The setup until i had to add another wet book at the end and a thicker one in front of the particle board



And the rifles. One is my GMB54 with an Extreme TH stock. I REALLY like this setup on the GMB54, plus my fancier laminated stock stays safe.




My old fave the Barnes Original .458 300 SS put on a good show again and was the ONLY one to go through all the books until i added another wet book.

Entrance even though it does not look like it.



And a small idea of the potential wound channel. Larger center hole in the particle board is the Barnes Original 300 Semi Spitzer. The slightly smaller hole is the Speer GoldDot 50-300gr Hunting for 50A&E



The Hornady 475 325gr XTP had similar results and both bullets held onto over 250gr with a nice mushroom, even with just a 90gr charge.

Here is the Speer 45LC 250gr Defense bullet. It only held unto 120gr and less penetration but the wound channel is HUGE. Its a smaller phone book BTW.



This was only 80gr of BH209. The mushroom is nice...like a pancake but its the Defense bullet not the GoldDot Hunting series. The hollow point is very deep for good performance at 45LC speeds.

Here is why i say the Spifire 285gr BTs must be driven hard. The one with only one petal pealed back is 90gr of BH209. The one with the beautiful classic Barnes mushroom was 110gr. Both nearly went through all the books.



I forgot my MMP purples so i had to take the ones from my Barnes 54x50 bullets.

L2R---2 Rem385gr CLHPs (both held onto 350gr+)--Hornady 50cal 300gr FTX, Speer 50A&E 300gr GoldDot Hunting, Rainier 50cal 300gr HP retained about 130gr. :lol: And a Lehigh .451 255gr DOA at far right. It doesnt look like much but the wound channel was very nasty and pentration was outstanding. The lehigh was one of the 3 to reach the final dry book with the extra wet one.



The Speer 300gr GoldDot did very well actually (236gr) and the Berry's failed terribly with less than half remaining. The Hornady 50cal 300gr FTX held unto 220gr with a nice mushroom and penetration.


Here is a short video of the Rem 385gr CLHP impacting my test media

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

All shot were from 15 yards and i was basically trying to make the bullets fail. Some i pushed far past the design limitations and a few did fail IMO. The Sierra .458 300gr HP did far worse than i expected but should do just fine with a lighter charge.

Edit the Berry's was a Rainier 50cal 300gr HP

Thank you very much for the great info. I was hoping that the Barnes spit-fire would open up a little better then it did.

I'm thinking I might try a expansion test with some bullets. To simulate the width of a deer, I'm thinking of shooting through two gallon jugs of water and then use a big piece of cardboard behind the jugs to record the amount the bullet expanded. It would be interesting if the barnes bullets open up completely after exiting the two gallons jugs.

The 285gr SpitFires expand just fine if they are moving fast enough. Some of the newer TMZs are just a MZ with a poly tip and should expand better at lower velocity.

im guessin it never made it to the water bottles? be kewl to see a video

Very interesting! Thanks for doing this- I love all sorts of tests like this.

As always, the Barnes Bullets look awesome!