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Author Topic: Bullet trap results  (Read 25802 times)

Offline yorketransport

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Bullet trap results
« on: February 19, 2017, 09:09:53 AM »
I got out yesterday to test my new bullet trap design and it worked pretty well. It's a wood frame with layers of heavy leather packed inside of it. I get all the leather from a local glove company that would have to pay to throw it away, so they gave it to me for free. The best part is that it's a unlimited source! The goal was to see if leather would act as a more realistic medium for testing bullet performance on game compared to shooting water jugs or something like that. The results I got are promising and I think with some minor tweaks to how dense I layer the leather it should work out to be a pretty good test material. Here's the results I got yesterday:

6.5 Grendel
- 130gr Nosler Accubond
- Muzzle velocity 2430 fps

I fired two of these at 100 yards. Retained velocity at impact is approximately 2270 fps. One bullet penetrated 15.5" and had a retained weight of 115.3gr. Bullet number two penetrated 11.75" with a retained weight of 102.1gr. These both performed about how I expected them to when compared to the same load shot into a small blacktail last season.


- 130gr Berger VLD Hunting
- Muzzle velocity 2385 fps

I fired two of these at 100 yards. Retained velocity at impact is approximately 2247 fps. One bullet penetrated 14" and had a retained weight of 119.1gr. Bullet number two penetrated 11.5" and had a retained weight of 117.9" I was very surprised and happy with how well these bullets performed. They held together well and retained a high percentage of their original weight. I personally believe that the excellent performance is do in part to the moderate impact velocity. In my past tests with higher velocity impacts, the Bergers opened up more violently and retained less weight.




270 AR
- 130gr Speer HotCor
- Muzzle velocity 2718 fps

I fired two of these at 100 yards. The retained velocity at impact is approximately 2500 fps. Bullet one penetrated 11.5" and had a retained weight of 102.2gr. Bullet number two penetrated 11.75" and had a retained weight of 111.9" I'm very happy with how well these bullets did. For a simple cup and core bullet the retained a high percentage of their weight and penetrated very well. Again, I imagine that the relatively modest impact velocity contributed to their performance.




338/375 Ruger
- 260gr Hammer Hunter
- Muzzle velocity 2715 fps

I fired two of these at 100 yards. The retained velocity at impact is approximately 2585 fps. The shank of bullet one penetrated 23.5" with the petals breaking off (as they're designed to do) at approximately 11". The retained weight of the bullet shank was 195.5 gr with a length of 1.087". Bullet two was not recovered, but I was able to track the penetration to within 1" of the other 260gr Hammer bullet. I believe this bullet fell out of test material while I was unpacking it from the trap but I was unable to find it.



480 Ruger
- 275gr Barnes XPB
- Muzzle velocity 1485

Only one bullet fired at 25 yard with an approximate impact velocity of 1385. The bullet penetrated 9.5" with a retained weight of 270.7". Penetrating relative to the rifle rounds matches what I've seen in the past in other test materials. The expanded bullet matches the performance of a bullet recovered from a small bear shot with the same load out of a different gun.


I think I'm going to call this whole project a success. The leather appears to be a good test material since it's a soft leather instead of a hard, dried leather like holster leather. Every shot fired penetrated in a straight trajectory through the material, making it easy follow the path of the bullet. Since I fired multiple different loads into the target before checking, it's hard to really evaluate the damage done by any one load. There was a very consistent pattern of massive damage at about 3" of penetration. This is where it appeared that almost all of the bullets began to expand the most. This is also the depth where I started to see jacket and lead fragments appear.

Over the next few months I'm going to start testing different bullets at different impact velocities. If anyone has any specific bullets they want tested, let me know. Here's a list of the bore diameters I have a gun chambered in that I can test:

6mm/.243
6.5mm/.264
.270
.308
.338
.358
.375
.458

I can get the 6.5mm and .338s up to some pretty impressive velocity levels out of the 338 SnipeTac and the 6.5 Badger so I'll use those to torture test a few bullets.

Offline Magnum_Willys

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2017, 09:28:36 AM »
Very interesting, Thanks for sharing.
338 Berger 300 gr Elite Hunter vs 300 gr Smk at 2000 fps (simulate long range) would be cool.   I can send some bullets if you want em.

Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2017, 09:38:04 AM »
I have some of the 300gr OTMs, but none of the Elite Hunters or SMKs. If I ran those with a low charge out of the 338/375 I bet the impact velocity at 100 yards would be about right. If you can spare about 5 of each I can make it work.

Offline Magnum_Willys

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2017, 09:45:55 AM »
Will do .  I dont have on hand yet but on order will get some to you when I get em.

Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2017, 09:53:18 AM »
Awesome! I'll try and get some data on the 300gr OTMs too.

Offline b23

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2017, 01:27:31 PM »
Yorke, am I understanding you correctly that you're looking for some 300gr .338 Sierra MK?  If you need some to test I've got plenty of extras and I'd be happy to send you some if you'd like.  I also have some 300gr .338 Lapua scenar bullets I could send you if you'd like to test them as well.  Be interesting to see how the Lapua Scenars perform in your bullet trap as they are a pretty tough bullet and the last test I saw with them showed little to no mushrooming, the bullet just kind of bent and that was it.

If you'd like some to test PM me who/where to send them and how many you want and I'll get some sent your way.

Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2017, 09:04:42 PM »
Yorke, am I understanding you correctly that you're looking for some 300gr .338 Sierra MK?  If you need some to test I've got plenty of extras and I'd be happy to send you some if you'd like.  I also have some 300gr .338 Lapua scenar bullets I could send you if you'd like to test them as well.  Be interesting to see how the Lapua Scenars perform in your bullet trap as they are a pretty tough bullet and the last test I saw with them showed little to no mushrooming, the bullet just kind of bent and that was it.

If you'd like some to test PM me who/where to send them and how many you want and I'll get some sent your way.

That would be great! PM sent.

Offline Yondering

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2017, 10:21:17 AM »
Very interesting, and the results look good. How does the total amount of penetration compare to what you've seen with the same bullets on game? (Of course it doesn't have to be the same, as long as you can correlate the results.)

Can you share some more details about the leather itself? What kind of leather, and how do you source "soft" leather instead of harder stuff used for holsters, saddles, etc?

Was the leather dry or wet when you shot it?

Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2017, 10:21:54 PM »
Very interesting, and the results look good. How does the total amount of penetration compare to what you've seen with the same bullets on game? (Of course it doesn't have to be the same, as long as you can correlate the results.)

Can you share some more details about the leather itself? What kind of leather, and how do you source "soft" leather instead of harder stuff used for holsters, saddles, etc?

Was the leather dry or wet when you shot it?

The best on game performance I can compare is the 130 accubond from the Grendel and the 275 XPB from the 480. My father in law shot a small bear, head on from 45 yards with the XPB from my 480 Ruger a few years back. The recovered bullet looks exactly like the one I pulled from the leather. Penetration on the bear was roughly double what I got in the leather though.

My experience with the 130 accubond on my deer last year was pretty similar. The shot was head on at about 45 yards. I got 27" of penetration and a mushroomed bullet that looks just like the bulllet pulled from the leather. I'll try shooting the accubond into the leather at 45 yards to get a good comparison though. So far, it looks like the leather give similar expansion characteristics as tissue but with less penetration. I'll keep testing to see if I can come up with a good correlation between the two. Penetration in the leather seems to be about half of what I expect in animal tissue.

The leather is more like 1/8" suede than a hard holster leather. The glove company calls it heavy apron leather. The scraps I got are all different sizes ranging from small strips to much larger chunks. The shop can't just throw away the scraps because it's chemically tanned and is considered hazardous in large enough quantities I guess. They have to save it up and dispose of it in large batches of a couple thousand pounds at a time. I got a 300# box for free to play around with since one of the guys is an avid hunter and liked my bullet trap idea. Here's a picture of a small scrap to give you idea what I'm working with.

Offline jbauch357

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2017, 11:10:19 PM »
If you get a chance, try the Hornady Interlock.

Here is a picture of a 180gr .300wm bullet I recovered from a mule deer I took at 385 yards which I'd estimate to be around 2,200fps.  It entered the forward edge of the rear quarter, went through almost the entire length of the abdomen, punched through a rib on the opposite side, then came to rest just under the skin in the front arm pit.  The slug weighed 160gr of the original 180gr and in my eyes expanded picture perfect. 


Offline Yondering

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2017, 12:29:25 PM »
yorketransport, great info, thanks for sharing. I like the idea and will have to investigate it further.

Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2017, 10:55:15 PM »
Made it out for another round of testing today. A big thanks to B23 for sending me the 300gr Scenar, 300gr SMK and 300gr Berger Hybrid bullets to test. All testing was done at 100 yards into the same leather as last time. I'll try adding water to the leather at some point but I want to keep everything consistent for now. I intentionally downloaded most of the ammunition to test low velocity impacts. This did cause borderline stability with a few of the bullets, so I'll have to test some of them again at a higher velocity.

Here's the line up of bullets tested today from left to right (ran out of day light before testing the OTM so no results on that one):

140 Berger, 160 Matrix, 200 NAB, 250 Barnes RN, 277gr MTAC, 300 OTM, 300 Hybrid, 300 Scenar, 300 SMK 303 Hammer, 450 TSX, 500 RN

300gr Berger Hybrid
- Muzzle Velocity 1801 fps

Impact velocity is roughly 1720 fps with a retained weight of 300.5gr and 300.2gr and penetrated 15.75" and 15". The bullets actually weigh slightly more because of the leather material getting trapped in the expanded bullet. I removed as much as I could but clearly didn't get it all. Both bullets tumbled on impact and were recovered facing backwards.


300gr Lapua Scenar
- Muzzle Velocity 1847 fps

Impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 284.2 and 300.4 with penetration of 16.5" and 14". Both bullets tumbled and were facing backwards when recovered.

300gr Sierra MK
- Muzzle velocity 1850 fps

Impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 266.0 and 266.1 with both bullets penetrating 10.5". Performance of the SMK was phenomenal given the impact velocity. 1760 fps is roughly the velocity that this bullet would have at 1100 yards when fired with a muzzle velocity of 2850, typical of the 338 Edge/Lapua.

277gr Cutting Edge MTAC
- Muzzle velocity 1949 fps

Impact Velocity is approximately 1840 fps with retained weight of 277.0gr for each bullet with penetration of 8.0" and 8.5". These bullets were so unstable that they were key holing at 100 yards. These are non-expanding solids and were tested just for reference and because I have them on hand. It's worth noting the significant damage that they would have caused on impact while tumbling end over end through the target or 8"


303gr Hammer Hunter
- Muzzle Velocity 1917 fps

These bullets require a 1-9.3" twist to stabilize at velocities over 2600 fps. They were so unstable at the low velocity that they didn't make it to the 2' square target at 100 yards.Like the MTACs, I knew before testing them that they wouldn't stabilize at the low velocity. I'll retest them later under more appropriate conditions.

500gr Hornady RN
- Muzzle velocity 2082 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 1835 fps with a retained weight of 498.2gr and 15" of penetration. This is my "plinking" load for the 458 Arnold that gets used occasionally for rabbit hunting. it is the top bullet the photo.


450gr Barnes TSX
- Muzzle velocity 2215 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 2095 fps with a retained weight of 450gr and 13.5" of penetration. This is the bottom bullet in the picture above.

200gr Accubond
- Muzzle velocity 2688 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 2541 fps with a retained weight of 150.6 and 150.4 and penetration of 9.0". Both bullets penetrated the same depth and retained nearly identical weights. Accubonds are proving to be one of the most consistent bullets I've tested. This load was used in January to harvest a cow elk at around 200 yards with excellent results.


250gr Barnes Original RN
- Muzzle velocity 2280 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 2100 fps with a retained weight of 235.6gr and 245.7gr and penetration of 8.0". Both bullets penetrated the same depth and expanded to have a very large frontal area. Weight retention and expansion for a non-bonded was impressive.


140gr Berger VLD Hunting
- Muzzle velocity 1869 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 1759 fps with retained weight of 140gr for both bullets and penetration of 10.5" and 9.5".The bullets should have been fully stabilized from the 1-8" twist even with the relatively low velocity but both bullets were recovered facing backwards. These bullets clearly require greater velocity to perform. I'll try again and go for an impact velocity over 2000 fps.


160gr Matrix VLD
- Muzzle Velocity 1885 fps

The impact velocity is approximately 1760 fps with a retained weight of 160gr and 10.0" penetration. This bullet was marginally stabilized from the 1-8" twist at the low velocity. Also, past experience has show that the extremely heavy for caliber bullet performs poorly with polygonal rifling like that used in the Blackhole barrel used on my CZ 527 6.5 Grendel. The theory is that the poly rifling simply doesn't grip the bullet well enough to get full stability. Only one of the two bullets was recovered and it was facing backwards. The other bullet became unstable and exited the side of the bullet trap.

Offline carpsniperg2

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2017, 11:02:03 PM »
Got to love some NAB'S and SMK'S. I burn though a few thousand every year.

Love the look on that 450 tsx. About the same velocity as in my lott I'm running the 500's right now. I have some Aframes to test as well.

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Offline yorketransport

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2017, 09:59:14 AM »
Got to love some NAB'S and SMK'S. I burn though a few thousand every year.

Love the look on that 450 tsx. About the same velocity as in my lott I'm running the 500's right now. I have some Aframes to test as well.

It's hard no to love the big bore TSX bullets, they just look mean! I keep wanting to try some of the A-frames or Partitions but I can't imagine they'd do anything that the TSX won't. The 500gr load is my "cheap" load although even a 500gr Hornady isn't exactly cheap!

Offline Magnum_Willys

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Re: Bullet trap results
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2017, 10:12:23 AM »
Wow that 300 gr SMK performance is impressive. Thanks for the testing updates.
 :tup: :tup:

 


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