ORIGINAL: eldeguello

Reading in a recent issue of Guns & Ammo, I noted that a representative from Hodgdon Powder Co., discussing their new 777 MAGNUM pellets, stated that a 250-grain sabotted bullet fired with two of these delivered more muzzle energy than a .30/'06 with a 200-grain bullet!

Elsewhere in this article, a MV of 2000 FPS was claimed for this load. Being the wise-guy that I am, I could not accept this statement without seeing for myself. My trusty calculator gave me a figure of 2221 foot/pounds for the KE of the 250-grain sabot load. But when I figured out the 200-grain .30/'06 load, I was amazed that the '06 actually delivers in the vicintiy of 1,000 foot/pounds MORE energy than the sabot does with those magnum pellets. I can fire a 200-grain 308" bullet from my '06 at 2680 FPS, which works out to 3190foot-pounds. In addition, that 200-gr PSPBT will carry a lot more energy all the way past 1000 yards much better than the best ML bullet ever made.

Now, we all know that "foot-pounds" is a very poor indicator of killing power, and that a big fat slug from a ML is pretty devastating. But I still believe we really have to take a lot of these claims with a big glob of salt! I think we get more killing power from a ML by increasing the size & weight of its' bullets, not by trying to make a modern, high-powdered rifle out of it by putting in more powder. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns when it comes to trying to burn more and more powder.....