50 Caliber 475g, 0.21" HP

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
4,929
Reaction score
3,050
IMG_2593.JPG


IMG_2592.JPG


IMG_2597.JPG








The hollow in the bullet starts at about 0.21", then tapers smaller. The bullet was shot with two different powder loads. A 50 grain Blackhorn load, and a 57 grain Blackhorn load. The bullet shot with 50g Blackhorn went through 5 jugs, and hit the sixth jug hard enough the bottom blew out, then the bullet bounced far enough away, a metal detector was required to find it. It didn't mushroom. The hollow point of the bullet evidently carried plywood until into the second jug where a small piece of plywood was found.

The bullet shot with the 57 grain load went through 4 jugs; bounced off the fifth jug without damaging it, and fell down on the ground, and has a mushroom. The fifth jug ended up laying down right there on the horse. The first jug was blowed up pretty good.





IMG_2600.JPG


IMG_2599.JPG


IMG_2601.JPG


IMG_2602.JPG
 
Oh so close.
The one on the right is with 40g W / 57g Vol at 1079 fps (150yds), I'd like to see it look like that at 1000 fps (980 fps with 35g) 275 yds.
The bullet weight just may have to drop a few grains with a larger, tapered HP - a full 0.250" HP will be in the works..

Looking at all the bullets shot with 35/50gr you've tested, although they are much lighter and traveling faster - most all that have passed your test have a large HP.
Thanks for testing.
 
The morning of the test it was raining so i didn't try to clock the speed of the bullet. Yesterday it was nice, so i set up the clock, and shot through it, with the intention of learning the speed of the bullet with the 57g powder charge at 25 yard. Speed results seemed slow, so i shot the bullet using a 50g powder charge. Speeds were 100 fps slower than they were the first time i checked speed, when the bullet only a 1/8" hollow point. This was quite a shock, and i certainly wondered what the heck was happening????. Well, i was using a wool wad, because i had used all of the wads 52Bore sent with the bullet initially. So..............i thought maybe the wool wad was the problem.

The wool wad was the problem

Looking around the shop there, i found these pink chingadero with some bullets someone had sent quite awhile ago. Using the pink thingy as a wad, the bullet clocked 973 fps this morning with a load of 50g Blackhorn. The bullet with the 0.21" hollow point was once again shot into the trap using 50g Blackhorn; using the pink chingadero as the wad.




IMG_2603.JPG


IMG_2605.JPG









At impact, i saw the carpet/plywood fly high into the air. Wow!!! The bullet blew up the two first jugs pretty good. Holed the next three jugs, and bounced off the sixth jug, leaving it with it's neck bent all funny. It took a long long time to find the bullet. Without the metal detector it would have been impossible, because it bounced maybe 15' away from the last jug, and ended up in some thick brush. Couldn't find the plywood, until i started carrying the 'damage' back to the truck, and stumbled on it maybe 35' a way out front of the jugs.




IMG_2613.JPG


IMG_2611.JPG


IMG_2612.JPG


IMG_2614.JPG
 
I think we're there.. Thanks for assisting in seeing at what point a pure soft lead HP bullet will expand in a 50 cal. I think each caliber is slightly different as it's a matter of a proportional amount of material (lead) surrounding the HP.

"The wool wad was the problem"
Never would have thought wool would be 100 fps slower, your pink sub base seemed to seal like the hard paper wads. I've learned any HP under the 0.2" just will not open at 1000 fps - might as well us a solid. If hitting bone compared to the plywood, I would suspect a lot more opening of the HP.
I doubt I would shoot a deer at 275yds (980fps), but 200 yds is certainly possible like last year with my 52 cal at 218 yds - but it passed thru with a large exit hole.
If I were to go elk hunting, I'd just shoot a solid.
 
Intersting that the bullet would bounce off the 6th jug 15 feet and not just penetrate into the jug.
 
Well, i confess i gave up on finding the bullet after searching and searching and searching. Why i went out that much further i don't know............., because i hadn't found it? Earlier in the search the detector lit up, and i figured it was the bullet; it wasn't it was a bullet that went lost a few months ago. Exhilaration turned to despair. Finally succeeding when resigned to failure, is one heck of an emotion.
 
ronlaughlin said:
Finally succeeding when resigned to failure, is one heck of an emotion.

Imagine that feeling with a buck you searched all night and most of the next morning for. I had given up, walking out and something told me to take a couple of steps off of my walking trail and there he was. I walked by him at least 10 times in the thick.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top