I had another range session with the Omega X7 and .429/240 grain Deep Curls last Saturday. I'll post the target results in another thread, but this one is about a mud puddle and bullet performance.

We've had a lot of rain in the first half of January. The ground on our hunting lease is so soggy that even though the soil is sandy and drains fairly rapidly, the loggers pulled out because their equipment was getting bogged down in slush.

We had bright sunny days Friday and Saturday, but the bullet impact trenches behind each of the targets on our hunting club rifle range were still holding water.

Here's a picture of the 50 yard target frame I used Saturday. You can see the bullet impact point twenty yards behind the target.



Here's a closer picture of the impact trench filled with water.




As I said, I was shooting .429 240 grain Speer Deep Curl HPs. One of the loads shot was 95 grains of GOEX FFg. Another load was 95 grains Pyrodex RS, which generally gives a higher velocity than GOEX.

Returning to my childhood, I played in that mud puddle a bit, recovering shot bullets.

Here's what I found. Frankly, I can't imagine better bullet performance (at least in a mud puddle ).

That's pretty cool. I can't do that. We have no puddles. Last night without the wind, it was -21F. Although its nice and warm now.. its -12F. We don't even want to talk about wind chills. But puddles tend to harden pretty fast where I live. We'd be more prone to ricochet.

That is impressive expansion. I shoot that same bullet and have always felt it would be a great deer bullet.

Dang Dave, that is COLD! I hate when we get in single digits...we are wimps down here in VA I guess


Semi, intersting how much more the RS bullets expanded. I can't imagine they are going that much faster...but it appears so. ?

And we all know you were just playing in a mud puddle and got lucky and found em LOL

The real shock is how well that small bullet, going that fast, holds together. Granted mud puddles are not flesh and blood. But if something were going to splatter you would have thought it would have done it there. Yet, I like the almost perfect mushroom they got. Sabotloader for a long time always praised the Speer's ability to hold together. Semisame I believe just proved him right again. That is very good information. Its been a long time since I purchased Speer. How do they compete price wise to the Hornady? Also if you have some Hornady, I would love to see the comparison in a similar test.

I truly do not know how you guys survive that. Bears are smart - they hibernate.

Im cold just after reading this I cant imagine going out hunting in those temps your a better man than I Cayugad .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=PN-MjUC4f9k

Good dog. Sorry, but it makes me feel good to watch it.

Ya' gotta smile at that.

That's funny.

We have a high of 78* today down here in Texas!
Had to turn the A/C on in January!