Sabotloader bullet loan
 

Sabotloader loaned me some bullet and sabot. Doing what any one of us would do i put them on top of some powder and shot them out of my rifle. The first one i shot at paper to see where i would hit,and it cut paper almost where i aimed. That done i shot at juice bottles filled with water. The load was 105g BH209 lit by Federal 209a pushing the 303.3g bullet in an orange sabot of unknown origin. The measured diameter of the bullet was 0.457.7". First a picture of the bottles:









The bullet went through all the bottles, bounced off the first board, and was found where x marks the spot.










The spent bullet weighed 217.3g, and looked like this compared to an unfired bullet:

I shoo them orange MMP .458 sabots when I shoot my 423 grain (405 grain LEE mold but pure lead come out heavy). They are a nice sabot and when that big bullet hits things, something has to give. That bullet looks like a Leigh brass bullet. That should make a heck of a hunting load.

It appears to be a:

Lehigh .458 300gr DOA

Ive tried both the other 2 275gr-277gr .458-9s and they look fairly similar after impact.

I wish they offered sample packs of the .458 SOCOM Spitzers. :D

ronlaughlin

Are those frozen bottles of ice and water? Looks like ice there also...

The sabot was a MMP HPH-.457/.458-50 cal Orange sabot. And the bullet was a Lehigh.

After the bullet sheds it's petals - it really becomes like a 'Keith Nose' bullet - the flat nose going through tissue really creates a problem. The petals puncture the internal organs,

There is only water in the jugs, no ice. I believe what looks to be ice in the jugs is just the back side of the labels magnified by the water. There may have been thin ice on some of the puddles, but most of them were ice free also. There was a little snow scattered here and there.

The explosive effect of this brass bullet wasn't much. Only the front 2 of the 6 jugs showed much damage; the rest only had a small hole in, and a small hole out. The last 4 jugs just jumped, and stood there upright with the water running out the 45 caliber holes. All the other bullet i shot through these jugs either shredded them or knocked them over.

Every other bullet fired through the jugs blew plastic and water all around; the Nosler penetrates as far as the brass bullet, plus it has a far greater 'shock' effect. The Gold Dot, and the xtp don't penetrate as far, but they sure blew water and pieces of jug all around the area. The XTP, Gold Dot, and Nosler all shredded the jugs, and made quite a show; not so the brass bullet.

Myself, i won't be using the brass bullet for hunting. I was some surprised the Nosler can penetrate as far as the brass bullet. The XTP isn't an elk bullet, but it certainly is fine for deer. The Gold Dot is a great bullet for deer. The Nosler is great for deer, and elk, and ............................

I have only 1 question left unanswered. Even though i have already shot the 270g 44 caliber Gold Dot through water jugs, and admire how they did, i don't have a quantitative measure of their penetration like i do for the other bullets. I've a hunch the 44 caliber Gold Dot will penetrate more than the 45 caliber Gold Dot. Soon i will have the answer, after i drink some more juice.

Ron; the first time I was reading about your findings I was asking about the juice quantities because it looked like brand new bottles of juice you were shooting. I was thinking if you keep shooting up new juice bottles as fast as you wife buys it that bullet performance will be the least of your problems. Thanks for posting your test.

ronlaughlin

This to me is the best statement made throughout the test. It really would have been nice to have pictures of the disassembled bottles, after math of each test. Or even better yet a video of the whole sha-bang... So all you would have to do invest some more time and money!!! but really i for one really appreciate your tests and your verbal descriptions.

Reading your words for what they say - i really wish the Lehigh would have made a bigger splash. Hopefully this upcoming elk hunting season will be the definetive/final test for me. I have been a lifelong Nosler shooter...

deer655

I understand your confusion; in the future i will try to make my posts be more clear.

sabotloader

Yes, i also thought about taking pictures of the jugs after they were blown up, but wasn't sure they would be instructive, and was concerned about the post becoming too long. In the future i will try to include more information. I do have one video, and i did try to edit it down some, but wasn't very pleased with how it turned out. My video editing skills need improvement. What i need to do is find a standard readily available jug to fill with water. These juice jugs work great, but it takes too long to empty 6 of them.

great test Ron. It reaffirms my confidence in my nosler investment recently.