Muley, of course they hold together....Well... at least enough to get the job done very effectively. Those Barnes 225gr XPs were very popular with ULA owners who shoot them at well over 2200fps.

So what if a petal or two shears off. The base still weighs in at around 200 grains. This is assuming it will react on game in a similar fashion. I doubt it will most of the time. Water jugs tests are very hard on many types of bullets...Its a torture test of sorts.

The only copper Barnes i totally avoid now are the 285gr Spitfire and the 460S&W 275gr XPB. The 285gr has given me some accuracy issues and on one occasion appeared to have very little expansion on a deer i shot. It was a near text book broadside. The 275gr XPB shoots great for me but ive seen it fail to expand for me and for another person on media. If it wont expand reliably in water or gel, its probably not going to expand reliably on game either.

To me the jury is still out on the Federals. I would not use them for long range any way. The BC is pitiful. Just because it shed a petal at very high impact speed means very little to me. It would be interesting to replicate in gel with a very high quality slow motion camera.

What kind of temporary and permanent would channel did it leave? Did it tumble ect ect ect?

My WAG atm is the copper/zinc alloy is a bit too hard because it was not annealed correctly. It might be harder than the Hornady MonoFlex. Both are guilding metal IIRC which by definition is 95% copper and 5% zinc. I dont even know if that is truly the case with the Federal.

This morning the powder charge was 95g. Once again the distance from rifle to front jug was 25 yard. The bullet speed at the front jug was clocked at 1709 fps. From this measurement the muzzle velocity was calculated to be 1815 fps.












The RECORDING.






After







The last two jugs were intact. The bullet was found in the third jug, even though the jug had an exit hole. Evidently the bullet bounced off the fourth jug back into the third jug. Perhaps the face of the bullet was so flat is why? When it isn't so wet, and rainy, it seems i should look, in that tall grass for the bullet from yesterday. Looked for it yesterday, and also today, but didn't get down on my knees. The photo shows the bullet retrieved from the third jug this morning.

Now that looks textbook to me . I have 3 packs so one way or another i will shoot them up , either at paper , deer or antelope and see what happens

That is a photo of the fourth jug in yesterday's shoot. It shows two entrance holes. This indicates the bullet is now in 2 pieces.

Now following is a photo of the same jug showing one exit hole out the side. The petal stayed in the jug, and the bullet flew off without it.

















Here is a photo of the bullet captured this morning with the petal recovered yesterday.



















Two more photos of the bullet, and the petal.





















Now picture the bullet that escaped yesterday. It seems to me, the bullet without the one petal, is still viable, and would do horrific damage to lungs, heart, and any other stuff.

Yes, indeed these are not long range bullets with that 0.168 BC.
However, i am inclined to believe these Federal Bullet are fine for Colorado elk hunters. For a hunter that must use iron sights, and must use a bore sized bullet, these bullets should do the job just fine.

Ron it seems to me you duplicated the way a Bloodline performs by accident

The whole design of those is for the petals to peel off and the core to push on through....

Not comparing them per se, just saying that the petals peeling off can apparently either be good or bad I guess, depending on what a persons perception/expectation is.

You use more powder than me Ron. I don't think a Barnes will come apart for me.

Then again Bloodlines are suppose to come apart, so maybe it isn't such a bad thing as long as there's enough of a bullet left to keep penetrating.

Works for Partitions too.

OK Muley another project for you to check out.... If Colorado says the Federal is OK with the wrap of polymere around the body and the base that both stay with the bullet when shot - why is not a sabot OK?



I am sure it will not be legal in Idaho - but I will need to check - no it is not we still have to use full bore lead - but Oregon just changed their rule to just Full Bore could be lead - copper - brass. But no sabots - have to check in Oregon but as conservative as they not think it will go.

When Ron posts his next pictures take a good look. He shot the bullet at the same range but reduces the powder load to give the velocity of the bullet at 100 yards - it opened but only maybe halfway. To my thinking the 100 yard velocity needs to be greater. Although if there is enough energy he might get it to pass through also because he has reduced the drag in the animal of the bullet.

So the next question what will it do at a 150 or 200 yards.

He used 95gr. About what I use. Sometimes 90gr. That's why I wanted to see it at 100yds. That's about as far as I shoot.


As for the question about the Fed bullet for Colorado. I believe because the plastic doesn't fall off the bullet they're not calling it a sabot. Although that's not a sure thing. Sort of a guess.

No, i'm not asking them. I've had enough of that, and it's already legal anyway.