Bloodline performance

[WV Hunter]

Recently some posts about favorite bullets, or which perform best. Thought I would share a pic of a deer I took last season with a 250gr Bloodline (made by Lehigh for Knight)

I have killed alot of deer with Speer's over the years and had ZERO issues. Almost always a pass-through, and good blood trails. However, a couple years ago I was given a number of these bullets by a member here and after seeing many posts on how good they were, I decided to try them last season. They shot quite well in the 2 rifles I tried them in (100yd target), and I'm very impressed with terminal performance!! :yeah: The did exactly as advertised.

This is a pic of one I shot with my X7, broadside at under 50yds. She ran downhill about 3-4 bounds and piled up. My son also killed one the same day, ditto. The green circle is the exit of the main bullet, the black are the exits of the petals. Can't complain about that...and my rifle is loaded with a Bloodline as we speak! :yeah:



Good luck to everyone this season

 

[Muley Hunter]

Did all the pieces you have circled exit?

 

[dwm]

Looks like it was hit with buckshot

 

[dbowling]

Id prefer one hole in/out, you end up with a lot of bloodshot meat that way especially if you get into a shoulder. But you cant argue with the job they did definitely did a number on the deer.

 

[MrTom]

My XTP's do all of this except mess up a pile of meat with little petals.

 

[WV Hunter]

They all exited. :yeah:
Yes, you definitely could end up with some bloodshot meat, and while not my preference it doesn't make that much difference to me. Our deer aren't that big and thankfully, I'm able to shoot a bunch each year so having a shoulder here or there that is torn up isn't a huge issue. I have had plenty of bloodshot meat with non-bloodline bullets over the years also, depending on shot placement. I like how it performs. Devastating for sure. The vitals were shredded.

 

[52Bore]

I believe pass thru is defined thru both hides.
Looks like 1/2 of the did- which is good.

 

[WV Hunter]

There were no petals in the hide they all went through. I was hoping to find one just to see it. This was about an 80lb dressed doe, so not a huge animal.

 

[long shot]

I'm confused but isn't that a piece of bullet in the hide

 

[WV Hunter]

You guys could be right, I didn't see any when I skun it - but it does look that could be one. I did look for them and could have missed it - was skinning and butchering 4 deer. Regardless, love the Bloodlines!

For the record, the blood trail was good....however it was very short. :yeah:

 

[Muley Hunter]

I never questioned the effectiveness of the Bloodline bullet. That would be foolish to do that. I just couldn't be fan of all those pieces spread to areas I might not want. I'm a meat hunter and we only get to take one of each species and sometime not even that with our draw system. So, I want to save all the meat from damage. I guess it's why I like the Barnes/Thor and the PRB.

 

[sabotloader]

I have been using Bloodlines and now the new copper Bullets from Lehigh Defense for years.. They have excellent Terminal Performance.

I also know that a lot of people worry about the petals... You need to remember the nose consists of 6 petals basically weighting about 6 grains each. They are so light they really can not penetrate muscle tissue very far at all. In elk they very seldom make it out of the chest cavity. In deer I have often found some of the petals caught/trapped in the underside of the hide. Never seen where they have punctures all the way through.

You can see in this pic where one of the petals made it out of the chest cavity but was trapped in the hide.

In this pic none made it out of the chest cavity

 

[Muley Hunter]

Mike......Is there a full bore version? You know we can't use sabots in muzzy season.

 

[sabotloader]

Mike......Is there a full bore version? You know we can't use sabots in muzzy season.

Ya! I know and I wish there was but not at this time!

Pete have you shot Thor's? I ordered a pack of .501x300 grain the other day. I pulled the plastic/polymere nose out of the bullet so now they weigh 296. They can use the Thor in Oregon but can not have the plastic. A friend over there tried the 247 on elk a couple of times but had really poor results. Not sure the bullet ever opened. I was hoping maybe the 300's would offer a better result. I also ordered a box of 50x275 Barnes MZ-Expanders. The nose on the expanders is larger than on the Thor and the petal cuts inside the nose is more significant than the XPB's which will not expand for me in the longer ranges. Barnes says the expanders will at typical ML velocity.


I do have to knurl the Expanders a little bit to get them to fit my Ulite bore.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I've shot Thors but never at game. I'm surprised it didn't open. It's supposed to open at a bit less than 1000fps. I just ordered a couple of packs of the tipped 250gr I was going to use on a cow elk. Not a lot of options when you can't use sabots. Unless you want to use a big hunk of lead. Which I wouldn't mind, except for the recoil.

Not sure if going to a 300gr will help open the Thor better. Barnes recommends in CF guns to use smaller bullets and push them fast. That was my thought with the 250gr.

I also think about some of Ron's bullet tests. Some of the non tipped bullets were clogging up and not expanding. The tip is supposed to get a hollow point expanding quicker. Not sure how true that is?

 

[sabotloader]

I've shot Thors but never at game. I'm surprised it didn't open. It's supposed to open at a bit less than 1000fps. I just ordered a couple of packs of the tipped 250gr I was going to use on a cow elk. Not a lot of options when you can't use sabots. Unless you want to use a big hunk of lead. Which I wouldn't mind, except for the recoil.

Not sure if going to a 300gr will help open the Thor better. Barnes recommends in CF guns to use smaller bullets and push them fast. That was my thought with the 250gr.

I also think about some of Ron's bullet tests. Some of the non tipped bullets were clogging up and not expanding. The tip is supposed to get a hollow point expanding quicker. Not sure how true that is?

OK last post for me because we are spending to much space talking about some different than the original post...

But! you may be exactly right - the Thor tip may serve as an accelleration for the expansion of the bullet and possibly why it failed to open for him at 60 yards on the second cow.

Also I wanted to add these pics. I have tried the 50x275 XPB's and could not get the expansion I wanted with reduced loads of powder shot into a medium at 25 yards.

Then I got some MZ-Expanders which are suppose to expand at lower FPS than XPB's and compared the noses. I think it is really evident why the Expanders work at a lower FPS. Look closely in the nose of the bullet... the Expander (on the left) has much deeper petal lines on the inside than does XPB (on the right). Think you can see what I am talking about in the picture.

I really wish Lehigh would/did build a 50 cal full bore that worked as well as their other bullets - the problem! the wild world of different bore diameters. I will tell you that Lehigh has built a couple of different prototypes but nothing they are are offereing...