Ballistic Question

[Skopia]

If I keep my bullet velocities within the parameters in which the bullet was designed, will this help keep a pistol bullet from fragmenting or loosing it's jacket when fired from a muzzleloader?
Case in point. I shoot a .430 240gr Hornady xtp. Pushed by 90gr T7 ffg, according to the manual I am roughly pushing this bullet at 1800 fps. Hornady list this bullets optimal design between 900 and 1800 fps. So am I safe toassume that this bullet will stay together andperform according to the way itis designed too?

[sabotloader]

Skopia

For me that is a tough question to answer. The only XTP that I have shot that did not loose it's copper jacket has been the 10mm 200 grain, which I am shooting well above Hornady's suggested range.

If you are shooting the 240's near the range yould be OK - but then if you hit a solid bone I still suspect it would loose it's jacket.

If I could share a suggestion with you - to prevent the problem you are talking about you might look a Speer Gold Dots or Unicore bullets.. they are a bonded bullet and will not come apart.

Just thinking out loud...

[dmurphy317]

You will probably be alright since the velocity will be lower by the time it hits the animal (unless it's under 15 yards). I know a guy that uses that bullet for elk out of his Knight. He puts it over 150gr of pellets (which I think is too much for close shots). The only elk he has shot with it have been over 100 yards so the speed is back down to the range you are talking about. All the elk he has hit have been pass throughs so he has not recovered any so far. Good luck with it and let us know how it goes.

[skeeter 7MM]

Your assumption is correct as hornady is stating impact velocity range for reliable performance. So if your load is achieving 1800 MV it would have to be pretty close to exceed the upper design limits they state. However these numbers must be taken with a grain of salt as they don't always transulate to the real world...like sabotloader points out hitting more resistence may cause an effect on performance even though your velocity is within specs. Really the only way is to pick the bullet best suited to your needs. For me that means looking at typical range and shot location, as well as factoring the usual culprits.

FWIW I have seen oneseperated core with the XTP that also being a 240 - .430 and that was on a brisket shot that was less than 20 yards with a similar MV(load was 120gr of RS and while I can't remember the actual chrono numbers I know it was in the 1800's). In this case the bullet fraged badlyit still took out the onside lung but the other lung was largely uneffected. The shock stopped the deer in it's tracks but a secondary was fired to make sure it didn't go any further. All the other shots I have seen with the XTP have been less extreme, mostly ribs where the toughest media it encountered and the xtp performed as expected. I did shoot a black bear with 300 xtp .452 under 120 gr RS, through onside shoulder and exited behind the opposite shoulder. The bear died a few yards later, shot was approx. 30 yards. I also shot a bull moose with same load this time shot was 30-40 yards, behind the shoulder double lung and I recovered a nice mushroomed bullet on the opposite side of the ribs. Weight retention was over 60%.Based on my experience in regards to heavier bone/higher MV'sthe 300gr XTP would bemy pick if I had to only choose fromHornady offerings.