- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
I've shot the Sierra 165 gr HPBT, in both the .30/06 and a .300 Winchester. Loaded at full steam in a .300 Winchester they aren't very tough, but at .308 or .30/06 velocities I'd rate them as a good deer or a barren land caribou bullet, but they don't consistently penetrate deeply enough for larger game IMHO and seem to give up after a foot or so. It seems to me that they don't shoot as flat as pointed bullets of the same weight, due to the large open point, but I've lost the records which would now be 30 years old. Checking on JBM when both are fired at 2850, the Sierra only has an inch more drop at 300 than the 165 gr SPBT Hornady, so perhaps I was mistaken about the trajectory, an inch at 300 yards has no practical significance. Back when I lived down south, I thought highly of the Hornady 165 gr SPBT, which was my go to bullet in the .30/06 I carried then, not only are they affordable by comparison, and accurate, they can do anything that can reasonably be expected of a cup and lead core 165 gr .30 caliber bullet. If you need a 165 gr bullet to do more, then you need to shoot Accubonds, or move up to 180 or 190 gr bullets.
When discussing the terminal performance of bullets, when you gain something in one direction, you tend to loose something else in another. Through and through penetration is a good example of this. While I am a believer in the concept that a bullet can't break what it can't reach, one of the benefits that high velocity fragile bullets have is the absolute destruction of what it does reach, with a very large crush diameter 4"-8" sometimes more. Obviously, death with a properly placed bullet of this type results in a fast humane death, provided its combined with sufficient penetration. Think sledgehammers and mosquitoes.
When the high velocity fragile bullet concept is taken too far though, the result is a shallow messy wound that causes much suffering, but is not immediately fatal. I have witnessed this on more than one occasion, and it sickens me, and I'll never be the cause of it again. Consider if you will, that a bullet has two velocities, linear and rotational. Where the linear velocity decays rapidly, the rotational velocity changes little through the time of flight. Once the bullet jacket is compromised, the the centrifugal forces from the high rotational velocity try to tear it apart; if the jacket is thin, or the lead core not physically restrained, it will. Likewise, a pointed bullet that fails to expand, penetrates deeply, but the bullet path follows the least resistance, where straight line penetrations is much more desirable. These too tend to create miserable wounds, which is why military FMJs are prohibited almost everywhere. An example of pointed bullets that don't expand in game are of course FMJ military bullets, in some circumstances monometal bullets, and match bullets that are not annealed. When they are annealed they tend to be too fragile when the impact velocity is high, so their usefulness in hunting is limited to that which requires long range shooting. I think its unfortunate that proper big game solids are so often lumped in with legislation that's aimed at military FMJs. The excellent flat nose, with parallel sides, and short for caliber big game solid, creates wide entrance and exit wounds, penetrates in a straight line regardless of whether bone or soft tissue is impacted, and creates havoc in its wake. They are not made in calibers smaller than .366, and many bullet manufactures don't make them in calibers smaller than .375. Unlike expanding bullet that expand more rapidly the higher the impact velocity, reducing their penetration, the faster a big game solid impacts, the greater the penetration. Its been argued that level of performance is unnecessary on North American game, but the ability to shoot through the length of an animal has its place.
So when choosing game bullets we must find a compromise. The compromise bullet tends to hold together until well inside the target before it erupts, but is less inclined to shed weight, than a fragile bullet, and penetrates less than a solid. Penetration is controlled by a combination of bullet construction and impact velocity. Because so few shots are normally taken at game, the cost of the bullet doesn't matter very much, provided we can find an affordable bullet with similar trajectory with which to practice. Choose your bullet weight by the density of what you hunt, Dogleg coined it perfectly when he said light-fast bullets for light-fast animals, big slow bullets for big slow animals. In .30 caliber, 130-150gr for smaller species of big game like antelope, wolves, and small deer, 150-180 gr for large deer, black bear, Canadian moose, and elk, and 180-240 gr for big bears and Alaska-Yukon moose. Now that the weight of the bullet has been determined, what about it's construction? Again, taking Dogleg's sage advice, for fast light animals, a cup and lead core bullet like a Ballistic Tip, for large big game a controlled expansion bullet like a Partition or an A-frame would be hard to beat, and the same would apply for heavy and dangerous big game, although we might opt for a bonded bullet.
IMHO, mono-metals have limited usefulness. I've heard from too many hunters and outfitters of long experience who have observed less than stellar performance from these things. I know, others who swear by them rather than at them, so lets say the results are 50-50. That doesn't encourage me towards monos very much, where never a disparaging word is heard against Partitions, which combine the benefits of the expanding front section and nonexpanding rear. Where I do have faith in monos is when they are loaded in cartridges with diameters greater than .366". A pair .50 caliber 570 gr X bullets didn't do my Tanzanian buffalo much good, but the impact velocity was probably only 2000 fps and the expansion of the recovered bullet was just a hair short of an inch after penetrating 32". Where I use monos today is in my wife's .30/06, where I load 180s at 2500. This is not a very fast load as 180 gr .30/06s go, but it is fired effectively from a 6 pound rifle by a woman, it will penetrate, and her not being a hunter, her rifle is strictly for use as a bear defense gun. The idea is that the range will be within 30' and the bullet must punch through the bone of the skull, spine, shoulder, or hip. I'm confident they will do that, and whether or not the petals break off doesn't have a huge bearing on what happens next. I'm treating these as I would a small bore solid, which is essentially what a mono is once the front third of the bullet, which forms the petals, has broken off. The 240 gr Woodleighs, were my first choice, but they won't stabilize from her 1:12 twist barrel.
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