After watching Dave from Lehigh do some testing, i decided to do some on my own. I took 2.5 gal bags and filled them half full of water and shot at them at 50yards with the 250grn Lehigh Brass bullet to see how consistent and accurate the petals sheared.

It was simply amazing how consistent these bullets perform. The bottom line is, the petals shear when they hit liquid and start pucturing/severing arteries and vitals inside the game you are shooting at. And then metplate of the bullet just keeps on going and in most cases exits thru the animal.

I also shot some 290grn TMZ'S and the 300grn SST"s into the water. The only difference between the bullets was the petals. All three bullets blew up the water and went thru the 3/4" plywood. The Lehigh with these extra petals is fascinating to me and very effective.

Here is a picture below of the petals shown on the wet piece of paper after the petals sheared while going thru the water.





For those that dont know, the 250grn Lehigh has 6 petals that shear off inside the animal to create the extra trauma/shock on game.

The 150grn Steel bullets failed the test. Dave needs to go back and modify those bullets to perform like the brass. The 150grn bullets did work when you got 110grns of BH209 at 50 yards. This light weight bullet will need to work at slower velocities for recoil sensistive people and women and children. I did shoot a few Deer with these bullets last year and they worked really well at 2600fps.

BTW- Dave is also working on getting the sabotless bullets to perform just like the Brass bullets in copper. We hope to have some to test in the next couple weeks if possible.

Interesting. So are the copper bullets going to be designed to shear like the brass ones? I would think it would be harder to do with a softer metal like copper.

Hi Grouse.
One of my hunting goals is meat in the freezer. How much meat are you losing due to the shearing petals?
Thanks,
Art

I kind of lean that way too flounder. Primarily a meat hunter - nice horns are a bonus and do get the blood pumping. I would be pissed to have a big chunk of loin destroyed with a mid-chest shot.

But it sure looks like that bullet would put an animal down fast.

The copper bullets will be designed like the brass one's. And it will be harder to do with the copper. It might take a few times to get it right???? The steel bullets also need some work to work like the brass.

I haven't lost any meat to tell you the truth. My friend really butchers most of my deer. The Lehigh is very consistent in performance. What about XTP'S, SST'S, and all lead bullets? They never do the same thing twice. Now if a bad shot was made i guess it's possible.

I don't know if a petal or two would ruin any of the meat. It might not be very pretty but you could always grind it.

I forgot to mention i also tested the 250grn Lehigh at 200yards. I used 130grns of BH209 and a Knight Disc Elite 50cal. The picture above was a mirror image of the results at 200yds. At some point/range the Lehigh will work like a conventional mushrooming bullet. Those petals require i believe 1000fps and liquid to shear and come off. I'm very happy out to 200yards to say the least with both 50 and 45cal Muzzlleloaders.

I plan this weekend to do the same test's with the 200grn Lehigh. I dont expect any issues because the 200grn bullet will be even traveling faster then the 250grn.


Here's a picture of the bullet after the petals have seperated.

https://webmail2.agoc.com/mime.php?f...bullts+004.mpg


This bullet is the .458 300grn Lehigh 45/70 bullet. These bullets also shoot very well in Muzzleloaders.

I have taken two deer with the 200gr Lehigh one was a 170 pound buck the other was a 140 pound doe the buck was a long angle running shot and the doe was standing almost broadside never lost any meat. Not losing meat is more a matter of hitting them in the right place than the bullet. Lee