ORIGINAL: XxHolleyxX
I have a friend who for several years has shot 150 grain charges out of his TC Black Diamond. His accuracy stinks for a scoped inline rifle. This morning on his way in from fishing he came out to my range so we could bench test it. He shot a group...about 8" at 100 yards. I told him to try 100 grains just to see what it would do. I have been telling him since he got his ML to try this but he has refused bacause he says "I want the bullet to go throught the deer." I told him I have gotten pass throughs on whitetails with my TC Hawken with 70 grains butI dontalways. Then I thought of something. I asked him to let meshoot a group with his rifle. He agreed. I loaded two 777 pellets and a 240 TC XTP. Fired the first shot, swabbed the barrel and loaded another. After the shot said "it must be bad since you arent saying where it hit." I told him I hought it might have hit the same hole. He said "if it hit the same hole it was a fluke." We walked to the target and sure enough, one oblong hole. The third shot was bit left, but snugged in nicely completing a sub 1 1/2" group. He thought his rifle sucked, andwasvery happyto say the least, but still worried that 100 grains wont completely penetrate the deer.
What is everyone experience with terminal performance vs. powder charge with different bullets?
What is a good choice of bullet with penetration in mind?
I dont know because I have only shot deer with 70 grains and conicals.
I gave him the rest of my box of pellets since I'm not using the pellets anymore and the bullets. He gave me a cooler full of fresh crappie. mmm...fresh crappie for dinner tonight!
Holley
I know personally that 100g of loose 777 wiht a 300g Nosler Partition will produce pass thrus. 8" group is terrible. It is MUCH better to have an accurate rifle than to have passthroughs, since bullet placement is the number one killer, followed by bullet penetration and expansion. I would not consider a 8" group a good hunting load, I would say that a 3" group is adequate for a scoped inline MLer. I just got a Savage and have shot 8 different bullets in it, the best group I got was about a 1" group all touching with TC 300g SW. I also like pass thrus and I believe the 300g bullets that are either bonded or are well constructed (like Nosler Partition, Barnes, Parker Balistic Exreme) will all do the job.
Chap Gleason