180 grain .45 caliber Barnes Expanders

[cayuga]

I decided to have some fun with the White .451 Model 97 today. I threw a Bushnell 3200 scope on it and wanted to test some bullets I had purchased. These are from Traditions. They are a 180 grain Barnes Expander in .45 caliber. These all copper Expanders can be pushed hard, so I took some Pyrodex RS and some Triple Se7en 3f.

In the upper left hand corner bull, I shot 70 grains of Triple Se7en 3f with a wad and some 460 grain Bull Shop conicals. I wanted to check the scope to make sure it was on. This was at 50 yards. As expected the White did what it always does with this load.

I then shot 100 grains of Pyrodex RS at the center red tape. I did swab beteen shots and at 50 yards it really had some snap to the gun. The top red circle shows how spread out the hits were. I was kind of surprised they hit so high and all over the place. I was not pleased. But could not figure out why it hit so spread out at 50 yards. I suspected the powder, so I wanted to try something.

So I moved the target up to 25 yards. I then again shot for the red center bull and did swab between shots. They rifle loaded very easy with these sabots that came with the Barnes Expanders. In fact no short starter was needed. So I kind of suspected this might be the problem. Aiming at the red tape in the center it shot a good group, but not as good as I really expected at this distance. I was aiming for the bottom of the tape and not the center. I figured it was hitting high, but it did not hit as high as I thought it would.

I then drew a blue dot on the bottom of the large bull. This time I loaded 110 grains of Pyrodex RS and decided not to swab between shots. Still at 25 yards mind you. The lower red circle shows the group there.

Now I was kind of excited as I did not have to swab between shots. So I decided to shoot some Triple Se7en 3f at this same distance. I loaded 110 grains of the T-7 3f and aimed at the upper right bull. I had swabbed the barrel clean, but did not swab during shooting this group. And actually the one hit that is dead center on that tape is because I adjusted the POA and made it hit there. This 110 grains of 3f T-7 really had some good snap to it when it went off. If I could make sure this was accurate, I would have a good long range deer load with these small expanders.

So I will play some more when I get the new sabots I ordered and I want to see if maybe these sabots need to be pushed REALLY hard. I can always shoot conicals out of the rifle for hunting, but this was interesting to me to play with the new sabots.

The red dots are old hits from the other day when I was shooting.

 

[big6x6]

Thanks for the report Dave!

 

[vabowhntr]

Well, you now have my interest. I have a white in .451 and just picked up the 180 gr expanders. I have great hopes for these, but I might be looking at using 80-90 gr of powder (t7 2f). I have shot many groups that looked like the upper right in your pic with 200 gr XTP's and CR sabots at 50 yards. I am hoping the Barnes will do just as well. Should be between 1950 and 2050 fps with 80-90 gr of powder. Should be enough speed with low recoil out to 150 yards.

 

[cayuga]

That is the next thing I am going to try is reducing the powder charge down to 80 grains of 3f and see if the groups do not hold true.. keep me posted of your results..

 

[vabowhntr]

Even at 80 gr of 3f, you should be just about 2000 fps. Plently fast with less recoil.

At 110 gr you should have been in the 2250 fps range! That would be +/- 2" out to 180+ yards. With over 1000 fpe over 200 yards!

I have never had much luck with the .45 white with sabots over about 80 gr of powder (t7). I have been looking at 70 and 80 gr of 2f with the 200 gr xtp as my deer load. Should be 1850 to 1925 fps which would kill anything I will shot at out to 150 yards with fairly low recoil and flat trajectory.

Don't know when I will get to shoot them now that archery has started, though.