I got to go do some shooting yesterday. We finally got it dialed in for the most part. We still have some work to do here but we gained alot of ground. We shot some different powder charges and finally figured out that the gun likes 100 grain charges. We shot these into a 5 gal bucket of play sand. Let me know what you think.

Looks about right...What was the range??

Those roundball expanded very nice for you with that powder charge. That will sure put a world of hurt on what every you shoot at with it...

Sharp Shooter,

The round balls look good, how tall is the 425?

The first time I stood on the garage roof and shot down into a garge can full of water, I found out that you cannot get out of the way of the stream of water that funels upward.......a thin pc of card board stopped the water.......the next time. Testing bullets is fun.

Sand is easy to use, how much penetration were you getting?

I did a test with chip board earlier this year:
http://webpages.charter.net/fam-strick/web/Test.htm

The faster 54 RB just flatened and penatrated less than the slower one.

My buddie found that 3F worked better in his Renagade with Round balls, tha 2F........go figure. He uses 120 grains, and has killed 4 or 5 elk with this load. Not sure of the ball or patch size. All his shots were in the 40-60 yard range.

throw in a powerbelt

Cool report Sharpshooter. I thought it all expanded well and either would take an elk I think. The 425, a hollowpoint, expanded a little more than the round ball. It would be neat to see a profile of the bullet. In all of my hunting, I have yet to recover aGP hollowpoint or a maxiball, but I haven't shot elk with either of them. I did some makeshift measuring on the screen and found the 425 to be approximately 5.5 units wide, while the RB was approx. 4.5 units wide. In cross sectional area, the expanded 425 is approximately 1.5 times that of the expanded RB. Since the 425 is twice the weight, it would seem that at the same impact velocity, the 425 might penetrate a little deeper. What were your findings?

I attached some 100 yard ballistics for those loads. They are my best guess at MV and B.C (so if anyone has better suggestions, suggest away). It will give you an idea of the performance you can expect from those loads. The velocity may be a little high in the first 40 yards for a hollowpoint, but IMO, no so high to cause alarm. Probably the shot will be over 25 paces, so you are only talking 50 fps to fast at worse. But at 80 yards, when the velocity is 1180 or so, that hollopoint will expand the bullet giving you a much better wound change. Granted you don't need the hollowpoint, but I really think it to be a benefit at that range with this load. When I see your 425 all mushroomed out, I'm thinking it kinda looks like a flattened .68 cal round ball. Almost the same weight even. Thing is, it should penetrate better than the .68 RB simply because it starts off as a small diameter. I really do think that you will bag an elk with either you choose.

BS,

Cool link to the wafer-board tests. Thanks for sharing that with us. It does bring us back to what I previously mentioned. Penetration seems to be less of a problem at lower velocities. It probably has something to do with how hot (hence how soft) the lead gets. When one propels a pure-lead bullet to high velocity, it gets pretty hot (and soft)even before it exits the barrel. Then if it hits at high velocity, well it gets hot and soft all over again. Thats probably why 135 grains gives the.530 RB no more penetration than 80 grains in the waferboards.

Adding more powder has diminishing benefits. By all the measures we judge a projectile's properties, we find the muzzle properties for each 5 grain increase to increase less than 5%, getting a little less juice to add to the glass with each 5 grain squeeze. Its worse at 80 yards where the benefit is only a fraction of the muzzle benefit. At some point,some folks finally say, "it just ain't worth it.Why am I beating myself sore and spending all that money on additional powder?"

Happy Hunting, Phil

Earlier I said:

we find the muzzle properties for each 5 grain increase to increase less than 5%, getting a little less juice to add to the glass with each 5 grain squeeze.

What I meant was that we get less percentage benefit than the percentage increase in powder. Simply isn't a one to one benefit.

Happy Hunting, Phil

The test was done at 80yds away. Next time I go out Imighttest the 435gr Buffalo Bullet and the 310gr Buffalo Ball-et no matter what. I am a little un sure about using a hollow point on elk but I think i would get a pass thru or maybe find it on the other side under the skin. I know that I will use that for deer but for elk I might use the 435gr Buffalo Bullet RN HB. The Hornady is about 7/8" tall and the expanded one was 7/8" wide. A quarter is about 7/8" wide to. Do you guys think I could use that Hornady on elk and Moose? If that conical could break thru thick plastic it should do fine on elk and Moose. Thanks for running those ballistics by the way.

Where did you do those ballistics?

Go here http://www.handloads.com/calc/index.html, thanks to cayugad for posting this link awhile back. The inputs were my best guess, I haven't chronied .54 cal loadsand each rifle can shoot differently so it is just meant to give you sense of the two loadsregarding their ballistic properties.

Regarding the hollowpoints, go with what you have confidence in. Complete confidence. Nothing is worse than second-guessing or worrying when you need to be concentrating on the shot,(which opportunity is often short-lived), that will fill your freezer.I think we sometimes "over think" things, I know I do, I'm definitely guilty of that. From your post, It sounds like you've made alot ground with getting your rifle sighted where you need it and already have tuned in some potent projectiles. You've just got to get your mind ready in that you are confident in your rifle and its load. Hope you fill your freezer!

Happy Hunting, Phil