Well, Lord willing, I'll do some handloading in the next few weeks and see what I can do. It's nice to know I do have an established load in the 225 dialed in already.
the poll reflected my own suspicions, the trophy bonded and the ablr far and away winning, though I was surprised to see the ablr lead the charge by such a wide margin….I haven't used loaded them yet but have kept hearing they're finicky. Perhaps more internet "I know someone who said…." wisdom than actual wisdom.
I'll play with both the tbt and ablr and probably just pursue load development further with whichever shows most promise with standard overall length loadings and the first powder I try haha (real scientifically thorough I know but I don't have time for playing with multiple seating depths and 8 different powders for now, and in my experience it often holds true that a bullet that isn't agreeable at normal depths and with a typical charge of a typical burn rate powder can be optimized in its loading but probably isn't going to end up being the best regardless.
we shall see.
also prioritizing that 120 Barnes tac tx but not for this hunt. I really hope to hit 4000 FPS with that little meanie but of course will proceed sensibly. A 4kfps mono metal 30 cal ought to be one heck of an "off" switch come deer season and tbh if it ends up being way more accurate than the others I try I'm not worried about it being too little for an elk.
all these bullets have been treated with hexagonal boron nitride as has my barrel and the 225 eldm load.
a question for you all…anyone have any experience with hbn on trophy bonded tips? Any reason to worry about boron nitride applied to a nickel plated bullet compared to the usual copper or gilding metal?