I made it out for another round of testing today. A member of another forum was kind enough to send me the 300gr Scenar, 300gr SMK and 300gr Berger Hybrid bullets to test. All testing was done at 100 yards into the same leather as last time. I'll try adding water to the leather at some point but I want to keep everything consistent for now. I intentionally downloaded most of the ammunition to test low velocity impacts. This did cause borderline stability with a few of the bullets, so I'll have to test some of them again at a higher velocity.
Here's the line up of bullets tested today from left to right (ran out of day light before testing the OTM so no results on that one):
140 Berger, 160 Matrix, 200 NAB, 250 Barnes RN, 277gr MTAC, 300 OTM, 300 Hybrid, 300 Scenar, 300 SMK 303 Hammer, 450 TSX, 500 RN
300gr Berger Hybrid
- Muzzle Velocity 1801 fps
Impact velocity is roughly 1720 fps with a retained weight of 300.5gr and 300.2gr and penetrated 15.75" and 15". The bullets actually weigh slightly more because of the leather material getting trapped in the expanded bullet. I removed as much as I could but clearly didn't get it all. Both bullets tumbled on impact and were recovered facing backwards.
300gr Lapua Scenar
- Muzzle Velocity 1847 fps
Impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 284.2 and 300.4 with penetration of 16.5" and 14". Both bullets tumbled and were facing backwards when recovered.
300gr Sierra MK
- Muzzle velocity 1850 fps
Impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 266.0 and 266.1 with both bullets penetrating 10.5". Performance of the SMK was phenomenal given the impact velocity. 1760 fps is roughly the velocity that this bullet would have at 1100 yards when fired with a muzzle velocity of 2850, typical of the 338 Edge/Lapua.
277gr Cutting Edge MTAC
- Muzzle velocity 1949 fps
Impact Velocity is approximately 1840 fps with retained weight of 277.0gr for each bullet with penetration of 8.0" and 8.5". These bullets were so unstable that they were key holing at 100 yards. These are non-expanding solids and were tested just for reference and because I have them on hand. It's worth noting the significant damage that they would have caused on impact while tumbling end over end through the target or 8"
303gr Hammer Hunter
- Muzzle Velocity 1917 fps
These bullets require a 1-9.3" twist to stabilize at velocities over 2600 fps. They were so unstable at the low velocity that they didn't make it to the 2' square target at 100 yards.Like the MTACs, I knew before testing them that they wouldn't stabilize at the low velocity. I'll retest them later under more appropriate conditions.
500gr Hornady RN
- Muzzle velocity 2082 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 1835 fps with a retained weight of 498.2gr and 15" of penetration. This is my "plinking" load for the 458 Arnold that gets used occasionally for rabbit hunting. it is the top bullet the photo.
450gr Barnes TSX
- Muzzle velocity 2215 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 2095 fps with a retained weight of 450gr and 13.5" of penetration. This is the bottom bullet in the picture above.
200gr Accubond
- Muzzle velocity 2688 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 2541 fps with a retained weight of 150.6 and 150.4 and penetration of 9.0". Both bullets penetrated the same depth and retained nearly identical weights. Accubonds are proving to be one of the most consistent bullets I've tested. This load was used in January to harvest a cow elk at around 200 yards with excellent results.
250gr Barnes Original RN
- Muzzle velocity 2280 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 2100 fps with a retained weight of 235.6gr and 245.7gr and penetration of 8.0". Both bullets penetrated the same depth and expanded to have a very large frontal area. Weight retention and expansion for a non-bonded was impressive.
140gr Berger VLD Hunting
- Muzzle velocity 1869 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 1759 fps with retained weight of 140gr for both bullets and penetration of 10.5" and 9.5".The bullets should have been fully stabilized from the 1-8" twist even with the relatively low velocity but both bullets were recovered facing backwards. These bullets clearly require greater velocity to perform. I'll try again and go for an impact velocity over 2000 fps.
160gr Matrix VLD
- Muzzle Velocity 1885 fps
The impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 160gr and 10.0" penetration. This bullet was marginally stabilized from the 1-8" twist at the low velocity. Also, past experience has show that the extremely heavy for caliber bullet performs poorly with polygonal rifling like that used in the Blackhole barrel used on my CZ 527 6.5 Grendel. The theory is that the poly rifling simply doesn't grip the bullet well enough to get full stability. Only one of the two bullets was recovered and it was facing backwards. The other bullet became unstable and exited the side of the bullet trap.
