Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

These bullets look almost exact to a Hornady SST bullet. They are not. The SST'S have a hard plastic tip. The FTX have a soft plastic tip. The FTX are the worst bullet i ever used on Deer. I found three out of four Deer with no blood trails. Very sad but true, and actually needed help to find one Deer. The Deer found were all behind the shoulder shots and one was between the shoulders. The farthest one went was about 100yds. That sucks in the woods and no snow.

I will say velocity might have something to do with it. I was shooting 115grns of BH209 and that's only around 2000fps. This bullet might work alot better around 2300fps but i wont be finding that out, that's for sure. After using these i took a Buck in PA with a T/C Shockwave with plenty of blood and about a 30yard run at most until dying. The hard tip SST'S and SW'S have done the job for me. Just a little heads up for those that dont know.

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

Was there an exit hole on any of them? How about bullet expansion?

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

I think they all exited. No recovered bullets. They reminded me of a Barnes original and those 195grn Barnes. A small hole in and out.

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

well, just goes to show you that you can have an exit hole but it still may not leak. I prefer a big hole in and if it comes out, shucks because i really wanted to see what it looked like.

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

Grouse45

I would have suggested just the opposite direction in the velocity chase... I would have back them down to 18/1900 so they would have time to expand before they exited... especially in whitetail.... now a thick skinned elk or maybe even a tough hog the greater velocity would work just fine. I think we often overshoot a lot of bullets...

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

A pointed bullet that does not expand is about the worst bullet there is. It's like shooting a field point arrow through an animal. It may die one day, but a long way from where you shot it.

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

The ones I have are designed for the Bushmaster at 2200 to 2400 fps. The accuracy was excellent I have yet to do any other testing. I will be using the heaviest load they will shoot accurate with. so far all the loads I tried shot with the same accuracy as the SW the one I am working on right now is the 250 with out a cannalure.
Lee

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

Hey Grouse, which one of the FTX bullets were used? I suspect some of them are tougher than others.



I thinkLee may be on the right track with the Bushmaster bullet which is probably designed to operate at a little over 2000 fps muzzle velocity. I suspect the one designed for the 460 S&W would be the most appropriate for muzzle loader velocities, but a 200 grain .452 bullet is pretty short and fat and would probably be only a 100 yard bullet anyway. A regular old XTP is probably better.

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

Here's a viedo showing the Bushmaster hitting ballistic gel. It looks like expansion is pretty quick and at a perfect penetration depth for deer. The video says it's "over 2000 fps", but not how much over. I'd sure like to know the actual muzzle velocity of the round shown in the video, and the distance of the gel from the muzzle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0f5wvgGew

RE: Dont be fooled by Hornady FTX bullets.
 

Have never used this bullet.i have used the soft nosed 350 grain FPB bullets to good effect on several hogs.

Am very leery of any testing that is done with clay, ballistic gelatin or anything elsethat is not a live animal. Last week end i dug into the clay bank behind the 100 yardtarget at my range.Recovered several 300 grain HornadyXTP Magnum bullets: None of them had expanded. The powder load was 140 grains of Goex 2F Pinnacle.

A friendand his wife have usedmy gun, the 300 grainHornady XTP Magnum bullet and 140 grains of Goex 2F Pinnacle to dispatch7 hogs. Several of those hogs weighed over 200 pounds on the hoof. All of the bullets exited, leavinghuge holes. None of those hogs went over 20 yards after being hit.

BTW: The old SST/Shockwave bullets had a hard plastic nose. The 250 grain SST/Shockwave bullet now has that same soft nose as the other bullets. IMO: This is one of the reasons for that bullets reported failure on game.There are as many as 4 different SST/Shockwave bullets out there;regular andmagnum,each with soft and hard noses.