100 Grain Nosler BT Performance Test

[.25AOD]

Last week at the range I decided to test a .25 cal./100 grain Nosler BT out of my .25-06 Ackley at around 3600fps. I have a couple of buddies that have shot about two tons (literaly) of Mule Deer and Antelope with this bullet out of the regular .25-06 at around 3350... and have never recovered one. But, I was sceptical considering the added velocity,and the BT gets a pretty bad rap quite often, so I figured I give it a run.
I used two 3" thick Seattle Metro phone books soaked under water for about 3 days, two 2" phone books (also soaked) and two sheets of 5/8" thick OSB plywood. After soaking, each phone book nearly doubled in thickness. The "deer" was constructed using a 18" deep cardboard box. One of the thick phone books was placed in first, followed by one sheet of OSB, then the two smaller books were placed in the box with an empty cereal box between them for some air space, then another sheet of OSB, and the last thick phone book. There was very little compression and I feel the box was a solid representation of a double shoulder shot on a big bodied deer. Also, I've packed out my share of quarters... and let me tell you this box had them all beat!! Total weight of the box was around 45 pounds.
I hauled the box out to the 200 yard range and set it up. After a couple of shots to make sure all was well I gave her rip. The photos show the results.

The bullet was found about 1/3 of the way into the last book after about 15" of penetration. The front book was totally hammered and had about a 7" diameter bruise where the wet paper was massively destroyed. Both pieces of OSB (shoulder bones) had holes in them the size of a Nickel and there were splinters all over in the second two books as well as the back book. Wound channel was very impressive through the 1st three books. The BT expanded to over .45 cal and weighs exactly 58 grains. The core did seperate from the jacket, but only after I removed the bullet from the book. There were tiny pieces of blue plastic from the tip all over in the wound channel, and a few small fragments of jacket and lead. I'm pretty impressed with the performance, and I think this bullet will give ole' Mr. Mule Deer some serious problems should the opportunity arrise. I'm in the process of soaking up some more books so I can run the same test with the 115 Nosler BT and the 110 AccuBond... I'm just looking for some volunteers to haul these bad boys out to the 200 yard mark. ~JT
P.S. The photos are not actual size!!!

 

[wildcat]

Awesome test and great read.

Wildcat

 

[Nomosendero]

Great test & thanks for the info! I hope that you have the chance to try the 115BT, I am looking at trying this bullet
in WY. this fall. The Wildcats worked great last time, I just like to try different bullets.

 

[Slopeshunter]

Great test, thanks for sharing the results. Look forward to see the results of further testing.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Thats great! NBT's are usually tougher then most people think...I've run similar tests, but not soaked and I've never had problems with NBTs exiting shoulder shot deer. Granted I've limited experience with the 100g version, but I love the 115g NBT. I"ve killed deer from 50-600 and its alwasy exited for me through shoulders, I feel out of your AI, you might like it a little better.

Thats a very good read and test though, I enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing.

 

[.25AOD]

Yeah Remmy, I knew you'd like those pics.

I like the 115s too, they shoot a little better out of my rifle... but ya gotta love how flat the 100s really shoot. At 3600 I can shoot it .5" high at 100 and it's about .5" low at 200... then the 1st Mil in my Leupold is dead nuts at 400. Makes for nice quick pokes on coyotes even out to 1/4 mile or so. You should take a couple of pictures of the 100 grainer you recovered out of the dirt from that Badger and post'em... I'd love to see how it compares to the one above.

I did a bit of figuring last night... impact velocity of that 100 grainer @ 200yds is right at 3000fps and energy is 2000fpe... not too shaby!! That's like a .257 Roberts at 50 yards! It ain't a big boomer like the .300RUM, but I think it's going to be bad news for any sub 500 pound critter that I draw down on. ~JT

 

[ol mike]

25 aod ,

Nice post as stated !!

I shoot the 100gr nos bt's and your test is reassuring.
Looking forward to the 115 bt and 110 accubond test.
25-06 AI w/a 110gr accubond should make a nice elk/black bear combo.-Mike

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Heres a few pics of 2 100g NBT's. The one on left is a bullet recovered from 800 yards. The one on right is recovered in the dirt bank after exiting a badger from about 75 yards away. The bullet weighed 41g and expanded to .635". The bullet from the bank at 800 yards weighed 49g and expanded to .490"

 

[.25AOD]

If I take the lead out of the one I recovered the jacket weighs 45 grains. I guess it's safe to say that 50% of the weight of this bullet is jacket. It's pretty crazy that the one from 800 yards slipped its core, I wouldn't have expected that. ~JT

 

[wapiti13]

Nosler BT change performance at different calibers & weights based on what I've seen & read. Be sure to test bullet in your specific gun & bullet combo. 7mm and 30 cal bullets don't necessarily perform like 25 cal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[.25AOD]

My experience... and testing indicates that they pretty much do perform just about like the one that started this post. As long as it's a Big Game BT, and it's .30 Cal. or under... they do just about what the one in my test did: Retain about 50% of their weight, and expand to about 180%. The only one I've ever seen recovered from a game animal was a .30/165 fired out of a .300 Win. Mag. at around 3250. Bullet was recovered from a large Black Bear that was shot through both shoulders at 200 yds. It weighed EXACTLY 50% (82.5 grains) and the expanded diam. was about .55 cal. I'll tell you this much... that bear got absolutely flattened!!
Back when I shot a lot of the bigger calibers I tested some of the bigger BTs against the equal weight Partition in a test very similar to the one above. As I recall the result were a bit suprising. The BT didn't penetrate quite as far... but the difference was only about 10%. The weight retention was also about +10% for the Partition. I don't recall, however, shooting them into test media at some of the speed that I see on this board... I had no access to a .338 Edge, or a .300 RUM. Even if I did, you'd have a hard time convincing me to pull the trigger on one of those WMDs!! ~JT

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

The 30 cal, 180g NBT sure is an elk/bear stopper. LIke I've said before, I laod this combo for 4 different guys and they use it on everything from antelope to elk and black bears. Finally found 1 bullet from an elk at 525 yards that was shot through both shoulders. It was about to fall out of the offside hide. The lead core was still intact, but fell out after I was messin with it. Expansion was great as usual, penetration was great considering it was shot through both shoulders. All the others have fully exited.

I've done wet newspaper comparisons with the 180g NBT Vs. 180g factory core lokt. The NBT retained more weight and penetrated a couple inches farther then the core lokt. They were both pretty much flattened to a pancake, although range was either 50 or 100 yards for this testing, cant remember it was so long ago. I still have both bullets though and can take pics and show them if anyones interested.

My point is this. Look how well the 180g core lokt has killed deer and elk. Thats all my uncle and his buddy use to use out of there 300 WM's. I couldn't get them to switch to a different bullet for nothing. Untill I showed him what a varmint bullet that 180g core lokt was!! If the 180g NBT is holding up better, why cant that bullet be used on elk?? I dont get it one bit how guys can say they wont even use them on deer. Beats the hell out of me.

I"m not saying the NBT is the best bullet for super high velocity cartridges, but for your standard and regular magnum cartridges, the heavier for caliber NBT's sure do work.

 

[Fotis]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats great! NBT's are usually tougher then most people think...I've run similar tests, but not soaked and I've never had problems with NBTs exiting shoulder shot deer. Granted I've limited experience with the 100g version, but I love the 115g NBT. I"ve killed deer from 50-600 and its alwasy exited for me through shoulders, I feel out of your AI, you might like it a little better.

Thats a very good read and test though, I enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree! Thanx for the test!