Bonded or not??
 

I am looking for a good bullet for my knight disc in a 50 cal. Do i need to spend the extra money on the bonded bullets for whitetail or is it just a waste of money? Looking at the 250 gr. range of bullet

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Try a 250 grain Shockwave or a 260 grain Nosler Partition. Knight will also tell you that a Knight RED HOT or a Barnes Expander in 250 or 300 grain will shoot well. I shoot a 260 grain Partition with 120 grains of powder in my Disc with a Winchester W209 primer.

RE: Bonded or not??
 

With a 250 HP I would recommend that with loads over 100gr a bonded bullet is best,whenyou get into other gr weights with real good SD there are exceptions if you use 300gr or something like the 50/40 200gr Shock Wave.
For deer in a 250a Gold Dot is very good. Lee

RE: Bonded or not??
 

the bonded don't separate the jacket from the core on close high powered shots, it also helps in penetration, but the SW is excellent for that anyway. The bonded do NOT shoot the same as the regular SW, so you will have to choose. I would choose the bonded, since you don't want the buck of a life time to walk, anything will kill a 75 doe, no problem, they are just not that hard to kill. But big bucks, and big mule deer, use a big heavy bullet and drive it home with the weight.
Chap Gleason

RE: Bonded or not??
 

If your not looking to buy an all copper bullet, the only other way i would go, would be a bonded bullet. As gleason.chapman had mentioned, bonded bullets will not seperate from their jackets and with a non-bonded bullet their is the probability that it may seperate, which means it will lose energy and impede its penetration. So the answer to your question is yes! Spend the extra $!

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Here's a picture of a non-bonded 250 grain Shockwave. This bullet was shot at a doe at 60 yards and never exited in a broadside shot. It still did the job, due to shot placement, but I was put back by the poor penetration!

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Excellent example of poor penetration but excellent shot placement killing the deer. Again this was a "high powered" close shot for a SW, they are really designed for long distance shooting (i.e open fields, 150 to 200 yards). If you want high powered close shooting with a SW style bullet choose a Barnes TMZ 290g or a bonded SW. Both work well, the Barnes is better in my opinion, because the expand picture perfect and shoot thru expanded. >>>Sometimes<<< the SW shoot right thru and don't expand much, giving a LONG blood trailing job..
Chap Gleason

RE: Bonded or not??
 

I would Recomend the 250/300 gr Barns MZ or TMZ or the 250/300gr Speer Gold Dot

RE: Bonded or not??
 

gleason.chapman, you just suprised me, my bonded 250 SW will shoot right into the same 1 inch group as the unbonded. Lee

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Not in my Savage and I have read where other people say the same thing.

Unbonded: http://www.the-gleasons.com/TC_Shockwave_300g_2007_06_02_AA5744_44g_FederalPri mer_default%20sabot.jpg

and

http://www.the-gleasons.com/TC_Shockwave_300g_2007_09_03_AA5744_44g_Winchester KleenborePrimer_default%20sabot.jpg


Bonded: http://www.the-gleasons.com/TC_ShockwaveBonded_300g_2007_09_03_AA5744_44g_Winc hesterKleenborePrimer_default%20sabot.jpg

Chap Gleason

RE: Bonded or not??
 

and here is what a bonded 250 grain SW looks like at 50 yards on a cow elk...

RE: Bonded or not??
 

I really like the old reliable Barnes Expanders for 150 yards or less. For longer distances, the Knight TMZ polymer-tips are supposedly very good also.

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Excellent advice, however if you use the Knight TMZ (I think it is the Untimate Slam bullet I think), you gotta buy it early, because they don't make a run of the bullets for Knight every month. Best to use a Barnes TMZ, I know the Knights are cheaper by a couple of bucks, but if they shoot well in your gun, buy 3 or 4 packages for the hunting season. Chap Gleason

RE: Bonded or not??
 

Bonded and regular 250 Shockwaves shot into the same hole with my Omega... here is a bonded 250 that was shot into the shoulder of a buck at 57 yards. The Shockwave was found under the skin on the off side... the load was 100 grains of 777 3f.

RE: Bonded or not??
 

The bonded SW shoot into the same hole as the regular SW in all three of my guns also.

RE: Bonded or not??
 

I agree with lemoyne, mine shoot the same bonded or not in 250 gr. I am also surprised your bullets are exploding like that. I get pass thrus all the time and the deer fall dead right where they are shot. I see in Chaps post he is shooting a Savage with smokeless on these bullets. I think they are being pushed too hard with that smokepole. I would be curious to see what speeds he is getting to see if it is possible that the bullet is exploding due to the load of (44gr of smokeless?) I get consistent 1750 fps out of my Traditions Lighting Bolt and the bullets hold similar to the pictures of AZBear and flint head has posted. It may be all the tweaking we get invloved with on our loads. I use the sabots that come with both the bonded and unbonded and they work awesome. I use the bonded on hogs and the unbonded on deer and can't complain. Just my two cents.