Hornady FTX Sabotless test

MountainDevil54 · 09-20-2010, 02:55 PM

Rangeball pm'ed me and asked if i had any interest in trying the .500" Hornady FTX 300gr bullets in my rifles. I figured what the heck!

I got them in the mail today and took 1 shot at 100 yards with 150gr T7 pellets just to get an idea where i was hitting.

This evening i came back out with 90gr BH209, Standard CCI Primers * Must be that .035" Flash hole

* and the .500" FTX.

They load easy in the Accura's barrel but mid way down, they tighten up a bit. No problem reloading with the borrowed ramrod from my Hunterbolt.

For an experiment with a new bullet, wow do they shoot tight! I did not allow any cool down time either. With proper cool down, its pretty scary to think about the accuracy they would offer in my Accura.

100 yards,
A bit hard to see shot #3,

Pulled the target up and snapped a picture as the #3 shot is much easier to see. Shots 1 and 3 are touching.

50calty · 09-20-2010, 04:28 PM

Those are nice bullets for accuracy, but to kill something I probably wouldnt use them. They never held together. Everytime I dug them out of the dirt they were just in fragments. I've even used the same bullet (not weight) in a .450 marlin and 270 with no better results. Fun bullets to shot and punch paper, just not animals in my view point.

cayugad · 09-20-2010, 04:34 PM

They look like a nice bullet, but I have no experience with them. So maybe they do fragment. Nice shooting there MD54. With that kind of accuracy you could place them things right where you want.

MountainDevil54 · 09-20-2010, 05:03 PM

Once i buy a box i'll see how they hold up. I want to search around tomorrow and see if i can find them in the dirt. Darn sand buckets get shot up so much that its hard to keep them full of sand

Grouse45 · 09-20-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 50calty

Those are nice bullets for accuracy, but to kill something I probably wouldnt use them. They never held together. Everytime I dug them out of the dirt they were just in fragments. I've even used the same bullet (not weight) in a .450 marlin and 270 with no better results. Fun bullets to shot and punch paper, just not animals in my view point.

You are exactly right, those bullets are horrible on game. But they are very accurate.

josh...just josh · 09-20-2010, 05:38 PM

Awesome!!! I've been wanting to try this for some time now, but I don't get a lot of time on the range and I didn't want to waste a box of bullets if they wouldn't work. I read where one guy tried these and basically got no accuracy, but all bores are different I suppose. I remember reading that your accura liked the .500 thors so I thought that these might work in mine. I'm glad that you tried them, I really would love a cheaper jacketed for bore conical. I wonder how they would shot with a sub base (or a cut down sabot) for gas control? I wouldn't be worried about using these on game, I know that they aren't barnes, but these are made a bit hardier than the SST's that we are used to from what I can gather.

MountainDevil54 · 09-20-2010, 05:42 PM

I have some veg wads to try out next time when i order a box. I figured that i'd try them naked and see how they'd do for starters before getting seriously into it.

josh...just josh · 09-21-2010, 07:45 AM

it would be really interesting to see chrono results with and without the wad. it seems like you had a lot of drop from where you were sighted in. the ftx's look like they were hitting at the bottom of the target.

MountainDevil54 · 09-21-2010, 07:57 AM

Yep they were. With 150gr T7 magnum pellets they were dead on but once i switched to 90gr BH209 they were shooting pretty low. The rifle was originally sighted in with the 245gr Powerbelt with 90gr BH.

josh...just josh · 09-21-2010, 08:00 AM

I'm sure that their BC isn't all that great, but I would think that a lot of the drop might be due to gas escape slowing them down