350gr Interlocks vs Milk jugs

[TacoTaco]

I took out my swaged .458 350gr Hornday Interlock load today, and tested it against some milk jugs. The load is 40.5gr of A1680, set at 2.260 COAL. Muzzle velocity is 1850fps at the muzzle. Per Hornady's ballistic calculator, it should be traveling around 1500fps at 100yds, which is where the milk jugs were placed. Not knowing what to expect for penetration, I placed 10 in a row. Here's the aftermath:

Total penetration was 6 jugs, with the bullet coming to rest about 2 feet to the right of the 8th jug. First two jugs were absolutely devastated, with the third not in much better shape. The 4th, 5th and 6th were just quarter sized holes. The bullet was almost completely intact, only shedding a few small pieces of the jacket. The 350gr bullet weighed 334.1gr when all was said and done. Here's a few pictures:




As you can see, the bullet mushroomed quite nicely and retained a good percentage of its weight. Expansion was beautiful, measuring in at .782". I'd venture to say that this is more than sufficient for a Roosevelt Elk.

I ran out of jugs, otherwise I would have tested the load at 50 and 25 yards, just to be sure I don't get any disintegration. I wouldnt expect any, but where I hunt close shots are the norm, so it's best to be sure.

Hope this adds to the collective knowledge bank.

Taco

[Texas Sheepdawg]

WOW! That's a penetrator!

[TacoTaco]

Sheepdawg- Did you do any water testing of those 230's you were playing with? Interested to know how they compare penetration wise. Does the non-expanding 230 @2500 out-penetrate the 350 @ 1850?

[Texas Sheepdawg]

I've not done any testing yet. Tomorrow, I am going to try to do several projects, but not sure if water tests will be one of them. We had bad storms last night and the range is still sloppy gumbo. But no, none of my water tests have done six jugs.

[commander faschisto]

I think we should rename that the ".782 Taco Magnum"...

[bushmeister]

Nice work Taco!!

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Where's the video?

[TacoTaco]

I think we should rename that the ".782 Taco Magnum"...

I like the sound of that!!

[TacoTaco]

Where's the video?

No video unfortunately. The only video camera I have is on my cell phone, and I didn't want to risk it getting damaged. I do have access to one of those Go-Pro cameras though. Maybe next time.

I'm real curious about the penetration vs the lighter but fast bullets. In my experience with shooting at steel, I've found that velocity is king when it comes to penetrating through it. But I'm new to testing on water jugs, so I don't know if the same physics apply. It's doubtful that they do. Either way, six jugs is a heck of a lot of penetration.

[Hoot]

Nice work Taco. IIRC, that's better penetration than the 200, 225 and 250 FTX's did at higher velocity. When I was testing the 200 XPB at lower velocities, the penetration went further, the slower they were going, due to lack of expansion. Obviously expansion, like a sea anchor, has a large impact upon resistance to travel through water. I never trusted my aim versus the number of bottles I had on hand for retries, to actually set them up at longer distances. I just loaded them down to lower velocities using an inert filler and shot them at 20 yards. I'd say you definitely proved that those resized 350s expand at 1500 fps unlike the lighter XPBs. Nice addition to our understanding of how other bullets perform.

TSD, I thought the boys found a beautifully expanded 230gr FMJ from shooting it into water jugs? To this day, the degree it expanded is etched in my mind as most people, myself included, usually don't associate FMJs with much expansion in soft targets.

Hoot