Other than actually shooting a deer do any of you have ideas on a cheap way to test how a bullet performs on impact. I know ballistic gel would work but I am looking for a cheap simple method. I once heard of using a stack of phone books and was just curious as to what others have heard or tried.
Best way to test expansion of a bullet
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Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
I've heard the stack of phone books as well. Also a large bundle of newspapers held together with twine and then soaked with water. I think though that the general consensus is these sorts of things might be good for giving you a general idea of how your bullet will work, but you definitely can't take that to the bank in terms of how it will work on an animal. Still, if you were wanting to compare two bullets, or two loads in a side by side test, I think it might offer some useful information in terms of comparison.
BattleRife
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- of No Fixed Address
The easiest and cheapest is snow. The only downside is it only works in winter.
I learned this once when I went shooting a .308 Win at a plastic 20L bucket. It was winter, and I had a whole long, flat field covered in several cm of light, fresh powder snow. I filled the bucket with snow, and set it out a ways from the edge of the field, and shot it several times.
When I went to check the bucket, I noticed I could see the troughs from the bullets skimming along the top of the snow behind the target. I decided to follow them. What I found was that the bullets skipped along like they were on water. They would burrow through the snow for several meters, lift up a bit for a while, then drop back down again. I don't remember now how far they went, a couple of hundred metres total, maybe? At the end, I found the bullets, perfectly mushroomed and lying on top of the snow, or melted down a couple of cm in readily visible holes. Best bullets I ever recovered.
I have also gone back to sites in summer time where I had been shooting in winter, and found 7.62 FMJs just lying in a pile in front of the backstops. The backstops had a tendency to develop deep snowbanks in front of them, and I don't think the bullets ever hit the hard dirt.
I learned this once when I went shooting a .308 Win at a plastic 20L bucket. It was winter, and I had a whole long, flat field covered in several cm of light, fresh powder snow. I filled the bucket with snow, and set it out a ways from the edge of the field, and shot it several times.
When I went to check the bucket, I noticed I could see the troughs from the bullets skimming along the top of the snow behind the target. I decided to follow them. What I found was that the bullets skipped along like they were on water. They would burrow through the snow for several meters, lift up a bit for a while, then drop back down again. I don't remember now how far they went, a couple of hundred metres total, maybe? At the end, I found the bullets, perfectly mushroomed and lying on top of the snow, or melted down a couple of cm in readily visible holes. Best bullets I ever recovered.
I have also gone back to sites in summer time where I had been shooting in winter, and found 7.62 FMJs just lying in a pile in front of the backstops. The backstops had a tendency to develop deep snowbanks in front of them, and I don't think the bullets ever hit the hard dirt.
I would go 18"
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Drill mud (bentonite) is an excellent if messy medium. The aquatic nature of the stuff produces very uniform terminal bullet performance. Thus you get a good idea of the penetration potential of your bullet, and you can measure the wound volume, something the wet paper testing doesn't do so well.
Is it a solid or liquid?
IMO newspaper or mud are too uniform; you'll get nicely mushroomed bullets, but won't know how that bullet will perform if it hits a shoulder instead of the ribs.
You could try the Field and Stream ballistic buffalo. There's directions here:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/shooting/rifles/article/0,13199,1183295,00.html
I don't know that this would be any more realistic than the newspaper or mud or gelatin -- but if you're shooting a bullet that's likely to come apart after hitting bone, this is more likely to let you know.
You could try the Field and Stream ballistic buffalo. There's directions here:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/shooting/rifles/article/0,13199,1183295,00.html
I don't know that this would be any more realistic than the newspaper or mud or gelatin -- but if you're shooting a bullet that's likely to come apart after hitting bone, this is more likely to let you know.
Ballistic gel is the medium of choice for testing bullets, do a search of "BALLISTIC GEL" There are a few sites expaining how to do it . Also shooting into a row of water filled milk jugs usually captures the bullet in the last jug it penetrates, goto www.theboxotruth.com for some ideas.
My hunting partner tells of a fellow from the Barrnet range that collected bullets and compared them against ones that were tested into wet phonebooks.He felt it was good correlation.Weither it's worth the effort,depends on cartridge.Some day I'll get around to testing the 6.5 140grSST at 3000. I would never bother with the 308 180gr Interbond at 2700.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Depending how you mix it, the consistency could be considered similar to grease. Wet enough to cause hydraulic expansion in bullets, but dry enough to hold it's shape after the bullet has passed.
So it would sit in a lump on a table?
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
It would be better if held in a container, perhaps a 5 gallon oil pail - I lined up 3 at a time when I tested my .375 loads. A plywood box open on the front and lined with poly would be better yet. I made one just for that purpose, but I didn't get around to using it before things froze up here.
