Testing Bullet Performance

[insanelupus]

I cast bullets primarily to use for hunting. True I do some target work, but the end use is planned for hunting. To date, while I've done some small game hunting, I haven't shot anything with my big game bullets other than finishing shots with a handgun. (That worked fine). Typically my big game jacketed bullets have been standard cup and core or Nosler Partitions. With those styles I know what to usually expect with various conditions on game.

I cast my stuff out of straight wheel weights. As near as I've tested it, most of the time, my alloy comes out about 10-11 BHN. I know what I'm told this stuff should do and how it performs, but having the control over different alloys and nose profiles I'd like to test it myself, at various distances, velocities, etc. Basically I want to tailor my bullets to my needs.

I've heard about wet newsprint, magazines, milk jugs filled with water, pine wood baffle boxes, ballistic gel, etc. However I was thinking about something that would be a) done easily with easy to get materials, and b) something I could use to simulate light skinned big game (deer, antelope) and heavier big game (black bear, elk, moose).

I have an idea of what I want to try, this spring and summer I hope to. But as I sincerely doubt my idea is unique, figured I'd run it by folks here and see if someone else has done this and how well it worked out.

I'd still use milk jugs filled with water to represent the internal organs. Not an exact match, but close. Bone is harder. Dry bones are different than live bones, which by my observations are a) more flexible, b) not as hard, c) a different "feel" than weathered bones. So I figured why not use water soaked lumber to represent bones and hide.

So what I'll do, is builld a box to hold 1-3 boards (one board for light skinned stuff, 2 boards for black bear and elk, 3 boards for moose and brown bear maybe). These boards would be 1" dimensioned lumber 10" or 12" square. They'd be submerged in a kiddie pool using cinder blocks to hold them down until water logged. The boards would be installed in the box with water jugs behind (again, a depth appropriate to the average width of the animal) with a like number of boards behind those water jugs.

In the even of total penetration, more jugs would be set up behind to catch the bullet (hopefully) to examine what condition the bullet is in. I'd also hope to be able to gauge the rate of expansion by the bullet exit hole vs. entry hole in the lumber fore and aft.

The idea is to use the diminsioned lumber to represent bone and hide with water filled milk jugs to represent the heart and lungs. Not something that would be an exact duplicate, but for comparison purposes i think it would work. News print, besides being harder to get now days in any quantity is tough to work with wet and the board lumber shouldn't be too tough to just cut up on a radial arm saw, soak and stack in the box. With the way we go through milk, the milk jugs are getting tossed anyway when we have too many.

I figured this method would be fairly simple, tuneable to the game animal desired, and would give a person confidence as to what exactly they should expect from the cast bullet, in addition to being fairly easy to replicate in the future for comparison purposes. I would think this would give me a pretty good indicator of how the bullet wold perform on the "ideal" broadside presentation. Plust it would give me a chance to comapre factors from known performers (Nosler Partitions) to my cast bullets.

Whatcha all think?

[lwknight]

I think it sounds like a plan that should at least give you comparison between bullets.
At least testing rifle bullets for hunting is easier than testing handgun bullets for self defense because you have inherently sufficient weight and velocity. Handgun ammo on the other hand is often inadequate.

[Bass Ackward]

Plust it would give me a chance to comapre factors from known performers (Nosler Partitions) to my cast bullets.

Whatcha all think?

This is the key. That along with repetition and consistency. It takes several years of information to develop and understand what you see in the field with what ever medium you choose. And it will be different for every game sized animal you desire to pattern. And the standards are different for your situation and the way "YOU" hunt.

In other words, a guy who hunts deer in thick stuff, bouncing them, with many deer trails to confuse him and on small plots of land where travel amounts to the game going to a different hunter has different needs from someone that has few adrenalin charged deer in wide open spaces that he can pick his shots and the animal may be watched for hundreds of yards with no problem.

So I developed my testing for the most demanding criteria to be safe in all styles. You can NOT win trying to invent the perfect medium. Stick with what ever you start with. The win comes from comparing results from something else that you SAW in the field. And data is important for what failed and why also. This sets your minimum performance criteria.

Just realize that there can be minimum distances for cast and are certainly maximum distances for cast. Adjusting for one end will affect the other. The smaller the bore, the greater the change.

So it takes awhile. I've been at it for 30 years and I can tell you it took "me" about 12 years of data to really understand what I have just told you. And another 10 years or so of how to apply that to cast. I feel very comfortable about my method for deer. I don't have enough data or testing to trust for larger game as I do deer which is the bulk of my hunting.

[1Shirt]

Will be interested in your testing results! Please post.
1Shirt!

[45 2.1]

I cast bullets primarily to use for hunting.
Typically my big game jacketed bullets have been standard cup and core or Nosler Partitions.
I cast my stuff out of straight wheel weights. As near as I've tested it, most of the time, my alloy comes out about 10-11 BHN. I know what I'm told this stuff should do and how it performs, but having the control over different alloys and nose profiles I'd like to test it myself, at various distances, velocities, etc. Basically I want to tailor my bullets to my needs. Whatcha all think?

Go here andread post #13:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=100954

That alloy, when cast correctly, will duplicate the action of a Nosler partition.