ORIGINAL: bowbender6
Good results 150gr ff and Barnes 290TMZ
Any thoughts on terminal performance on an animal? These are designed for 100% weight retention. I don’t hear much talk about these bullets on this forum. Just got these in to try – looks like they shoot great. All the way up to 150 grains T7 FF. Groups were under an 2 inches. I didn’t chrony many loads yesterday but it looks like I need to shoot this some more.
Omega- SS –Fluted Stainless – Laminated Bedded Thumbhole stock- 4-12X swift
Target is 82 yards- MOA is based on 100 yards.
Triple Seven FF , Triple Seven Primers
the reason you do NOT hear a lot about these bullets on this forum is that the variouspeople that tend to respond to questions on this forum have been MLer hunting for >>>years<<<<, have tremendious experienceand wisdom, but have chosen excellent bullets from 8 to 10 years ago AND they have NOT switched to a more "modern bullet" like a Parker BE, Barnes TMZ, SW Bonded, Harverster Scorpion PT Gold--all of which have come out in the last 5 years. Barnes came out with the Barnes MZ about 5 years ago, and then the TMZ only about 2 years ago, so most of the gurus here would not consider these bullets because they have their "pet"bullet which works well for them, some (SL for example) have lifetime supplies of.458 Nosler 260g and 300grifle bulletsand they work excellent for them in all hunting situations---how can you beat a Nosler at < 150 yards? Can you beat it at 200, yes, with the bullets your testing, but only by afew of inches of drop. Go with the 300g bullets, better down range energy, better shoot thru, and youreally get the boom flop with the 300g. There are many STRONG opinions on bullets on this and most MLer forums. If you do some tests into sand/dirt/wet newspaper and see what fragment and what doesn't, then you will know. Here ismy blunt opinion:
1. Nosler Partition excellent to 150 or 175 yards
2. Speer Gold Dot excellent to 150 to 175 yards, much cheaper than Nosler Paritions
3. PBE fragments about 70 weight retention, excellent accuracy, switch to another MMP sabot to get true fit
3. Barnes TMZ, great if they shoot in your gun, not accurate in every gun, they ARE boat tail based, so you CAN'T swithch sabot, some have shot a #8 washer in bottom of sabot to switch to a better fitting sabot in loose bores
4. Barnes MZ, great bullet for inside 150 yards, can't be beat for terminal performance. Same as Barnes FB .458 rifle bullet, but in a .452 for MLers.
5. Barnes origonal, great bullet with great ballistic coefficient, costly $1/bullet favorite of Savage shooter since it will take high speed hits (>2500 fps)
6. SW unbonded, 250g fragments really bad, but retains enough weight to cleanly kill, many like them cause they are not as expensive as some and are >>EXTREMELY accurate<< in most guns, especially in TC, there are even BDC scopes designed around this bullet. The 300g SW does NOT have the fragmentation problem, but they don't seem to be as accurate as the 250g, I don't know why, could have to do with barrel twist.
7. SW bonded. Great bullet, a little over kill for deer since it tends to shoot thru a deer with little expansion. Great for moose and elk in 300g.
8. Dead Center--from Canada, expensive, all lead, boattail, can't switch sabots. Available now from Cabelas, and in a Cabelas brands. They work great from what I have read.
These are my opinions only, they are NOT universal claims--please don't push back on me because you have NEVER had a SW fragment or a SW that didn't expand. I know, you may not have shooting them with 100g of pellets, each gun has it own personality of what bullet, charge, primer and sabot it LIKES to shoot best. These are ONLY my impressions from my extensive review of bullets for my Savage.
Chap Gleason