Hornet's bullet test

In the spirit of all that Ron has accomplished recently with his bullet tests, I decided to do a couple of my own. I picked up a box of the Hornady 350 gr. XPT Mag's which are .50 cal and designed for the S&W 500. Being a Mag I had doubts about weather or not it would work well from my MK-95 .54 cal being pushed by only 100 gr. of BH209. Today I decided to test it at 100 yds. Since I don't have a chronograph to figure out the speed of the bullet and do a short range test like Ron does I shot them at 100 yds. I put the MV at around 1700 fps, Hornady has the design spec at 1200-1800 FPS. The first attempt at capture failed penetrated three jugs but then went high and flew off to never land. Second attempt was successful it went through two jugs clipped a third and ended up buried in the tire that hold up my target stand. I will weigh it when I get home. The bullet looks like this and tore apart two jugs.



The second bullet I tested was the Seirra 400 gr. FNSP also a .50 cal. Bullet for the S&W 500. Powder was 100 gr. BH209, It cleared all six jugs and bounced off the tire. It now looks like this.


The tire I'm referring to is a 11R 24.5 truck tire, you can see the only deformity is from the steel belts of the tire. Other wise there is no expansion at all. I might use it on bear of moose but not deer I deem it too tough. The Hornady 350 though gets the green light. The 400 split all six jugs on its was to the tire.

My hat is off to Ron I see why now you choose to shoot at 25 yds. with a reduced powder load instead of at 100 yds. Keep up the good work.

The sierra flat nose did very similar in my testing a few years back. The Hornady looks pretty good

I would have to look it up but I believe that the 270 Deep Curl responded very similar in Ron's testing. I could not believe that it is that tough of a bullet. I wonder why the Flat points are so tough? Yes I'm very pleased with the Hornady's, when I run out of the Speer Uni-Cores I will switch to them. I can get them at my local Bass Pro pretty readily.