Ballistics gel testing

[b116757]

My brother turned me onto some factory seconds of Hornady 53gr TAP bullets on Midways web site the other day so I bought some he also bought some. Here is the results of some ballistic gel testing I did this morning.

I had some older ballistic gel tested bullets in the reloading room for comparison from left to right
53gr Barns
Two 55gr GMX
53gr TAP

 

[b116757]

I like the all copper bullets in .223 for hunting because it’s a bit light compared to many other hunting calibers out there so having good performing bullets is a bit more important than in say a 30-06 would be for deer.

 

[bigboreblr]

Nice expansion. The old man method is to shoot the bullets into gallon jugs filled with water. Been a long time since I did that. Would be a nice comparison if you feel like fooling around with the subject some more

 

[b116757]

I suspect it would be pretty similar results the gel is just perhaps easier to recover the bullets from and you can most defiantly see the wound channel they leave behind. Mine is getting pretty old and likely needs replaced because it’s getting discolored so photos of the wound channel are no longer feasible. I need to order a couple new blocks of it I have had it for about 20 years so I can’t really complain about it to much.

 

[Catscratch]

Pretty cool that you test your bullets with gell! I think most people just buy what's on the shelf, make sure it hits close to the cross hairs, and go for it.

 

[b116757]

Years ago we tried the Barns bullets in 70gr thinking that they would be the bomb diggity in 223 well we had unreliable expansion on a couple deer, shortly after I bought the gel and we decided the 70gr where just not good in 223 and to stick to light for caliber all copper bullets and to push them fast was your best plan of attack if your going to use them. Those 70gr are maybe great in a 220 swift, 22-250 or a 22-243 but not the best in 223 at least in my experience.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I wasn’t familiar with that bullet, must be a version of the GMx or Cx? Did you get them off midway? I bought a couple thousand of the 6mm Hornady TAP 106 seconds from them for a $0.18 ea. They are more like a eldx type bullet though.

Do you melt down and reform the gel occasionally?

I’ve bought into the idea of instead of going stout in bullet construction with small diameter cartridges, go frangible heavy for caliber with high sectional density to get a wider wound channel but still maintain adequate penetration. light and stout is definitely sounds more attractive than heavy slow monos or light and highly frangible!

 

[b116757]

Yes I remelt it down after about every testing session. I do think they are a CX bullet

 

[b116757]

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1023585274?pid=288116

 

[Foggy47]

In the "old days" back in the 80's.....I was going on my first Elk hunt in Idaho. So I figured I better test some bullets and shoot at long range and see about the expansion......yadda yadda. I had a fairly light Browning A Bolt then in 300 Win Mag. It was kinda hard to do a long bench session with that gun......but I was bound and determined to put together the best load I could. After testing for accuracy I was down to three bullets......and shot them into old telephone books that were soaked in water.

Those water soaked phone books are a genuine PITA to haul around when you need a yard deep of phone books to capture the bullets......and they are wet and heavy. At that point in time.....the vulnerable 180 grain Remington Core Loct shot as accurate as any other I tried and the phone book performance was right up there with the best. I know times have changed......but it's funny how some old standards stand the test of time.

Ballistic gel was only for TV at that point in time....lol. Bullet performance is so much improved in the past few decades. Lots of people think you can drop a caliber in bullet diameter (and recoil) with today's bullets. I'm on board with that for most high performance cartridges.

 

[bigboreblr]

I used to shoot 180gr cor-lokts out of my rem 700 in 30-06. Got to say I'm the not test type. Or haven't in a long time. I did do a few water jug tests years ago with my 30-30.

Elk might do better with less expansion than more. For years I'd thump whitetail with a 450 marlin. pre-expanded to .45 Probably harvested a dozen if not more deer with that gun, never recovered a single bullet. All exit holes, some were exit caves. Hit a rib and it makes a soda can sized exit hole. Rarely got a good front leg. Usually one destroyed and one beat up a bit.

An old friend / pehasant hunting buddy used to hunt deer with 22-250. Used good bullets and didn't really have any problems

 

[Foggy47]

I was just visiting with the guy behind the gun counter at Sportsman's Warehouse down here in OZ the other day. Somehow, we got to talking about Burger bullets. Told him of an antelope hunt I was on with Walt Berger in Wyoming.....back when Berger just sold his bullets for target shooters and varminters. Walt told us that his Bullets were suitable for hunting game....and he was about to introduce those bullets as such. Just as we were having that discussion a nice Buck made a dash behind a small hill some several hundred yards away. We all watched as Walt got into a prone position right on that spot. Soon the buck reappears and Walt made a nice shot on a Pronghorn using his new big game bullets. Could not have scripted that event much better. John Burns from the Best of the West TV show was standing there in our small group along with a cameraman whom started recording the event.....Walt's long range shot was put on TV..... and suddenly Walt's bullets became popular for big game. Walt was an excellent shot.....and a really nice guy to boot. (....and, he seated his bullets just a few thou short of the lands when hunting...lol).

 

[West_Fork]

I wasn’t familiar with that bullet, must be a version of the GMx or Cx? Did you get them off midway? I bought a couple thousand of the 6mm Hornady TAP 106 seconds from them for a $0.18 ea. They are more like a eldx type bullet though.

Do you melt down and reform the gel occasionally?

I’ve bought into the idea of instead of going stout in bullet construction with small diameter cartridges, go frangible heavy for caliber with high sectional density to get a wider wound channel but still maintain adequate penetration. light and stout is definitely sounds more attractive than heavy slow monos or light and highly frangible!

Are those the ones with the clearish/yellowish tips? I bought a thousand 106gr seconds, and not sure what I have other than I am not liking them much.

 

[b116757]

I was just visiting with the guy behind the gun counter at Sportsman's Warehouse down here in OZ the other day. Somehow, we got to talking about Burger bullets. Told him of an antelope hunt I was on with Walt Berger in Wyoming.....back when Berger just sold his bullets for target shooters and varminters. Walt told us that his Bullets were suitable for hunting game....and he was about to introduce those bullets as such. Just as we were having that discussion a nice Buck made a dash behind a small hill some several hundred yards away. We all watched as Walt got into a prone position right on that spot. Soon the buck reappears and Walt made a nice shot on a Pronghorn using his new big game bullets. Could not have scripted that event much better. John Burns from the Best of the West TV show was standing there in our small group along with a cameraman whom started recording the event.....Walt's long range shot was put on TV..... and suddenly Walt's bullets became popular for big game. Walt was an excellent shot.....and a really nice guy to boot. (....and, he seated his bullets just a few thou short of the lands when hunting...lol).

Good story thanks for sharing

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Are those the ones with the clearish/yellowish tips? I bought a thousand 106gr seconds, and not sure what I have other than I am not liking them much.

Yeah, they are more like a translucent white tip. What aren’t you liking about them? They seem a bit finicky but I think they’ve got a bunch of lots mixed so there might be better results sorting them, I haven’t given them enough time yet. They are LONG, need quite a bit of twist to stabilize them. What are you shooting them in?

I’ve probably only shot 25-30 of them. The 5 rd group in the upper right was encouraging.

 

[West_Fork]

Yeah, they are more like a translucent white tip. What aren’t you liking about them? They seem a bit finicky but I think they’ve got a bunch of lots mixed so there might be better results sorting them, I haven’t given them enough time yet. They are LONG, need quite a bit of twist to stabilize them. What are you shooting them in?

I’ve probably only shot 25-30 of them. The 5 rd group in the upper right was encouraging.
View attachment 71565

Those look better than mine did. I haven't given them much time either, maybe only fired 15 rounds or so. If I get something shooting like you got there I don't explore the other options. I had good results with just about everything in the weight class, figure I would save them for another barrel. .243w 1:8.

 

[Telemark]

I'm going to get some ballistic gel and test my bullets. It's a bit of a hassle, but I really want to have examples of expanded bullets to see how my ammo performs. Looks like I can get 2 lbs of powder for 45$ on Amazon.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Those look better than mine did. I haven't given them much time either, maybe only fired 15 rounds or so. If I get something shooting like you got there I don't explore the other options. I had good results with just about everything in the weight class, figure I would save them for another barrel. .243w 1:8.

1:8 might not be enough even. I’m pretty sure I shot more at what seemed like the same load but didn’t have quite as solid results. Will definitely validate this winter.

 

[West_Fork]

1:8 might not be enough even. I’m pretty sure I shot more at what seemed like the same load but didn’t have quite as solid results. Will definitely validate this winter.

1:8 is plenty. 9.25:1 stabilizes 109s beyond 1,300 yards at 30" of pressure.
My guess is they are sensitive to bullet jump/seating depth.
Going to load up some .308w and then go back to the .243. I am really interested in what the 112gr barnes can do. This is the time of year I do most of my loading and shooting.

 

[b116757]

I do a bit more shooting this time of year myself I just sized and trimmed about 1500 .223 brass in the last week or so kind of gearing up to do a bit of shooting. I finally feel a bit like shooting again components are high priced but at least they are available agian. I hate the reloading component dry spells we seem to have with some regularity anymore. It’s almost to the point that when components are avialable you have to go out of your way to stock up so when the next component famine hits you have stuff to load.