Fellow 460 enthusiasts,
I decided to try and post graphically my latest 46O Rowland penetration tests. As I have never posted a picture to this website, and as I am using a new photo host, it may take me a couple of tries to get this right.
I have been shooting the Rowland for many years now. I have been trying to settle on a bullet that will work for me in northern New Mexico where I may have the occasion to use it on mule deer or antelope, and given my historical record of standing nose to nose with black bears who are either not afraid of me or desire to polish off my cans of beer in the creek at our ranch, would like something that I could someday actually need.
Hence, I have been focusing the last few years on 250 grain bullets, and trying a few flavors of XTP's, even ones that are designed for the 454 Casull. So, for this go round, I tried the 230 XTP, the 240 XTP mag, the 250 XTP, the Beartooth 225 fnb bb and the 250 grain Laser Cast rn fp. My thoughts along the lines of the XTP's if I want expansion, and the other bullets to err on the side of penetration. As to the media for testing, being partially tied to the real estate market in my work and hence a bit too broke for proper testing medium, I decided to use "ballistically calibrated" wet newsprint. Basically, thoroughy wet, but not dripping wet. I have done a fair amount of dry newsprint testing in the past, but dry news print seems to be more of an extreme test to determine whether or not a bullet will come completey apart at the seams.
As to the bullet velocities, I tested at about 8 feet, with the Beartooth (BT) clocking 1286, the Ranier (Ran) and Lasercast (LC) both doing 1100 fps, the 230 XTP doing 1275, the 240 XTP mag doing 1220 and the 250 xtp clocking at 1076.
With regard to my depth of media at 12 inches initially, way to optimistic for the solids. The 230 xtp went approximately 8 inches, the 240 xtp mag 10 inches and the 250 xtp 9 inches. I had to tear the stacks in half to make 24 inches to stop the solids. The Beartooth needed every bit of the 24 inches, with the Ranier and Laser cast going 22 inches. And the recovered bullets pictures only show one bullet per specimen, but I recovered quite a few of each in the testing, and the pictures are typical. So here are my graphic results.
Entrance into the stack (first 6 inches)
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...01%20Entry.jpg
Entrance into the second 6" stack
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...nd%20stack.jpg
Exit the first stack (6 inches)
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...Back%20180.jpg
Exit the second stack (total of 12 inches)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...Back%20180.jpg
Pictures of the recovered bullets. I have multiple images to show a couple of views of the xtps.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...20bullets1.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...20bullets2.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_OnhYvfLZwNQ/S-...20bullets3.jpg
So, what does all of this mean for me? First, I knew that the 230 xtp was likley to end up flattened pretty well. The 230 actually was almost to the point of folding back on itself, right up to the base of the bullet. Second, I figured as the 240 xtp mag was designed for the 454 Casull, the nose might expand some, but it would penetrate much further than the 230 or 250. The 250 xtp performed much as I expected. So as to the xtp's, the jaggedness of the 240 makes me suspect that it the wrong bullet for my intentions, hunting larger game. The 250 xtp has the classic mushroom, with good base retention securing the core.
As to the solids, the Beartooth really stunned me. I know the theory on lbt style solid hard cast bullets, and even though this bullet is more of a truncated cone than traditional lbt, the meplat on this bullet really moved a considerable amount of material, more so than the beveled edge Ranier or the Laser Cast, even though the meplates were not all that different. I know if I try and interject something about temporary or permanent would cavity I will be one, over my pay grade and two likley to be smaked down by folks who actually know what they are talking about, still the "hole" through the media from the Beartooth is pretty impressive.
So from here I need to try and test the construction of the solids against something less "wet" to get a handle on what might happen if I were to hit bone. And keeping in mind that the Ranier and Laser Cast are really considered plinking type bullets, I am pretty pleased so far. I know what a Cast Performance lead bullet or traditional LBT style heavyweight bullet will do in my 454 Casull, 45-70 or 458 Socom, the trick is gonna be balancing the length of the few that are available to be shoehorned into the Rowland.
Craig
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