PEAX Equipment

Bullet preferences

Bush Baby

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Joined
Jul 1, 2001
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18
Location
South Africa
When it comes to non-premium bullets what are your preferences and why ?

· I have almost always used Hornady, I find them generally accurate and they hold together quite well, when used sensibly.
· The common thought is that Sierra are very soft (although accurate) and cannot be depended on to perform well, however someone said that their BTHP – not the matchking bullet – is their tough one and designed to hold together, anyone know ?
· It has always been a belief of mine that boat tails aid in the jacket and core separating, and should be avoided when selecting a hunting bullet, unless their aerodynamic advantage is really needed.
· Any comments on Speer’s standard range (hot cores) ?
· We don’t see Remington core-lokt here, I hear they are as good as premiums, at half the price.
· Can Barnes ’X’ bullets be relied upon to open up at low impact velocities (1950-2100fps), I’m thinking .338 here ?
I am looking for a replacement for 140gr Nosler Bal.tips in 7 mm. And wouldn’t mind looking at something with a bit more Bal.coef. in .338/250grs, currently using Hornady 250gr RN, for some reason the Hornady 250gr Spire points came seriously apart in testing while the RN did very well, +/-72% retained (MV = 2370fps) – go figure – is there some difference in their construction ? The load is fine for the Bushveld, but does handicap me past 175 yds. I would also consider going to 225gr bullets for the longer work.
 
Nobody wants to touch this one eh?

I shoot Hornies about 1000:1 over any other bullet I use. However I hunt with Swift Aframes and Nosler partitions about 100% of the the time. Hornies make for great accurate and much cheaper target shooting though

Remington Core locks are not Premium and not even close to the same performance as a premium. I have found that the Hornies shoot to the exact POI of my Partitions and A frames with the same load. Which makes using them a natural fit.

I have seen X bullets work like a bolt of lightning from heaven on game but I have seen them do plenty of strange things too so I do not use them anymore. They also fouled my barrel very badly as well. jj
 
I bought a box of Sierra BTHP 140 gr for my .270 for paper punching, and I called sierra about preformance on game. They told me the bullet I had was made for deer hunting and it would hold togather just fine.
I gave some to a friend, and a few weeks later he shot a very small buck for meat.
The bullet blew up on impact, and bearly penatrated a few inches. He got the deer, but if it had been any bigger than 65 lbs on the hoof, it would have been a wounded/lost deer. I will not use sierras on any thing bigger than varmits.
Of all the non-prem. bullets, I think hornadys hold up best, killed several big deer and I usually get deep penatration or pass through
 
Bush Baby: I can only respond to one of your questions regarding the 338 bullet. I have used the newer Barns X with excellent success but prefer (speaking of factory ammo) the Fed. high energy 250gr Nosler Partition. In my rifle this bullet delivers consistant accuracy, and dependable penetration at a variety of ranges on large game with thick skin and/or heavy muscular frames. Just my thoughts. ;)
 
I will shoot nothing but X bullets at game any more.I have shot game up to the size of Kudu and Bull ellk with .264 140's, .338 225's,.35 250's, and .416 350's. From 20 yards to 400 yard. All performed well it seemed. I did have a 6.5 shed it's petals on a kudu at 100 yards- but it was still a very sick kudu.

I used core lokts years ago when I was a kid. They worked very well. As for any of the non premium that I have tried all seemed to have explosive tendancies at close range or magnum speeds.
 

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