciroco all in all did hold up more weight, but the bullet was flat as a pancake. The 140g AB looks bad in teh picture, but the base of the bullet was not level so in the pic, its crooked, however it only peeled back to the bonded part that it should have. In my opinoni, the AB did the best. The 150g btip was also a surprise to me. The sierras lost there core, and the scirocco was flat as a pancake, even though it did hold up more % weight then any others. All in all, it was a pretty tough test for those bullets. At least it gives one an idea of what your bullets to expect if they hit bone, which is where I like to aim to anchor game on the spot. Thats why I use newspaper, I hear its kinda hard media, and since I like to shoulder shoot animals, I figure it gives me a rough indication of what to expect.

 

[mo]

that was a good test!! thanks for the info. I'm on vaction this week I might try that test with my 300 wsm with a 180 ab and 168 vld


Moe