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Author Topic: bullet performance discussions  (Read 8997 times)

Offline yorketransport

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bullet performance discussions
« on: October 23, 2016, 10:44:17 AM »
The most fascinating part of hunting, to me, is the terminal performance of the weapon used. As a rule, I never hunt with a gun that I've already used to take an animal because I want to test a different platform every time. This year I was either going to use a 480 Ruger revolver or a rifle I had built for my son. In this case I went with the rifle since there is a bit of interest in the terminal performance of the round. I'm not initially going to say the cartridge or the range because I want to get some other people's opinions on the performance. I'll post pics of the deer a little later in the thread but since the rifle is in the picture, I don't want to give away the likely chambering used. I will say that the deer is a young spike which I imagine played a roll in the bullet performance.

The shot was a head on shot with an ever so slight quartering angle so I held to the right side of the brisket. At the shot, the buck dropped to his knees, then jumped up and hit the brush which is when I lost sight of him. I immediately second guessed my shot placement based on the reaction. There was no blood trail, no discernible trail of any kind and no noise/thrashing to clue me in to where he went. I was already questioning the shot and performance so I assumed he ran a ways.  It actually took me an hour to find the deer which had only gone 15 yards (probably 5 yards of that was rolling down the hill) because he piled up under the waist high ferns and Oregon grape on a relatively steep hill. Here's how I found him.


When I got him back to the trail I confirmed that my shot impacted exactly where I held, lower half of the right side of the brisket. The right front shoulder was broken and the bullet appeared to be just under the skin all the way back in the paunch just inside the right leg. I waited to gut him until I made the very long drag out (took just shy of 2 hours) to the closest road where I gutted him. Here's the damage I found while field dressing:





I was impressed to say the least. The bullet is a 6.5mm 130 Accubond. The recovered bullet weighs 103.3 grains and expanded perfectly.


I got home and started skinning the buck and was absolutely astonished by the damage done by the little accubond. Granted, some of the bloodied meat is the result of blood pooling from the time it hit the ground to the time I had it skinned out. If it had bled out instead of remaining in he body cavity it may have looked a bit different. The damage cause is what amazed me. Here's the point of entry.


Here's where it passed into the rib cage.


One of the big questions was how well the little 130 Accubond would hold up and perform. It penetrated in a straight line for 27" and retained 80% of it's weight! This included breaking 3 ribs and going through the paunch; I was very impressed.

I met up with my father in law while dropping the meat off at the shop to get cut and I showed him the damage done and asked him which gun he though I used and the range. Based on what he saw he guessed a high velocity hit at close range. The guys at the meat shop made a similar comment about that's what happens when you shoot small deer with big guns. When I told them that this was done by a 130 Accubond in 6.5 mm they were stunned.

At this point I feel like I may have underestimated the performance of some of the small bore rounds. I've always been a medium (.338 and up) caliber guy, but the only real advantage I can see from a larger bore in this case may have been a blood trail to follow. Feel free to guess the cartridge used and impact velocity. Also, if you have any good info on bullet performance from this year please share it.



Offline Angry Perch

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2016, 01:28:53 PM »
.264 LBC?
Low T Beta Male
Domesticated simpy city dwelling male
Low T/ high estrogen = illogical thinking
You must have a learning disability
Low IQ mut [sic] faced bimbo.
You see it here with some of the less intelligent and stable types.
Leveler boy.

Offline Thefishguy77

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2016, 01:35:50 PM »
Creedmore?


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Offline jay.sharkbait

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2016, 01:51:21 PM »
6.5 Carcano at 88 yards?

Offline Buzz2401

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2016, 02:32:41 PM »
6.5 grendel.   You had great penetration but I feel the overall damage to the vitals isn't really that impressive for the average deer calibers (308 win, 270, 30-06).  It put holes in them which is good but didn't really seem to blow them to pieces which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it

Offline Buzz2401

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2016, 02:36:58 PM »
One other thing it seems like you need more then one sample per gun to get a good idea of TP.  I only use two calibers with two different bullets but have had lots of different outcomes depending on range and where billet impacts.  Shot deer this year with a muzzleloader for the first time and was really surprised at the lack of performance from a 285gr bullet.

Offline lamrith

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2016, 05:29:17 PM »
6.5 grendel.   You had great penetration but I feel the overall damage to the vitals isn't really that impressive for the average deer calibers (308 win, 270, 30-06).  It put holes in them which is good but didn't really seem to blow them to pieces which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it
^^ Given the bullet weight that is my guess as well.  The 129ABLR is also supposed to be a very good round for that caliber, though 123g is much more common.

Offline whacker1

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2016, 05:55:51 PM »
i had the same experience with a 140 grain accubond out of a 270 10 years ago.  reverse order.  texas hearts shot ran the length of the animal and was lodged in the brisket. 

Offline Ridgeratt

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2016, 06:04:49 PM »
6.5 TCU for an odd ball choice

Offline h20hunter

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2016, 07:02:30 PM »
Tagging for sure. Im going with 168gr sierra matchkings for my 308 ar10 308 build. Im thinking varget mid range load and wok up towards max. Ill take any feedback on bullet oerformance on game.

Offline MoparDoctor

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2016, 07:11:16 PM »
Matchkings are not constructed to be a hunting bullet but dead deer usually don't complain.

Offline Thefishguy77

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2016, 07:22:43 PM »
Tagging for sure. Im going with 168gr sierra matchkings for my 308 ar10 308 build. Im thinking varget mid range load and wok up towards max. Ill take any feedback on bullet oerformance on game.

Look at the Berger VLD hunting hybrid bullet. They fly as good as the match kings and hit like a ton of bricks. My group I  hunt with all use AR 10 (308) variants and all settled on that round. With playing with different hand loads we settled on varget for a powder and all group around 1/2 minute @ 100 M.   Using IMR4064 I was able to shoot 1/2-3/4 minute groups as well.


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Offline freezerfull

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2016, 07:36:12 PM »
I'm gonna go 6.5x55 swede at 2750 mv. Shot at 75 yards. Love the accubond, recovered mine this year just under the skin on my whitetails butt.

Offline yorketransport

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2016, 10:23:02 PM »
6.5 Carcano at 88 yards?

That's oddly specific but darn close! :tup:

6.5 TCU for an odd ball choice

Man I miss my TCU....

.264 LBC?

That's it! I ran the little CZ 527 at about 50 yards.


6.5 grendel.   You had great penetration but I feel the overall damage to the vitals isn't really that impressive for the average deer calibers (308 win, 270, 30-06).  It put holes in them which is good but didn't really seem to blow them to pieces which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it

I agree that the damage was in line with a 308, 270 or 30-06 and that was what surprised me. Consider that the impact velocity was only about 2350 fps though. I was just surprised by the damage done at relatively low velocity by the small bore round. I've seen significantly less tissue damage done by a 225gr Partition at over 2600 fps impact velocity.

Over all I'm really happy with how the accubond performed. It penetrated well, expanded well at the impact velocity and followed an almost JFK magic bullet like path managing to hit every vital organ. :chuckle:

Offline Chesapeake

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Re: bullet performance discussions
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2016, 12:59:13 PM »
Looks about like normal accubond performance to me. They blow up the front on impact and then the back end drives on through. Lots of folks call them accubombs in response.

Advertised minimum velocity is 1800 fps I believe.




 


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