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I got a chance to test out a bunch of these on some hogs (n=21 recovered). I know these have been around forever and that people love them for various reasons. I am just sharing my observations. These bullets are known to be deep penetrators and this certainly appeared to be true.
The ammo I shot was loaded by Druid Hill Armory by request. Dave at DHA ran them with powder on hand (don't know which one) and said it was not optimal and that he thought he could get more velocity with a different powder, but this is what we had to work with at this time (shortages). The muzzle velocity from my rifle was 2450 fps (I think if was 2453 on the day of testing, but 2450 is close enough). I cut open most of my hogs in an attempt to examine wound channels and to look for bullet fragments, aided by using a pinpointer metal detector which is good for anything within an a couple of inches of the sensor, but not good for finding deep fragments.
Hogs were shot from 50 or 60 yards out to 240 yards in distance. I shot lengthwise, broadside, and quartering. I hit and I missed hitting bone and heavy bone. The deepest recorded penetration was 24" (lengthwise shot, not hitting a lot of bone) and I think the most shallow penetration of known trajectory through the body was 13". Most of the time, however, the bullets flew right through the hogs, particularly on broadside shots.
The front portion of the bullet (forward of the partition) appears to be the sacrificial portion that was commonly destroyed to some extent. In an ideal situation, the exposed lead of this portion of the bullet flattens, expands, and erodes as the copper petals peel back. This starts to happen VERY quickly, sometimes being evident with a permanent wound cavity of about 1/2" starting in the muscle just under the skin. Over the next 6-8" the wound cavity seems to bloom aggressively out to about 2" in diameter of obvious damaged tissue and with a permanent wound cavity upwards of an inch in size in several cases. As velocity is lost along with material from the front portion of the bullet, the wound cavity collapsed down to projectile size and the remaining projectile often leaves the body. I had several instances of the exit hole in the hide being sharply defined (cookie cutter hole) and usually when this was the case, the large wound cavity extended to just under the skin.
For all but a couple of the bullets recovered, I should have recovered the lead core from the front portion of the bullet as there was no exit. I simply could not find the lead core. I assume the lead core to be at least partially intact because the cup of the front portion of the bullet was not completely flattened away and so I don't believe the core was eroded into oblivion. In one or two instances, the lead core left the body (exit wound), but the rest of the bullet failed to exit.
Only a couple of the recovered bullets looked like the stereotypical, uniformly expanded/flattened gel tests that seemed to keep nose forward penetration. The others seemed to have tumbled at some point as evidenced by the petals being first bent back, and then apparently being re-bent forward again. Tumbling occurred after expansion. Tumbling could be due to numerous causes including what the bullet hit while going through the body or a shifting of weight distribution where the butt end swung around as a result (loss of weight on front end, destabilization, and the now comparatively heavy butt swings around).
In talking with Dinny and in looking at Nosler's performance data, I don't doubt that the results would be somewhat different with more velocity. There would likely be more expansion and the cups opening fully to the partition which was not seen in any of the recovered bullets. So maybe the results here are more like shooting hogs out at another 100 yards farther away if you are getting, say, 2600 fps at the muzzle.
I don't think I had a single hog that dropped dead on impact with a non-CNS shot, so no apparent hydrostatic shock benefit. Again, this may be a velocity issue. I did have a couple of hogs drop with upper thoracic CNS shots that did have to be finished off with and additional shot. Cervical spinal shots produced instant kills as expected.
While my sample is small, I had a couple of hogs that when hit with a poor shot were able to run and endure several more shots before finally dropping. That isn't completely unique with the bullet. If you shoot a hog in a location that does not produce significant upper CNS damage, you can expect the hog to run and once the adrenaline dumps, they must either bleed out, suffocate, or be mechanically broken down before they stop. This may be a sampling issue, but between these and some of the other hogs I shot, I got the impression that the hogs were able to endure the damage a little better than with some other bullets I have tried.
I had one bullet that failed to expand. This was from a hog shot multiple times and so I have no idea at what distance the hog was hit with this bullet, so I don't have an estimate on the velocity. I don't know if this was a freak glancing hit on a given bone or if maybe the bullet already hit broken bone fragments that somehow damaged the tip and prevented expansion. What is apparent is that the tip was damaged and the bullet seems to have twisted and tumbled (bullet is twisted and laterally compressed).
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I can certainly see why deer hunters like this bullet. There is a very high probably of getting an exit wound even on larger sized bodies, hence aiding the creation of blood trails for tracking. I certainly would not suggest that this bullet performed poorly. For the most part, it seemed to do exactly as the claims suggest and there is nothing wrong with that. For me personally, this bullet did okay. For my hunting purposes, I like something a little more internally destructive and have no need for exit wounds, but that is my preference and not a shortcoming of the bullet. I would have no problem using this bullet again for hunting hogs, but might be inclined to adapt my shooting to take advantage of its deep penetrating character with more quartering shots.
I got a chance to test out a bunch of these on some hogs (n=21 recovered). I know these have been around forever and that people love them for various reasons. I am just sharing my observations. These bullets are known to be deep penetrators and this certainly appeared to be true.
The ammo I shot was loaded by Druid Hill Armory by request. Dave at DHA ran them with powder on hand (don't know which one) and said it was not optimal and that he thought he could get more velocity with a different powder, but this is what we had to work with at this time (shortages). The muzzle velocity from my rifle was 2450 fps (I think if was 2453 on the day of testing, but 2450 is close enough). I cut open most of my hogs in an attempt to examine wound channels and to look for bullet fragments, aided by using a pinpointer metal detector which is good for anything within an a couple of inches of the sensor, but not good for finding deep fragments.
Hogs were shot from 50 or 60 yards out to 240 yards in distance. I shot lengthwise, broadside, and quartering. I hit and I missed hitting bone and heavy bone. The deepest recorded penetration was 24" (lengthwise shot, not hitting a lot of bone) and I think the most shallow penetration of known trajectory through the body was 13". Most of the time, however, the bullets flew right through the hogs, particularly on broadside shots.
The front portion of the bullet (forward of the partition) appears to be the sacrificial portion that was commonly destroyed to some extent. In an ideal situation, the exposed lead of this portion of the bullet flattens, expands, and erodes as the copper petals peel back. This starts to happen VERY quickly, sometimes being evident with a permanent wound cavity of about 1/2" starting in the muscle just under the skin. Over the next 6-8" the wound cavity seems to bloom aggressively out to about 2" in diameter of obvious damaged tissue and with a permanent wound cavity upwards of an inch in size in several cases. As velocity is lost along with material from the front portion of the bullet, the wound cavity collapsed down to projectile size and the remaining projectile often leaves the body. I had several instances of the exit hole in the hide being sharply defined (cookie cutter hole) and usually when this was the case, the large wound cavity extended to just under the skin.
For all but a couple of the bullets recovered, I should have recovered the lead core from the front portion of the bullet as there was no exit. I simply could not find the lead core. I assume the lead core to be at least partially intact because the cup of the front portion of the bullet was not completely flattened away and so I don't believe the core was eroded into oblivion. In one or two instances, the lead core left the body (exit wound), but the rest of the bullet failed to exit.
Only a couple of the recovered bullets looked like the stereotypical, uniformly expanded/flattened gel tests that seemed to keep nose forward penetration. The others seemed to have tumbled at some point as evidenced by the petals being first bent back, and then apparently being re-bent forward again. Tumbling occurred after expansion. Tumbling could be due to numerous causes including what the bullet hit while going through the body or a shifting of weight distribution where the butt end swung around as a result (loss of weight on front end, destabilization, and the now comparatively heavy butt swings around).
In talking with Dinny and in looking at Nosler's performance data, I don't doubt that the results would be somewhat different with more velocity. There would likely be more expansion and the cups opening fully to the partition which was not seen in any of the recovered bullets. So maybe the results here are more like shooting hogs out at another 100 yards farther away if you are getting, say, 2600 fps at the muzzle.
I don't think I had a single hog that dropped dead on impact with a non-CNS shot, so no apparent hydrostatic shock benefit. Again, this may be a velocity issue. I did have a couple of hogs drop with upper thoracic CNS shots that did have to be finished off with and additional shot. Cervical spinal shots produced instant kills as expected.
While my sample is small, I had a couple of hogs that when hit with a poor shot were able to run and endure several more shots before finally dropping. That isn't completely unique with the bullet. If you shoot a hog in a location that does not produce significant upper CNS damage, you can expect the hog to run and once the adrenaline dumps, they must either bleed out, suffocate, or be mechanically broken down before they stop. This may be a sampling issue, but between these and some of the other hogs I shot, I got the impression that the hogs were able to endure the damage a little better than with some other bullets I have tried.
I had one bullet that failed to expand. This was from a hog shot multiple times and so I have no idea at what distance the hog was hit with this bullet, so I don't have an estimate on the velocity. I don't know if this was a freak glancing hit on a given bone or if maybe the bullet already hit broken bone fragments that somehow damaged the tip and prevented expansion. What is apparent is that the tip was damaged and the bullet seems to have twisted and tumbled (bullet is twisted and laterally compressed).
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I can certainly see why deer hunters like this bullet. There is a very high probably of getting an exit wound even on larger sized bodies, hence aiding the creation of blood trails for tracking. I certainly would not suggest that this bullet performed poorly. For the most part, it seemed to do exactly as the claims suggest and there is nothing wrong with that. For me personally, this bullet did okay. For my hunting purposes, I like something a little more internally destructive and have no need for exit wounds, but that is my preference and not a shortcoming of the bullet. I would have no problem using this bullet again for hunting hogs, but might be inclined to adapt my shooting to take advantage of its deep penetrating character with more quartering shots.
Keep up the good work, much appreciated.
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