Bullet testing

[Bucks Owin]

I like to test bullet performance like expansion and penetration. I built a homegrown tester by constructing a cedar trough about 4 feet long, open on one end. There's about 2.5' of oil soaked sawdust packed into the back end of the trough with a partition to hold the sawdust in place that consists of a piece of inner tube with slits in it. The front end of my device holds either water filled milk jugs or ziplock bags of water...

I read somewhere that water is too much of a "torture test" for bullets. That could be as I've had Hornady's XTP bullets shed their jackets in the water and XTPs are touted as being tough projectiles that "stay together". Hmmmm...

Would water soaked newsprint be a better test medium than what I'm using if water is "too hard" on bullets? I don't want to mess with gelatin. Is there something I could mix with the sawdust to "stiffen" it if I didn't have the boolits hitting the water first?

Anybody else built a boolit tester of some kind that works well?

Dennis

[StarMetal]

Dennis,

My XTP's shed their jackets too and I mentioned that with I talked with Hornady, and they said "yeah, they do".

Joe

[454PB]

The best tester is meat[smilie=1:

[44man]

Hey Joe, you are contradicting yourself from what you said in "Hunting with Cast."

[9.3X62AL]

I got the bullet testing bug inoculated some years back, helping one of our academy staff rangemasters with ballistic gelatin prep. What a PITA.

Few subjects generate more heat--while releasing so little light--as does the subject of terminal ballistics or bullet performance once the target is struck. LOTS of science and research goes into this subject, but I'm not sure we are much further ahead than the 1840's mountain men who selected 50 caliber+ muzzle loaders to make meat and (hopefully) stop large/determined critters, both 2- and 4-legged.

I favor "pre-expanded" boolits--35 caliber or larger. A 44 cast SWC might not expand, but it damn sure won't shrink. I think the Version 3.0 357 Magnum/180 grain boolit that is being re-done now enables the 357 Magnum revolver to really enter the deer-class game fields at a higher level than the 158 grain boolits limited it to.

If a premium game animal like elk is involved, I opt for Nosler Partitions. I want every edge possible, and the Partitions are proven performers to my satisfaction.

[StarMetal]

Water is too hard a test medium for any bullet. Wet newsprint would be alot better or ballistic gelatin. Even mud that was made from finely sifted dirt and not soaking wet, made with the consistancey of modeling clay.

Joe

[StarMetal]

44man

I got XTP's to shed their jackets in dirt, plain unsifted dry dirt. So I didn't contradict myself. The magnum XTP's are not super expanding hollowpoint....I can't say that enough. What I meant about them shedding their jacket is that they aren't bonded or interlocked to the core.

Joe

[jhalcott]

http://www.thebullettesttube.com/index/home.html I would love to know how this stuff REALLY works.But I'm cheap too!

[Bucks Owin]

http://www.thebullettesttube.com/index/home.html I would love to know how this stuff REALLY works.But I'm cheap too!

Looks like a pretty good tester although too pricey for me too....

Dennis

BTW, John Barsness' opinion means squat to me, I can't stand the guy myself.... :roll:
Sure wish Skeeter was still around....