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As I had planned I was able to get out to the farm mid-morning to do some shooting using the new Lehigh Xtreme Penetrator Brass muzzleloader bullet.
I really should say when I first heard about this new bullet - even when the new bullet was a copper pistol bullet and I think GregK first posted about the new bullet. I was really not that interested or inclined to think a non expanding solid brass or even copper bullet would hold any interest for me. UNLESS, I was considering hunting 'dangerous game'. The 'BULLET' did get more of my attention when I looked on the new Lehigh Web Site and checked out the penetration and wound channel facts that were posted for the pistol bullets. I had/have been shooting regular hollow point pistol bullets in my Sigs - one a 357 sig and the a 40 S&W. I had taken great pains to make sure I was not using a 'Home Defense" type bullet in the pistols that I was carrying in the woods while ML hunting. I wanted a bullet for yotes, wolves, black bear, and maybe even a cougar we have them all. The 'XP' was really what I needed. But, as I gained knowledge about them I thought - maybe a ML bullet of that design just might work.
Cavitation - whom ever mentioned that in one of these threads really opened my eyes - then after reading about 'cavitation' on line and having the bullet in hand looking at the design of the cavities in the nose it started to make sense. So now I need to apologize to Lehigh Dave who told me the straight scoop in the first place.
Today was the first step in the process of testing and checking for me. It was just a straight forward shooting day - just shooting paper. Next I want to do some velocity testing and finally some 'cavitation' testing.
I took two of my 45's to the fame this morning. A normal Knight DISC Extreme with a slow 1-30 twist and a Knight Super DISC with a faster 1-20 twist. Both rifles were scoped one with a Bushnell Elite 3x9 and the other with a Leupold Ultimate Slam 3x9. In addition the Super DISC was set for a near zero at 200 yards for yote and wolf hunting, so it is 3+ inches high @ 100
I set up a target, I ranged from the target back to the pick-up to be 100 yards, and decided to shoot the Super DISC first. Grouse had already done this so I was pretty confident that shooting the 100 would be just fine with the bullet. The only differences were he was shooting BH with a Harvester sabot and I was shooting T7-2f with a MMP sabot. In our discussion Grouse said to be sure and shoot some light powder loads as he had not done that. And as some one else suggested with this bullet it opens up some very good options for soft recoiling loads for those that would like it that way. The bullet will function as designed down to 800 fps and still provide really good penetration. So that was included in the test.
I started shooting 120 grains of T7 and using a MMP light tan sabot...
I shot four shots with that load then started backing the powder load down to 110, 90, 70, and finally 60 grains of powder.
It wasn't the best day to shoot because of the wind... the wind always blows at the farm but today it seemed really hardy, quartering from right to left across the range.
Here is the target - I felt I did very well up until the last shot of the day, a 60 grain shot with absolutely no recoil but I still managed to pull it away from the group... Also at the end of the shoot when I ranged back to the target from the portable bench it read 92 yards... So I labeled the target that way.
92 yards to the target
I did shoot the second rifle, the DISC Extreme, but the 1-30 twist, but it would not stabilize the bullet. All 3 shots did tumble. The solution for that as it has been in the past will probably be a slightly shorter 40x185+/- gr. XP.
Hope this hold some interest for some of you...
I really should say when I first heard about this new bullet - even when the new bullet was a copper pistol bullet and I think GregK first posted about the new bullet. I was really not that interested or inclined to think a non expanding solid brass or even copper bullet would hold any interest for me. UNLESS, I was considering hunting 'dangerous game'. The 'BULLET' did get more of my attention when I looked on the new Lehigh Web Site and checked out the penetration and wound channel facts that were posted for the pistol bullets. I had/have been shooting regular hollow point pistol bullets in my Sigs - one a 357 sig and the a 40 S&W. I had taken great pains to make sure I was not using a 'Home Defense" type bullet in the pistols that I was carrying in the woods while ML hunting. I wanted a bullet for yotes, wolves, black bear, and maybe even a cougar we have them all. The 'XP' was really what I needed. But, as I gained knowledge about them I thought - maybe a ML bullet of that design just might work.
Cavitation - whom ever mentioned that in one of these threads really opened my eyes - then after reading about 'cavitation' on line and having the bullet in hand looking at the design of the cavities in the nose it started to make sense. So now I need to apologize to Lehigh Dave who told me the straight scoop in the first place.
Today was the first step in the process of testing and checking for me. It was just a straight forward shooting day - just shooting paper. Next I want to do some velocity testing and finally some 'cavitation' testing.
I took two of my 45's to the fame this morning. A normal Knight DISC Extreme with a slow 1-30 twist and a Knight Super DISC with a faster 1-20 twist. Both rifles were scoped one with a Bushnell Elite 3x9 and the other with a Leupold Ultimate Slam 3x9. In addition the Super DISC was set for a near zero at 200 yards for yote and wolf hunting, so it is 3+ inches high @ 100
I set up a target, I ranged from the target back to the pick-up to be 100 yards, and decided to shoot the Super DISC first. Grouse had already done this so I was pretty confident that shooting the 100 would be just fine with the bullet. The only differences were he was shooting BH with a Harvester sabot and I was shooting T7-2f with a MMP sabot. In our discussion Grouse said to be sure and shoot some light powder loads as he had not done that. And as some one else suggested with this bullet it opens up some very good options for soft recoiling loads for those that would like it that way. The bullet will function as designed down to 800 fps and still provide really good penetration. So that was included in the test.
I started shooting 120 grains of T7 and using a MMP light tan sabot...
I shot four shots with that load then started backing the powder load down to 110, 90, 70, and finally 60 grains of powder.
It wasn't the best day to shoot because of the wind... the wind always blows at the farm but today it seemed really hardy, quartering from right to left across the range.
Here is the target - I felt I did very well up until the last shot of the day, a 60 grain shot with absolutely no recoil but I still managed to pull it away from the group... Also at the end of the shoot when I ranged back to the target from the portable bench it read 92 yards... So I labeled the target that way.
92 yards to the target
I did shoot the second rifle, the DISC Extreme, but the 1-30 twist, but it would not stabilize the bullet. All 3 shots did tumble. The solution for that as it has been in the past will probably be a slightly shorter 40x185+/- gr. XP.
Hope this hold some interest for some of you...
