Old Bullet Comparisons

The shockwave thread has stirred a discussion about different types of bullets. A few years ago the pictured jug set was used to capture a few different bullets.











The typical load was 105g Blackhorn. Typical distance from the jugs was about 60'.


















The brass bullet ended up in the phone books. The TEZ was found in the fifth jug. The Deep Curl was found in the fourth jug.




The captured brass bullet weighed 217.3g.













The captured Deep Curl, and TEZ retained about 99% weight.














Another bullet shot those years ago, and captured, was the Nosler 300g 45 caliber Partition.



















The partition Knocked everything over, and was found buried in the phone book stack; it weighs 242.7 g.

Kind of makes sense. The fastest expanding bullets won't penetrate as far. Especially, if it retains all it weight. Meaning it keeps it's petals. After the Bloodline loses it's petals it's an un-expanded bullet, and will penetrate better than the Barnes. The DC expanded the most, and had the least penetration.

The Partition is the mystery? All I can think of is it expanded late giving it the most penetration. What did the holes look like in the water bottles?

Bloodline retained only 72% of its original weight, the Partition 80%, where the Barnes and Deep Curl retained 99%.

Pete,

That shooting was done about 5 years ago. What i recall about the holes in the jugs, may or may not be true.

What i want to say is the first two jugs were shredded by every bullet i.e. the first two jugs had no holes, they were just exploded. The least damage was done to the last two jugs of the Deep Curl :wink: , and the last jug of the TEZ.

Thinking hard, i am positive the first two jugs for any bullet were exploded, and the third jug showed more damage, than just a hole. Seems the last two jugs of the brass bullet showed nice uniform holes in and out. What i recall, is the Nosler did the most damage to the last jugs, and comparable damage as the other bullets, to the first jugs.

I bet all 4 are better bullets than most, all look very deadly, what you didn't shoot any sinker bullets????????????? Great info to hang onto RON. :yeah:

Leroy,

Just now realized i have never ever held, nor actually seen one of them sinker. Me, i find that kinda funny for some reason.

It would be interesting to see the testing repeated but at 60 yards.

I always used the Partition when I shot with CF guns. It never let me down. Tests like this show why. Hell of a bullet.

If I understand it right. The ML partition aren't made anymore, and all the ones for sale now are leftovers?

Ron, I'm glad you have a sense of hummer, I will say POWER BELTS do shoot great, but when you have a 180 class Whitetail at 50 yds. and smack it dead in the chest and the bullet deflects downward at it's feet with no penetration, and then trail it for 2 hrs. no blood nothing but chest hair and fat off the chest where it stood, you relies that there better used to make sinkers. Just my .02 cents on POWER BELTS.

sqezer said:

Ron, I'm glad you have a sense of hummer, I will say POWER BELTS do shoot great, but when you have a 180 class Whitetail at 50 yds. and smack it dead in the chest and the bullet deflects downward at it's feet with no penetration, and then trail it for 2 hrs. no blood nothing but chest hair and fat off the chest where it stood, you relies that there better used to make sinkers. Just my .02 cents on POWER BELTS.

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Mighty expensive sinkers.

Last..... my favorite, the 300g Deep Curl. That this picture existed, just popped into my brain, because of this thread. The bullet recovered from the 'trap' at 45 feet weighs 276.4g. Don't know what the other two weigh, but am guessing near 300g. Pretty enough to be used as jewelry it is. Deadly on deer it is. Accurate it is. Perfection?? Alas, it seems we will not be finding these on store shelves for quite a long long time, if ever.

Looked around a little and found this VIDEO showing the capture of the bullet at 200 yard.

If I ever run across any I will sure pick them up.

I would love to get some Deep Curls but no one has them..but there is Gold dots still around and they are very close to DC bullets....infact the third bullet from left on Rons picture shows the gold dot..lol...the bullets ron has shown puts a great wound cavity in an animal...

great post Ron...

Stocked up a few years ago with several hundred of the .45 300 GRAIN partitions.Have NEVER had any kind of issues with these bullets.I'm sure there may be something better but i'm not about to fix what aint broke!

Yeah Ron, them DC's are sweet.

All the bullets you listed, I would consider upper tier. You can count on them all to perform, no worries.
Hopefully at some point Speer will get back to selling to us little folks, and they will be readily available again.

Cost/availability/effectiveness all considered, I'm sticking with the good ol' XTP

When I read this thread title and think of old bullets, only lead comes to mind. I still reserve one ML rifle for shooting lead at Michigan Whitetails.... (Knight/Precision Polymer Tip)

Does any one know why they stopped making the deep Curls and some of the other older good bullets...

Al-53 said:

Does any one know why they stopped making the deep Curls and some of the other older good bullets...

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What I have heard is that according to Speer they haven't stopped making them at all, and are at full capacity - just that most of the bullets are going to other sources than retail right now. :huh?: ???????? How much demand is there anywhere for a .50 cal pistol bullet? I could see demand being much greater for .40 & .45, but alot of .50's have been out of stock forever also.

I dont think any of us know whats actually behind all these bullets (from a variety) of companies - conveniently being out of stock everywhere for a year and a half or better, when the companies tell us they are producing as many as they can. I have my suspicions, but no way to confirm it.

i see alot of the .50 cal bullets for those reloading for the S&W 500 hand gun....its bullets in the .45 and .40 you dont see any more and always say out of stock and no back order..they were very popular when they produced them...so its not like they were a stagnant bullet..and the demand for them is still present...there has to be something why they wont produce them...