Exit holes are nice and big.

What was the charge and range?

I think those results are not unusual. The media you shot into are pretty "hard", and as I said I think the 250gr SST is a little "soft" (the SST and SW are the same thing). Especially if the range was under 100 yds, I would not be surprised to see the jacket separate. This is why I don't buy the "penciling" argument, I've seen way more real-life evidence of the opposite, that they tend to over-expand. I believe reports of this are why Hornady came out with the bonded version.

If I were going to shoot the 250gr, I'd definitely shoot the bonded version. With the 200gr I have also seen separation, but not nearly as bad, and not unless I hit both shoulders and recover the jacket under the offside skin (with animals DRT).

100yds w/100gr. of T7FFg. It was VERY windy comming from NE of my position. Gusts up to 20mph. Blew my spotting scope off the table. No Damage other than scratches. Here is another pic.

The copper jacket started to peeloff so fast. Just a few pages.

The channels left behind were defferent too. I could stick my pinkey finger in the hole left by the Barnes.

But not the Hornady SST. Barley the tip of my pinkey would fit.

It hit the paper AFTER the milk jug, right? I'd guess it should have been opening pretty well after the jug.

I guess it depends what you are looking for in a bullet. A lead core bullet is going to expand differently than a Barnes, that's just design. That being said, I've commented before that the non-bonded 250SST/SW is the worst of the lineup, the 200gr is better and the bonded versions solve the deficiencies of the non-bonded to a large extent. I don't know why the popularity is the inverse of what I feel the quality is!

My brief personal experience with Barnes was in shotguns and showed poorer penetration and too much damage, but I think they do better in MLs (smaller bullets). If you like the pretty flower look and what you found (and the price), I'd recommend using them if you have more confidence in them.

Yup, jug full of water first, then the wet news paper. Since the penetration of the Barnes was about half of the SST, I may give the 290gr Barnes TMZ a try. I figure since I will be shooting BH209 for hunting, I maywant shoot a heavier bullet since the BH209 is capable of good velocities with the heavierbullets. More testing.