Hey guys,
I shot a dry phone book with an hp-38/xtp load once for testing purposes and I had mild penetration, but I was able to recover and inspect the bullet. I decided to do a wet test today for my .357 mag. I used 9.4grs of Blue Dot, 158grn cast RNFP and a CCI 550 primer.
I have no idea what the BHN of the boolit is because they are commercial store bought boolits. I soaked a phone book in the sink for about an hour, then I opened fire. I put maybe 4 rounds through this book like it was butter. I had the book propped against a flimsy sheet of rotting particle board and the boolits even sliced through that.
The particle board was mounted in a frame directly in front of my back-stop. My back stop is one tandom load of georgia clay poured into about 15 stacks of tires 5 foot tall. The clay that was left over from filling in the tire stacks was poured over the tire stacks. In short, I've got one tough back stop.
So I ran my forearm all the way into the clay trying to follow the boolits path. I couldn't find a damn one!
This load is extremely high in it's penetration value. While that okay for target practice, I need something that will expand similar to my xtp load. I refuse to put copper condoms on my boolits if it can be avoided. Should I look into a hollow point mold? or should I cast as soft as possible and add a gas check? I'm' not a castor yet, but I'm trying to become one.