You start shooting 300 yards at a speed goat and you might ;)

If I ever got the chance to shoot those critters at that kind of range I'd probably be lobbing Ed Mehlig's 465 grain conicals at them, pushed by 85 grains GOEX. :s2:

While the low velocity test is impressive in penetration, the actual expansion is a real disappointment. Yet when push HARD (much harder then I care to shoot) it behaved real well. Exceptional actually. It would be interesting to see what that would have done with say ... 90 grains of BH209. Something average shooters might use.

Nice looking bullet though. That sabot went into four jugs. That surprised me. Do they normally hold on to that sabot part that hard?

If one used 90g of Blackhorn, the bullet would look something like the following, if it hit the jugs at about 140 yard or so.













The plastic thingy is not a sabot, it is fastened to the bullet quite securely. Note, it is shoved tighter onto the bullet, by the burning of the powder, and makes the seal/fit into the rifling.

There is a write up of this projectile in the current NRA publication of American Hunter, no mention of penetration or expansion, only group size and fps. The majority of my shots on whitetail deer are 60 yrds or less. Think I'll stick with the Gold Dots as I shoot 90 gr. of BH209.

I like a bit more myself for hunting.

I decided to cross post this in case it's missed in the other thread.



Why wouldn't I use it on elk? It's reviews like this one that make me feel that way.



"They do load easy and shoot straight, but you can't kill anything with them. Shot moose in shoulder, missing the bone...bullet only went in a couple inches came apart and stopped. That's with three 50 grain triple pellets @ 100 yards. It never made it to the engine room. Similar shot with a Barnes bullet, blow up main shoulder bone, two ribs on each side and stopped in the skin after passing through other shoulder. HUGE difference. Too bad, I had high hopes."

Your description of these two bullets is inconsistent to what i have observed. The Barnes has always seemed softer than the Federal every time i shoot them. The problem with both bullets is about the same i.e. they seem to plug up when traveling at slow speeds, and don't expand. At high speeds they both work wonderfully.

It would greatly surprise me that the Federal would 'blow up' on a bone, but the Barnes would not, if they both encountered the exact same condition. Well, i guess i need more convincing, but right this moment, i am dubious.

Me, i still consider them both good bullets. Perhaps further reports will sway my opinion, but it still seems the Federal is a tad stouter than the Barnes, from what i have seen. Not saying the difference is significant.













That bullet was found in frozen ground behind the paper. It certainly didn't fail.

Me, i have no dog in this discussion, but remain believing these are both good bullets, and still believe they would perform similarly in similar conditions. They both would do just about the same thing in the same conditions, according to what i have seen with my own eyes.

Keep the data coming.... the more information the better.

They plug up on carpet. I don't hunt for carpet. I want to see how it does on game. The above example shows that.

It didn't hit bone. It hit meat, and blew up with no penetration.

It was pushed fast. It over expanded, and didn't penetrate. Hit the game with not enough fps, and it doesn't expand. Sound familiar? It's how we describe a Powerbelt.

Go ahead and use it. I'll use a more proven bullet.

To me it is unusual that a monolithic bullet would completly blow up, and not penetrate. The base of the bullets is solid.

Yes, i remain dubious.