recovered bullets
 

letssee some pics of recovered bulletssome of you guys found over the years.

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Here is a recoved Nosler Partition from last year's ML buck I got at about 30 yard facing me in the brisket, bullet was rear hind quarter under hide, perfect expansion. Chap Gleason

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Here is a Speer Gold Dot 300g (SabotLoader was genesis of this for me)recoved from a doe shot with a TC FL last season. Perfect expansion. Petals on Gold Dot are VERY strong metal.
Chap Gleason

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Let's see if I can attach these. They are both precision rifle 220 grain dead center bullets shot over 80 grains of 777 powder. Light recoil and incredible performance. I only shoot in typical situation 50-75 yards. But, I'm sure they would perform extremely well at longer distances.

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Gleason, What powder and how many grains did you shoot with those gold dots and at what distance? Those look sweet. Thanks for sharing, Greg

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This is a 250 grain Hornady SSTthat fell out while handling a field dressed hog. The bullet broke two ribs going in.A bang flop. The picture title is wrong.

Range: Later measured with laser range finder at 192 yards.
Gun: Encore
Powder: 90 grains of JSG.
Primer: Winchester 209 shotgun.
Bullet retained weight: 167 grains.

Posted the picture of the wrong bullet. The things that can go wrong when one gets old.

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Nice shooting!! This would be exactly what I am trying to accomplish!!

River Rat

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This was shot from a TC FlintLock lock with 80g of FFF Goex, crushed rib sabot, sight in at 50 yards. The petals on the crushed rib are strong, not thin, the bonding of the bullet to the lead is verygood and well done, it doesn't separate from the bullet core. The Hollow point is deep and expands rapidly and well. In my mind it is an excellent ML bullet at a very resonable price, $16 for 50. I have 50 Nosler Partitions 300g HG PP left, I will use them this year in my Omega and Knight, but I will switch to the Gold Dot when I am done with that box. Sabotloader gave me the tip onSpeer Gold Dot, and his recommendations are alwaysright on target.
Chap Gleason

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chap

That gold dot surely does look good...great expansion all the way down to the dot and really fairly uniform... I have been a bit amazed by the toughness of the petals...

Lee wrote in last week that he had use a 250 GD with great success also. You guys are getting me to want to pull the trigger early this year on a deer.... but i keep fighting the temptation... I have all of November - if I shoot now them I have to do "honey do's" - & can not go hunting... I'll wait till the last couple of days of the season - I hope..

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225 powerbelt, 80 grains triple 7

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FG

Sorry FG, no matter what you post - a PB will never impress me especially one of the light ones. I know you are semi forced to use one cause Colorado is a conical state but there are such better projectiles out there. PB's would be way down the list...

Look at your pic it really is nothing more than a flattened overweight round ball, but I am really glad they work for you.

Which one would you choose... never mind I should not have asked that...

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And a roundball is a deadly killer. With 100 grains goex and that 225 powerbelt, im still putting over 900ft lbs energy @ 200 yards with it.

Also have killed with maxi balls and great plains conicals. I didnt like the maxi ball experience but the great plains did a good job. Ive also hunted and killed with roundballs before.

Gotta shoot what shoots best out of your rifle and what has proven to take game down.
Also have to remember that i no longer hunt with my inlines.

Im geared up for 3ed season elk with my .54 flintlock and PRB. But im only buying a tag if its truely cold by november :D 70* today

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Also have to remember that cayugads roundball went through one deer and stopped in the second deer! The question is, what did that roundball look like when it exited the first? More than likey, it mushroomed very very little, If at all. So a roundball that has gone through 2 deer isnt like a powerbelt at all.

The roundball went through the first deer ;)

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Does anyone have any recovered hornady xtp pictures? I had terrible luck with the 300 grain onesand would like to see some that were recovered from animals to see how well they expand and if they held together.

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I havent shot an animal with an XTP but i did recover one out of a telephone pole that i shot at 100 yards. Didnt even expand or anything. I could probably shoot it again but im not that cheap lol.

Bullets perform differently on game.

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i've killed about a dozen deer and big bunches of hogs with my CVA Staghorn and 240 grain XTP bullets. Very few of the animals ever went anywhere when hit. Few of the bullets were recovered. One 240 grain XTP that was recovered went through a deer standing broadside and hit another doe behind her what was quartering toward me.Both deer bang flopped. Distance was about 125 yards. Powder was 130 grains of loose Pyrodex. My wife was cutting up a deer ham for jerky and found that bullet. Would take a photo and post it but my digital camera is on vacation with my wife. Found it!!! Got it mixed up with another photo.

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falcon

if truth were to be told there probably has been more deer harvested with a Hornady 240 grain XTP than any other bullet.

It has been used for so many years in all kinds of 44 caliber rifles and 50 cal ML's.

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I know many people love them. I just couldn't use them in my ML. They shot incredibly accurately when using 90 grains of pyrodex RS. Bullet holes consistently touched at 50 yds. But, when i shot deer, the deer would run forever and i never found them. I could find blood for maybe 15-20 yrds, then nothing. I knew they were good shots and it made me sick. I was at the point of giving up ML hunting until someone suggested the precision rifle all lead bullets. I've shot a few deer with them and 2 fell in their tracks and one went maybe 40 yds or so with a blood trail that was out of this world. The guy I hunt with loves them but I don't get any kind of performance out of them. So, I am just curious to see what they look like once they are recovered. I was shooting the 300 grain xtp's over 90 grains of pyrodex rs at less than 50 yards. Show me some pics. I'd love to see what they look like. Thanks again, Greg.........PS - I'm not putting down these bullets, they just don't seem to work for me.

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gt2003

There are actually 3 different 300 grain XTP's, They are built with a really thick copper coat and are really a tough bullet. If you were shooting a XTP-Mag - I really could believe that you might have had some problem with them going all the way through a whitetail without a lot of expansion expecially at close range, actually any of the 3 - 300's will get through in a hurry - but they are decent for tougher skinned animals. The 240 and the 250 on the other hand have a different HP and do expand very easily - one of the reasons that the 240 works so well on deer.

I have used a few Precision lead bullets, and in fact in Washington all lead is required, but i still have some left never really got whati was looking for plus they are expensive and overated by Cecil.

As far as I am concerned the absolute best bullet for deer is the .451/260 grain Nosler Partition also an expensive bullet but totally built for penetration. If you shoot a deer with them and get your bullet in the chest cavity - they will literally turn all the vitals in the cavity to dark red jello as they pass through. The bullet I will use when I run out of Noslers will be the .452/250 grain Speer Gold Dot. They are bonded bullet with controlled expansion to the dot in the middle of the cavity, I call them a poor man's nosler. You can see the Gold Dot that Chap used in the picture above - it was a 300 grain with a BC of .232 from a flint lock - dang it worked good.

Here is a picture of some Gold Dots I shot into saturated clay - then recovered. They really hung together - I shot Hornady into the same medium and stripped the lead right from the copper... Doesn't happen with the Gold Dot or the Nosler.

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gt2003

Here is a pic of the recovered Gold Dot and the Hornady's...

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SL,
Thanks for the input. I'm not 100% sure of what 300 grain XTP bullet I shot. If I recall correctly, I shot it with some sort of green sabot. It was INCREDIBLY accurate. The problem was that the deer I shot pretty much laughed at it and went on. I literally lost 3 deer, maybe more. I was at the point of giving up muzzleloading until I found the precision rifle bullets. Now, I don't shoot far when I hunt, maybe 50-75 yds at the most so it's pretty easy to find a bullet that shoots good at this range. But, if the gold dots expand that well with only 80 grains of goex, I'M IN!!!! But, after my experience with the XTP's, I'm kind of leery of any jacketed bullet.

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Sorry, I didn't see this post before my last one. Which pix are which? Are these 240 grain XTP's vs. the 300 grain version? Not trying to be an Azz but am really looking for something that will work. If anyone has recovered some 300 grain xtp's i would love to see them. Thanks again, Greg

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gt2003

That would have been a .430/300 grain Hornady & @ close ranges that may have lead to problems.... extended ranges around a 100 yard it "should have" worked very well. Some whitetails even adult whitetails do not offer much resistance to high velocity bullet unless you tag a major bone.

They do and that was a tougher 300 grain - look at the cavity in a 250 grain Gold Dot - it will expand and it will create hydrostatic shock in the chest cavity - it will pass through and it will spray blood all over.

All of this goes back to the fact that bullet placement is the most important thing you can do...

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gt2003

The copper on the left are .452/300 grain Honady's shot into clay @ a 100 yards - the lead has stripped out of the jacket completly... the bullets on the right are Gold Dots from the same medium.

Here is a recovered 300 grain from a whitetail buck shot several years ago - found it under the skin on the other side. It passes through the shoulder blade a rib on the near side and a rib on the far side. It was just a bit over 100 yards... back in those days I was just learning about ML shooting and thought I need the 300 grain bullet.

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The XTP Mags are not designed for use in a ML...they are for usein magnum type Casulish handguntype stuff.

The Mags will NOT expand at ML velocities, a 250 grain XTP Mag won't even expand out of my Ruger BH usingmax loads of Lil' Gun......not even at 10 feet into chunks of firewood.

I've killed a couple threetruck loads of deer with the "regular"240 XTP though, outta my inline ML.

Never had one not die like it should have.

Up close it's likehittin''emwith a freight train....

Out a fer piece, 200 yards, it pokes two very leaky holes through the ribsand the deerbleeds out in very short order, very dead before I get there, easily recovered.

They might make a "better" deer killer than the "regular" XTP, but I haven't found it yet.

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Wilds

Here is an information sheet on the 454 Casual. It shows the velocities of the Casual. When I shoot the 300 from my inline I am shooting it @ 1800 fps second which is greater than the Casual. I beleive the lack of expansion of the Hornady can be traced back to the fact that a white tail just does not afford it enough time to expand before it is out of the animal - unless you hit a major bone.

Chap's shot with a 300 Gold Dot designed for a Casual shows that it will expand in a deer sized animal...

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Here is an expansion test I did.

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Biggest hog i ever killed was with a 240 grain XTP. The field dressed pig pegged the 350 pound scales. That bullet went through both shoulders and left an exit hole one inch or bigger.It went through 18 inches of gristle, flesh and bone.

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I would love to know what my Barnes look like, but they go through. leaving a nice exit I might add.

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"Here is an expansion test I did."

That big conical expanded really well. Never got into conicals. Gota lot of 370 grain TC conicals gathering dust.Might give them a try in a CVA that is also gathering dust.

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I'm sure that was the problem with the 300 grain xtp's I shot. The deer in my area are not very large, 70 lbs field dressed for a doe is pretty common. So, I doubt the bullet expanded the way it should have leading to my problems. Guess I'll stick with the dead centers for now. I guess my mini deer require all lead to do the trick. Thanks for the input. Keep sending those pix, it's neat to see how the bullets perform.

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I will likely get beheaded over saying this but I think the 300gr is fine for elk moose and bear or any thing over 500 pound, I much prefer the 230 to 270 gr weight for deer. There is two ways to get in trouble here to blow up like a varmit bullet and to penatrate with out expanding either one might kill but you might have to follow quite a ways, I like that animal to fall with in 40 yards if I can not get a bang flop which I do mostly. I like to experiment and have done so for 55 years [I am 70 and still hunt like I did 20 years ago, I am very lucky that way] Ihave drawn my own conclusions on most bullets and the way to use them, once you achive accuracy you still have to shoot them at the right velocity FOR THAT PARTICULAR BULLET AND INTO SOMETHINGBIG ENOUGH TO MAKE THEM WORK.
Just my thoughts on the matter. Lee

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Lee

As someone says every once in awhile.... "Old school" - not always the wrong way.

Almost forgot - I agree - now there are two of us hanging out there... Hope you do not mind sharing a spot out there on the limb...

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falcon - out of curiosity. How far was that hog away from you? Also what kind of powder charge were you shooting? The reason I ask is a person I used to talk to all the time on a forumwas a big hog hunter. You hear all this talk of the XTP's not penetrating. Yet, he swore by the XTP as his hog load. He says it knocked them flat. So your report caught my interest.

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"falcon - out of curiosity. How far was that hog away from you?"

About 40 yards. The powder charge was 100 grains of Pyrodex RS.My cheap Staghorn has knocked a lot of hogs totally flat with the 240 grain XTP bullet.

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My cheap Staghorn Magnum likes 90 grains of Goex 2f and a 240 grain XTP. It shoots them perfect.

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My cheap staghorn loves 70 grains pyrodex p and a 410 great plains conical.

:D so many staghorns on this topic today.

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Cayugad, I think the xtp's were penetrating. I just don't think there was "enough deer" there for them to do their trick. I think a thick skinned, fat hog would probably let the bullet perform just as it should.

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I know mud is not flesh. But here are a couple of 300 grain Speer Gold Dots recovered fromdamp sandy loam behind the 100 yard target on my range. These were shot with a muzzle velocity of around 1700 fps. I get better groups with 250 grain Gold Dots, but like the heavy weights for hunting.