Below is the results of some testing I did back in March. Hope it helps someone out.
March 30, 2015,
Well I have been playing with both PC and plain lubed bullets in my 41 for the past several months in hopes of duplicating the jacketed loads I like to shoot.
So what i have come up with is a couple of the MP molds in the 411 and 413 640 designs. The heavy one drops around 220grs with a small HP, and the "Lite" ones drop at 175'ish, with the large HP and around 185'ish with the small HP. I was hoping these would duplicate the old Remington 170gr SJHP they discontinued years ago.
Well here is a teaser pic of the chrony after running one of the "Lite" 175'ish grain ones over it,
March 31, 2015, 04:25 AM
The Rest of the Story...
The first try with this particular bullet used a 16gr charge of AA-9 with the bullets tumble lubed. This was simply an exercise to see if the alloy would hold up to the load. I had used this same load with another alloy and it shot fine but this was the softer blend and failed miserably.
After rethinking and knowing that it was probably more due to the lube used than the alloy, being I was shooting it up to 1300fps over 13grs of AA-9 in my GP-100 in a 160gr version, I decided to try another test.
I had been reading about the powder coating but hadn't decided I really wanted to give it a go. This somewhat goaded me into it, and the results were rewarding. Initially I loaded up 50 rounds, in 5 round batches. I started with 14grs and worked up to 16. Half I loaded with the powder coated 220gr, and the other half I loaded with plain lead lubed with Carnuba Red.
When I tested these I fired them in order from lowest to highest charges, first the PC, then the plain. After each of the first two shots of each load, the barrel was inspected for any signs of leading, and then again after the final three shots. After shooting each 5 rounds I ran a brush through followed by a dry patch of which neither removed anything more than powder residue.
Following this, I came back and loaded up the "Lite" version, shown above. I decided with these I was going to up the annie and went with a load that I shot with the 170gr Remington bullet several years ago which was 23grs of 296. While I had that powder in the measure I also loaded up 10rounds, 5ea. of the previous coated and plain 220gr ones over 18.5grs of 296.
When tested these all shot wonderfully, but I still hadn't had a chance to set up the chrony so I didn't have a clue as to the velocity. That changed this past weekend when I finally got it set up and ran some for speed checks.
As the picture above shows, the 175gr pills are running at a fair pace of right at 1600fps. That is right in the same ball park I got with the Remington jacketed version. I do have to admit though these don't hold together quite as well as those did. They have shown to shed the nose ring within the first 4-6" of the sand but the bases are still penetrating up to around 10 more inches after that.
The 220gr ones however are rolling back into near perfect mushrooms with almost every one recovered. Usually they have flattened out down to within around 3/8 - 1/4" of the bases depending on if I shoot them into the recovery buckets at 25 or 50yds. While none of this is scientific by any stretch, I have found through a lifetime of shooting into this baby powder type sand that it does render a bullet to a very close resemblance to ones that I have recovered from game. I'm getting just over 1300fps with these which is real close to the load I have been hunting with for the past 15 or more years, using the 200gr Remington SJHP. That load shoots around 2" or less at 50yds if I do my part and has accounted for numerous hogs up to and a bit over 200# with a couple being taken at just over 100yds. I can clearly see that with a little practice this bullet will soon be replacing those if the field performance proves to be on par.
Now that I have the alloy and the velocity working, I just need to find me some hogs to try them out on.
Below are a few of the recovered bullets. As you can see, it is pretty easy to determine the 413640's I shot at 25 verses the ones at 50 due to the length of the shank. As for the 175's, well it really doesn't matter what range I have shot them they end up the same, usually in two or more pieces.
05-05-16
I have been shooting these almost exclusively ever since I posted this back in March. They are super accurate with several powders and duplicate the pictured expansion so regularly it is almost boring to sift them out expecting something to change.
My hopes are that I can find those darned hogs and give them a REAL testing. So far I have only managed to dispatch one young coyote which was snagged in one of our hog snares, and this past weekend I put one of the 220gr ones through a big fox squirrel with a shot just behind the shoulder which left plenty of the meat left to nibble on. (glad I didn't have the "Lite" ones in there.)
This past weekend, the oldest grandson and I set up our "big" plate at 150yds. It is a SS disc out of a 24" butterfly valve we pulled out at work. They were chunking it and I thought WOW what a nice gong to shoot at, and managed to snag it. Sitting with one of the single pole shooting sticks as a rest, we managed to smack it numerous times once we figured where to aim. Thing is I knew to NOT hold over and sure enough if we centered the front sight on the center of the disc, we were hitting about 4" or so low. Those 413640's fly flat and true, now I'm working on loading up more so we can get back out there and do some more of that. It was a hoot. Soon as I get the pic off my phone and reduced, I'll post it up.
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Originally Posted by GregP42
