I was shooting the winchester and the staghorn today and after i was done i went and checked out a couple telephone poles that my neighbor set by his fence about 6-7 years ago and just left. Turns out that they make an excellent back stop! I was shocked what i found up there. There were all at my 110 yard range mark. One bullet, The XTP didnt even have a dent in it, which i found to be shocking. Even more surprising was finding the 225 grain powerbelt all in one piece and still weighing the exact same weight as a new powerbelt out of the package.

Hey gander, I've generally found the same thing. Dry wood - no expansion. Wet medium (a stack of water soakednewspaper or telephone books, soft wet soil, etc.) good expansion.

The last time I shot at a Telephone pole was in 1993.
CVA 1848 3rd model Dragoon, 147gr. .457 Ball, 40gr. FFFG Goex, German #11's.
Was doing some informal plinking with a few friends when I shot the 4th round out of my second cylinder load when we herd this PLINK just behind us!
we looked & I had a nice hole in the side of my 88' Chevrolet pickup from where I hit a spike or something & it ricocetted back at us!!!
Needless to say we emptied our guns into the nice soft sand & called it a day....

That is some impressive results. Dry wood, and still no expansion. I have found some projectiles in good shape, but never like that XTP you got there.

ive done that before when i had a 6 shot revolver. Pretty scary watching those lead balls, slowly bounce back at you. Also pretty sad that they couldnt go through a 2x4 i was shooting at. No metal in these. All were brand new at the time until they sat there on the ground for all those years and are rotting slowly. Bottoms have already turned to saw dust.. [:'(] Would have made good posts for a small pole barn

Interesting, My 1860 Army Pietta is happy with a load of 147gr. .457 ball & 28gr FFFG @ 845fps 221.8ft. lbs. & could punch through 4 1X6 planks spaced 1/2" appart.
I know that my Dragoon would about produce 1000fps.

Oh well the things we did when we were younger & luckily still alive to talk about it...

Here's a photo of 348 gr Aerotip that lodged in the hide on the opposite side of a bull elk I shot a couple of years ago. Almost a perfect mushroom! I was shooting 110gr of 777 2f and shot him at about 90 yards on a quartering away angle. Two steps and he tipped over like a ton of bricks.

I havn't shot now for about two years and need to get back on it, as I just found out I'm going on a December m/l hunt for mulies (and/or whities). Yeah baby!!

A bit off subject but I shot a wet barn door ina dump site with a .32 S&W (ladies purse pistol) just to see the penetration. The bullet bounced back and hit me directly in the middle of my forehead. Made a nice lump but didn't penetrate the door or my forehead.

here's a 295 powerbelt hp i recovered from a buck a shot last yr.