The hills have finally dried some, and it is now possible to get around up there without sliding around in the mud. It seemed a good day to try out a couple of bullets by shooting them into a row of juice jugs backed by phone book.








The rifle was a Triumph topped with a 4x scope. The first bullet tried was the 270g 44 caliber Gold Dot in a crushed rib sabot pushed by 105g BH209, which was ignited by a Winchester W209 primer. A camera was set up before the shot, and it produced this video.

The bullet went through 3 jugs and was found laying on the bottom of the fourth.

Next a 290g TEZ was tried using the same set up, however the factory supplied sabot was used. Here is the the video of that shot. The TEZ went through 4 jugs, and went off to the right cutting the 5th jug, and missing the 6th, and then stuck itself into the first phone book.

The Gold Dot ended up weighing 268.1g, and the TEZ ended up weighing 287.3g. Following are pictures of the two bullet.

Great Post Ron. I really enjoyed it.

GOLD DOTS - premium bullet performance at a reasonable price.

An excellent post Ron.
It does not surprise me the heavier bullet got more penetration. Some times the question is how fast do you want to expend those foot pounds. I have gone through the boiler room of many deer and into the hillside beyond with a Gold Dot but I think the extra penetration and weight would be very good for elk or moose maybe even for buffalo.
Ron what is your opinion on the amount of damage in the first 3 jugs?
Lee

lemoyne

The first 2 jugs have been shredded by most of the bullets i have tested. In this case, the Gold Dot didn't do much to the third or fourth jug, except for in and out bullet holes in the third jug, and the in bullet hole in the fourth jug. However, the first 2 jugs were exploded by the Barnes, and the third jug was shredded. The fourth jug exit hole was not just a hole either. The videos kinda show how the jugs fare when struck by these bullet.

ronlaughlin

Here is another one that a guy ran his video on...

Lehigh 300 grain .458 MZ bullet @ 1900 fps . Bullet vaporizes first 4 jugs, badly damages 5th, shank of bullet found protruding out of 8th jug slightly puncturing 9th. So 4 feet of penetration.

Repeated the shot with exactly the same results. Retained bullet weight 219 grains for both, nose petals sheared off. Each of the 6 petals weigh about 13 grains.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1...hbullts004.mp4

Sabotloader
Mike I Wish I could get out to try the Lehigh 200gr. I am kind of partial to it because at 200+ yds I have never held minute of angle groups with any thing else like I do with the 200gr Lehigh and 140 gr of BH.

Lee

I am kinda partial to the .458/277 or 300 grain bullet because of the Elk I hunt, but like you for deer I am thinking the 40/200 is the bullet to use - although I am not shooting it as hot as you are. I am using 110 grains of T7-2f, that is really an accurate load for me. A 200 yard shot at a deer is really rarity around here, a long shot is usually 60 yard and over. Idaho is just dang up and down unless you are in southern Idaho or shooting across the river breaks deep in the canyons...

Thats what im going with a soon as i can find the sweet spot. My groups with the 200gr Lehigh right now are just a little bit too large but im pretty sure i can get them much better. I have a 1-24twist 50 i want to try them in also with the 50x40 Crushribs.

The Lehigh 185gr though has given me my best group at 200 yards and did pretty well on my test media at much closer range. Penetration was more than i expected the first few times i tried them out.

Took me a few tries before i was able to recover one.

I took a couple of deer with them last year the only one I recovered was from a long angle shot on a good bucl went through from the kidney to the opposit front shoulder and was hanging out of the skin after busting that shoulder.
With my load 140gr BH209 they shoot very good at 250 which is as far as I can go on the range they shoot right on the 200 yd circle of my Omega Nikon at 250.

One of the main things i like is....no matter what combo of media i try the Lehighs perform almost exactly the same each time.

Ive tried at least 4 different weights/calibers and every one performed the same and within my standards or better for penetration and initial shock.

Even more predictable than one of my favorite 50cal Barnes options.