Apex outdoors afterburners performance

[NorthRiverGuide]

I apologize, NRG.

Thank you for apologizing. I'm a busy guy with work and getting ready for my elk hunt. He did put a very good post together and I'm grateful to him. That was a lot of information and very detailed and after reading it I had to go for work and said thanks. With the full intention of coming back and continuing the conversation. I can definitely appreciate that you were looking out for him and his hard work. It definitely deserves to be appreciated. Now I have to hit the rack as it's going to be a early morning and very long day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to pop back on and get into this conversation more.

 

[mcdil]

I am doing my best to visualize your explanation; I think the rotary mag limits me to 2.6", which might preclude the Afterburner due to geometry of the short neck coupled with the short COAL? I was looking at twist rates and had not appreciated the limitations imposed by the 99
The Haymaker's 7/8ths length had got my attention, but twist rate may get me. One solution; I'll get a box, and if they don't stabilize I'll just use them in a 300blk or my favorite 16" .308

Thank you!

I know a picture is worth a thousand words. This will explain the basic case contact geometry of the Afterburner. The case, by design, touches the bullet at two points, three if you jam the bullet in deep and have a neck long enough to still hold the rear case alignment boss. Our projection length is based from the upper portion of the crimp groove as the trace line indicates, so if you seat the bullet out of the case more, you typically have an additional .030" - .040" before the front case alignment boss loses contact with the top of the case. This will allow the rear case alignment boss to contact your short neck in your case, and yes, @yorke-1 I did cringe, lol.

 

[mcdil]

This is great stuff. I'd love to hear reports on the 6.5 & .277 bullets if anyone has experience with them (I realize the broader public probably has not gotten their hands on them, given that they are marked as "coming soon" on the website).

The 6.5mm, .277, and 7mm are all available as of now.

 

[mcdil]

Another tidbit on some unorthodox, tough cattle performance over this weekend with the 144gr at a muzzle velocity of 3350 fps. Three times through the skin total with some in and out bone hits along the way and deep penetration. In typical fashion, I'll post the commentary that accompanied the picture.

"This one at 130 yds went in under her eye, flew out the back of her head and went inside her shoulder then into her guts. It was stuck inside her stomach so I didn't want to search the sea of green for the base lol

You can see the damage it made with pcs of brain inside the neck meat"

 

[Petey308]

Another tidbit on some unorthodox, tough cattle performance over this weekend with the 144gr at a muzzle velocity of 3350 fps. Three times through the skin total with some in and out bone hits along the way and deep penetration. In typical fashion, I'll post the commentary that accompanied the picture.

"This one at 130 yds went in under her eye, flew out the back of her head and went inside her shoulder then into her guts. It was stuck inside her stomach so I didn't want to search the sea of green for the base lol

You can see the damage it made with pcs of brain inside the neck meat"

View attachment 404237

Brutal! Plenty of damage and penetration though!

 

[mcdil]

While I was away out of state hunting, the cattle continue to fall to the 144gr 30 cal Afterburner. Most have been head shots since the last post, but terminal performance has been much the same as prior posts. The below video is a bit interesting due to the shot angle and really demonstrates the devastating blend of penetration and trauma the Afterburner can achieve, even under some tough circumstances. Customer dialog in quotations as always.

"I got three last weekend. All head shots but one blew a 2" hole in her ear, followed her spine and came out half way down her back destroying her spine and part of a rib. Even though it was at 100 yds it was crazy!!"

 

[TheSouthpaw]

It would be great to see some terminal reports at more pedestrian impact velocities, say 6.5cm at distance. The light 102 is a compelling lead-free option on paper with the CM, but it would be good to see some first hand accounts on big game at ~ 2k fps impacts or less.

 

[mcdil]

It would be great to see some terminal reports at more pedestrian impact velocities, say 6.5cm at distance. The light 102 is a compelling lead-free option on paper with the CM, but it would be good to see some first hand accounts on big game at ~ 2k fps impacts or less.

I agree! We've done quite a bit of that in gel and wet newsprint successfully, but it's on game performance that we're interested in now. Some of the previous reports on cattle with the 144gr were at ~500 yards or so, and the bear was over that a bit, but those impact velocities were still over the values you're looking for. That's the best we have for low velocity results on real flesh so far, and in all three longer distance scenarios, results were excellent. Part of the allure of the Afterburner is it just doesn't lose velocity that much for its weight class due to its very high BC. It punches pretty hard at longer ranges. It's going to be difficult to get shots at those reduced velocities, lol. In time, no doubt. We should see some 6.5mm performance results popping up relatively soon.

 

[264MHC]

Interested in the 6.5 Results as well. Could be a good option for my 12.7" Grendel SBR. What is the distance between the alignment bosses on the 102? The Grendel at trim length has about .230" of neck to work with. Just like to know if there will be much wiggle room on seating depth. Based on the projection length on the website, this bullet would have to be seated at or very close to lining up the projection length measuring point with the case mouth to fit in an AR Mag. From the info above, the alignment bosses would have to be .190" apart or less to make contact in the neck at that seating depth.