Badlands Precision Bullets thread - From BC to terminal ballistics

[pheerles]

Received the 240gr SBDs today. Any concerns with seating these too deep? How about the amount of jump?

Seating to the lands nets a 4.018" COAL.
Seating to Magazine length (3.73") would result in .288" of jump.

Massive jump, or single load only? Might just need to test this crazy jump.

Anybody's thoughts are very welcome.

Pic for reference of bullets inserted to 3.73" COAL.

 

[Hespco]

In the two 6.5 rifles I tried them in they shot great. At least a solid .050 jump .....

Three shoots at102 yds. 260 Rem , 125 gr Badlands.Shot right on the money out to my 424 yd target. Great.

 

[codyadams]

I would try them with the jump and see what happens. When I did a seating depth test, there really wasn't much variance from .015 out to laround .100", but I didn't go out as far as you have to. Try em and see I guess....

 

[codyadams]

More to add!

Had my Wife try her hand with my .338, she did quite well! We spotted a group of goats out in the field, and my 7 year old son, my wife and I got to a well hidden spot and prepared for the shot. We picked out a large doe, and I ranged it. 361 yards. Put in the slight dope, and had my wife do a couple dry fires. The doe bedded down, but my wife said she still felt comfortable taking the shot. I got behind the spotter and told my wife to take the shot when she was ready, and watched as she sent it right through the front of the boiler room, the doe never even flinched just flopped over.

Terminal performance is as follows!

Entrance -

Exit

Internal damage -

And the team!! My Wife and son with her harvest.

Due to the fact she was bedded, upon exiting the bullet hit the heaviest part of the scapula bone as well as the bottom of the spine, and blew bone fragments everywhere, while also having a surprisingly modest exit hole compared to the other goats taken. So while it didn't look bad, upon butchering this one had the most meat damage of the goats taken so far. Lost around 4-5 lbs, but considering where the bullet hit, I'm not surprised. There was a large amount of blood shot between the outer shoulder meat and the shoulder roast (scapula) and required some careful cleaning and trimming to salvage the meat. But when considering I am using a 270 grain .338 bullets on doe pronghorn....the damage actually doesn't seem too bad ha ha!

 

[SoDak338Lap]

Awesome work man, really enjoying all the detail.

 

[Trigger24]

Awesome work man, really enjoying all the detail.

 

[Trigger24]

Hey guys!
My name is Jason Sejnoha. I'm George's business partner, and the designer of the Badlands Precision bullets. I thought I might sign up here, and answer some questions about our bullets and maybe shed some light on things to come.

Couple of things I caught just from reading g this thread is the thought that the .338 Super Bulldozer will open at lower velocity due to having a bigger hollow point, or bigger base at the tip. This is not the case. The hollow point is the same, as is the size of the tip at the base. This is dictated by the size of broaching we use inside to cut the inside of the hollow to create stress points for petals. If there is any reason the SBD opens faster, or at lower velocity its due to the length of the ogive on the SBD bullet. This very long length keeps the petals thinner, for a longer distance, making the nose of the bullet "softer". The SBD line was designed specifically for extended range hunting. This is why many of the recovered bullets don't have petals on them. They're designed for lower impact velocities. This will be one of the key differences in the new bullet design. We've changed our tooling used to create the hollow point mouth, and the broaching we use to score the hollow to create thinner petals at the mouth for lower expansion threshold, while keeping them thick at the back to make them actually retain petals better at high velocity.

Another thing I saw was questioning a length difference on the new designs. The changes made in the new bullet include a new ogive design that was invented in house by me. We've also changed the boat tail geometry, and hollow point. All of these changes have kind of offset each other weight wise, so the new bullets will be the same length as the old ones, within a few thousands. Ill try to get some pictures up of the differences.

 

[Trigger24]

The first picture here is of the old .308 Bulldozer 150gr and the new .308 BD II 150gr. The changes are very slight. A few thousandths out here, a few in there. But it adds up to about a 6% increase in b.c. and better petal retention at high velocity, and lower expansion velocity. Basically an increase in performance in every aspect.

The 2nd picture is of the hollow point in the standard bulldozer bullet.

3rd picture is of the hollow in the new Bulldozer II. Notice how much thinner it is at the mouth of the opening, and how much further out the broaching goes. This creates a very thin wall section for the formation of petals.

 

[pheerles]

Received the 240gr SBDs today. Any concerns with seating these too deep? How about the amount of jump?

Seating to the lands nets a 4.018" COAL.
Seating to Magazine length (3.73") would result in .288" of jump.

Massive jump, or single load only? Might just need to test this crazy jump.

Anybody's thoughts are very welcome.

Pic for reference of bullets inserted to 3.73" COAL.

View attachment 213533

Update; dismal results with seating to mag length (3.750", resulting in .268" jump) on the SBD's. Got close to a node, however, so fine tuned charge weight and then seating depth. Loaded up four different seating depths for three different charge weights and these are the results. All shots taken from bench off a bipod including a control group (three rounds, with CEB Lazers 225gr). All 5 shot groups at 100y, some of them are same hole. Apologies for posting paper results, but I'd like to get load development squared away before using these on a hunt for obvious reasons.

Control:


91.4gr VVN560, seating depths at 0.118", 0.78", 0.53, .030" off the lands (ignore the keyhole - the range I go to often has extremely unintelligent people doing the devil's work):


91.8gr VVN560, same seating depths:


92gr VVN560, same seating depths:



At first glance, the three groups from best to worst are 92gr seated at COAL 3.965" (0.053" jump), 91.8gr seated at 3.988" (0.030" jump), and 91.4gr seated at 3.940" (0.078" jump). The results don't make much sense to me, but I admit, I'm sure I make a lot more mistakes than I realize.

Disclaimer, all rounds were fired on virgin Lapua brass, GM215M. I know a lot of folks will say load dev on virgin brass is a waste of time, but wasting components was the larger evil for me, so I wanted to at least gather some data.

I've also got on hand some of the regular 250gr Bulldozers and will give it a go with an amazingly on point 0.100" jump when seated to mag length. Results soon. In the meantime, all comments/observations/advice is welcome.

 

[Swamplord]

I'm out here in 35 F degree temps watching this lil meadow, calling & waiting on a bull moose so I can show him the new Badlands 205 gr Super Bulldozer ll bullet !


... someone must have added a cell tower nearby, never had service out here, now I can surf LRH while hunting

...

 

[codyadams]

I'm out here in 35 F degree temps watching this lil meadow, calling & waiting on a bull moose so I can show him the new Badlands 205 gr Super Bulldozer ll bullet !


... someone must have added a cell tower nearby, never had service out here, now I can surf LRH while hunting

...

View attachment 215544

Looks like a good meadow to reach out and touch somethin! Good luck!

 

[pheerles]

.100 jump in the 250gr standard Bulldozers worked a treat. Shot #5 went high, but that was all me.



Can't wait to try these on game.

 

[Hespco]

They like a big jump. .050 or more depending on the rifle. When that sweet spot is found they will shoot accurately. Don't ge afraid to seat deeper. Just watch your pressures as they do create extra resistance in the barrel.

 

[codyadams]

They like a big jump. .050 or more depending on the rifle. When that sweet spot is found they will shoot accurately. Don't ge afraid to seat deeper. Just watch your pressures as they do create extra resistance in the barrel.

When I did a seating test jumping .015" from .005 out to .110", they were all very similar, with .050" and .065" being slightly better then all the rest. Dialed in my charge after that with a ladder at around 600 and double checked with 300 yard groups and really got em singin, 1-1.5" consistently at 300 yds