May have just witnessed my first copper bullet failure…

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

i have a theory on that. I’ve seen hollow point failures with a Berger too. Passed straight through. I think that with open small hollow points if they get filled with dirt, liquid, etc… they don’t have the air cavitation to expand.

Sure. My main point is just generically saying "use hammers" as if that will definitely shed petals is the part I was cautioning about. Not all their offerings are the same.

 

[PLhunter]

Ok

Sure. My main point is just generically saying "use hammers" as if that will definitely shed petals is the part I was cautioning about. Not all their offerings are the same.

no and they even vary wildly within the same bullet lineup. With my 25-06 with the 121’s HH it’d keep a large shank and just shed the nose cone even at very high impact velocities. With the 6.5 124 HH which is what I used until switching the badlands and then hbc’s we’d commonly find fragments with th drive bands in them. Demonstrating much greater fragmentation and that was at lower impact velocities. I never had a hammer fail personally but I’ve heard of it and was just theorizing that plugged hollow points might play a role. The hbc lineup has a huge hollow point and I’ve seen two animals harvested with that design. Both were on the explosive end of the spectrum.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I never had a hammer fail personally but I’ve heard of it and was just theorizing that plugged hollow points might play a role.

Some recovered bullets from 'a bad batch of material'. The recovered ones aren't complete failures but absolutely not shedding petals as intended causing tumbling which allowed these ones to be caught where the others zipped through recreating rodeos. Impact velocities were well over their minimums.

 

[Ryan Avery]

It's funny, this is still a surprise on here. Non-CNS shots on animals with copper or hard-bonded bullets will generally stay on their feet longer than animals shot with a good match bullet. And sometimes they stay on their feet for a long time.

 

[NDHUNTER24]

I've shot a fair amount of deer with various bullets and a couple elk. Barnes shot well in my rifles, and they were consistent. But, the performance wasn't what i was looking for. Match type bullets get the nod for me anymore.

 

[PLhunter]

Yeah, this is what they should look like. The only one I’ve ever recovered the shank on. We do commonly recover the petals but even they exit more often than you’d expect.


This years 4 doe whitetail were all bang flops with .223, 6mm, and 6.5mm. All tipped versions. They are easy to make a load for that too me is their biggest pro. Biggest con is definitely cost. I’ve only shot one deer with a match bullet and it was a high cns hit. Lots of folks love em. I do like the piece of mind of with the kids of not having lead, some folks don’t care, which is fine.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Yeah, this is what they should look like. The only one I’ve ever recovered the shank on. We do commonly recover the petals but even they exit more often than you’d expect.
View attachment 1035332

This years 4 doe whitetail were all bang flops with .223, 6mm, and 6.5mm. All tipped versions. They are easy to make a load for that too me is their biggest pro. Biggest con is definitely cost. I’ve only shot one deer with a match bullet and it was a high cns hit. Lots of folks love em. I do like the piece of mind of with the kids of not having lead, some folks don’t care, which is fine.

Yesh I caught a properly peeled one once in a rear (son was shooting, quartering towards) with a different hammer bullet.

I was just commenting since I personally had issues with some and why I think the hht and hbc will be better for my desires.

 

[KHntr]

Bullet pictures don’t mean much… this came out of the bull after going corner to corner and living for 6 more hours and 3 more bullets.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Bullet pictures don’t mean much… this came out of the bull after going corner to corner and living for 6 more hours and 3 more bullets.

Yep it they don't go through the right parts the error for margin is much lower as has been noted and needs to be recognized if choosing to deploy them.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

Had similar head scratcher with a barnes 278 gr half inch slug from 20 gauge bolt action shotgun that pedalled up perfectly to 1” and broadside elk at 100 that punched through both lungs and it only went about 30 yards up a creek bank in a couple feet of snow and took me awhile to get to it and tracked quad to get it out but head still up and looking at me so one more to the face at 10 paces. Could eat up to the 1” hole through the lungs, just a bit of bloodshot around edge of hole. The finisher didn’t open up as ran along nose and then in and through brain and stopped 3rd vertebrae with tip just bent over slightly. I would get 100 yard runners mostly with accubonds and good speeds, switch to slow eldm stuff and nearly everything is drt by comparison. So less bullet I find the happier I am lol. Whatever comes apart best over right penetration depths is max smile per mile for me. Tougher the bullets the worse they are for speed to incapacitate imo.