Weight retention

[RCMSTER]

In another thread, it seemed that my expectation of 90% weight retention was, let's just say, it was either unrealistic, unnecessary,or perhaps just plain idiotic. Perhaps it is all the above, however, below is a pic of a woodleigh 200 grain flat point, designed for the 33 winchester. I shoot this bullet in my 338 marlin lever action, and while it's not technically a long range round, that's not really the point. Muzzle velocity by average is 2315 fps, obtained by 45.3 grains of Norma 203B. It traveled through 6 milk jugs, and stopped in the 7th, so roughly 38 inches of penetration. This woodleigh bullet weighed 200 grains before, and as the pic shows, .2 grains shy of 200 grains after traveling and expanding through approximately 38 inches of water. I also shot a 140 grain speer gold dot into jugs from my 6.5-06 with a muzzle velocity of 2885. It made it to the 4th jug, and weighed 116 grains after the fact. Not quite the 90% I would like, yet pretty close.

 

[HARPERC]

........In another thread, it seemed that my expectation of 90% weight retention was, let's just say, it was either unrealistic, unnecessary,or perhaps just plain idiotic. ........

None of the above. Respectfully, this can be a difficult medium to communicate in, better than half of of human communication being tone, body language etc. I'll give it a shot.

1) That's a perfectly useable bullet.
2) What's the wound channel it produces look like? Can it be improved? Is it consistent?

In that rifle cartridge combo-lets make it 100% retained weight, with no change in form. Would that good wide meplat produce a larger wound channel? Longer is a pretty solid bet. Wider, gets a little tougher, but I'm coming to believe a good wide meplat due to maintaining it's velocity through the target, does indeed leave a bigger permanent wound channel than the classic mushroom.

3) Is it necessary? Up to the individual.

We used a .375 Winchester a bit, those 250 flat nose bullets at modest velocities do in fact kill game. Same with hard cast, or jacketed Keith style projectiles.

I'm coming to believe the nose of the bullet serves only the purpose of helping us in the exterior ballistics portion of the game. Shed the nose as early as possible, and let the rest of the bullet work.

How much do we shed? Maintaining 75% is likely pretty good, as long as the desired shape is maintained. I'll go 50% for what we're talking about, provided I'm able to increase the base bullet weight, and retain a similar shank, from a cartridge keeping impact velocity up.

Any disrespect is my lack of skills in this type of forum.

 

[mwkelso]

Mine vary in the rare occasion I get to recover them from an animal.
Sometimes I have 80%+, others I am lucky to have 50%.
I can't speak to exactly why, but I believe that it has to do with range, velocity, tissue density, bone impact, and bullet construction.
I have noticed that mono's seem to retain better than cup and core.
Just my opinion. I don't think that retention couldn't be achieved under the right circumstances. But all circumstances vary...