I have always wondered which bullet was deadliest on water jugs...
I'm not sure what these results tell me either, but it looks like a helluvalot of fun in the way of data-gathering.
The point, bwalker, was not to kill waterjugs but to take advantage of them as an easy, repeatable and consistent means of testing the bullets.
Every bullet fired into the water jugs expanded, which was the desired goal. The use of a single jug rather than a string of them also allowed the paper target to capture evidence of any particles escaping the jugs, which was the end goal. Mission accomplished.
What the tests showed was not unexpected - every single cup-and-core bullet tested sprayed lead and/or jacket material, some more than others. To some extent, bonded core bullets will do this as well as any weight not retained represents material that gets sprayed.
The all copper Barnes TTSX expanded while in the jug, a fact which did not surprise me at all based on my experience with them on game but was nice to confirm.
It is unfortunate that the photos don't make it easier to spot all the holes in the targets. Nonetheless most are visible. People can understand how the results were obtained and draw their own conclusions. what they do with those conclusions is up to them.
For myself, I will continue on a path I started well over a decade ago - using bonded core bullets (mostly North Fork, A-Frame and AccuBond) as the minimum in my bolt rifles and using lead free bullets like the TTSX more and more as I develop new loads.
This year's antelope hunt is an anomaly in that I will be using a .243 95g SST and have built 150g BT loads for my future son-in-law to use on the same hunt. Range time was too short this year to allow it (both rifles were acquired this year) but the original plan was to work up initial loads using these bullets and use the data gathered as the basis for developing AccuBond or TTSX/LRX loads. Regardless of the outcome, I do not anticipate using these bullets for subsequent big game hunts. (Varmints, yes.)
Billy_Goat has it right - it was fun, and that as much as anything was the primary goal.
Next time I take water jugs to the range I plan to take 50 or more and capture the expanded bullets. Saddlesore has some he wants to test as well. More fun but probably not very informative as the results are fairly predictable.
