Grouse45

I'm leaving for Colorado rifle season for Elk very soon October 20th. I've been very fortunate to shoot a bull three out of four years. I'm more excited to shoot a bull this year over any other year. And the main reason why is I got a new bullet to try. I started testing and shooting this bullet today. It's a .452 265grn copper controlled fracturing bullet. Testing today was with the Knight Ultralite and the CVA Accura Mr with harvester sabots, CCI Primers, and BH209 Powder.

Both guns shot the bullet pretty accurate at 100 yards. Both guns shot the bullet pretty good at 200 yards also. In most cases I just don't like to shoot anything over 100 yards anyway but you just never know.

When the bloodlines were in the making I shot sandwich bags full of water stapled to the target to see the petals shear on paper. I did that at 50 and 100 yards. But with this new bullet I decided to strengthen my testing and decided to shoot the bags at 200 yards with both guns. The results were like nothing I've ever seen before. The targets were actually destroyed. I've never ever seen this with the 200grn, 230grn, 250grn, 275grn, or the 300grn Bloodline. I could not believe what I was seeing. I sent a few of these to Ron to test as well.

I was so amazed with the results I decided to go groundhog hunting with the MR. Well the bullet provided me with very good information at 135 yards on this ground hog.







With my testing so far I really think this bullet is gonna be over kill for Elk. But I'm gonna use it all season on Elk and Deer. If it's as good as I think it is, I'll try and talk Dave into making a lighter bullet for Elk next year. But that's the fun of trying and testing new bullets.

bronko22000

I wonder how that bullet would be with some kind of tip in the hollow point. By design it looks like it will lose velocity pretty quick. Looks like you're shooting a parachute!
It would be nice to know what the velocities would be at different ranges. I honestly don't think you could use std ballistic tables with that design.
But it did mess up that whistle pig pretty good.

Grouse45

You brought up a good point. The bullet was designed with a taper to put tips in. The tips should be made for me this week. When I receive the tips I'll chrono both bullets with tips and without and have Sabotloader figure out the BC of both bullets. With most of my shooting/hunting I don't prefer pointy bullets. But I know most do.

bronko22000

I don't think, because of this bullet's design, that BC can be calculated using older formulas. Actual trajectory and velocity would have to be obtained to get an accurate BC. I would imagine the air resistance on this design would be far greater then if a tip was put in place.

sabotloader

I really agree with you Tom. My ML hunting range is 200+ yards on an elk and I would much rather have the larger meplat on the end of the bullet than the pointy bullet. Greater felt impact on the animal.

Now if I were target shooting that would be a completely different subject.


This is a ballistic sheet for a comparable Lehigh style bullet... A 458x275... If you look at the chart I use a PBR sight-in - so I am up about 3" @ 100 and only down 6" @ 200 with plenty of energy and velocity left.

MountainDevil54

I'd expect more damage on a rodent, especially with a bullet like that.

bronko22000

I too agree that the large frontal mass is a better stopper. But I still think a polymer tip would give increased velocity/energy at 200+ yards. And as long as Lehigh is on the cutting edge of high performance bullets with controled expansion and penetration, who says the tip has to be pointed? Why not round nose or even flat? Then you would likely have the best of both worlds. A higher BC and still have the large frontal area.

Grouse45

I don't disagree at all. I prefer a much smaller hollow point on the end but like I said this is a prototype and lots of room for changes on this or other new bullets being made. I would like to see a .452 240 or 250grn with a better BC like you talk about.

Grouse45

http://www.lehighdefense.com/collect...s/muzzleloader

This bullet will be for sale in the next few days. Keep an eye on the website. I do know its going to be $1.00 a bullet. Not sure what size pack they will come in yet.

1874sharpsshooter

So did you use it on elk as you had planned ?