Ok Today I went out early and shot 6 different 348 bullets into wet newsprint at velocities to simulate 50 yards and 200-300 yards. It was an interesting and surprising test.

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A bullet I like is the 200 Flextip. It shoots well in my Win 71 (2MOA) keeps 1700fps out to 300 yards and has the best trajectory of the bullets I have used by 2-3 " or so at again 300 yards. I worried it might be overly explosive but thought the long shank would help. Turns out that it does and the bullet actually has pretty controlled expansion.

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The 200 Flextip penetrated 9 inches when driven at 2350 ft/sec( 6 of wet news print then 3" into dry catalogues and phone-books). It retained nearly 90 grains of weight and hung onto some core. At 1800fps it hung onto 158.6 grains and started expanding but the core is actually a bit hard and this bullet has less violent expansion than I thought it would.

The 200 Hornady FN. I have been taking for granted. Actually it did fairly well. It hung onto 97.4grains at high speed, and 183.3 at low. It penetrated better that the A-Frame and actually expanded better than the Flex-Tip at 1800ft/sec. Wound channels were not that impressive how-ever but it actually seems like a good all round choice.

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The 200 silvertip I haven't taken a picture of but it comes apart at high speed and barely expands at low. It is seen in my video. The 200 A-Frame is remarkable. It expands nearly the same at 2350 and 1800fps,(Alert..damn..I accidently mixed up a round on this one and the low speed H4895 was accidently substituted with a full power H414 load which would have been going about 2500fps... sorry will retest) Penetration is good, but the wide expansion at all speeds limits it to a bit less penetration than the 200 Hornady. I am sure though that it would be better on tough bone. Very well built bullet, relaible +++++

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Of course I was wrong about the A-Frame. I mixed up a 2500ft/sec round that I was testing for accuracy with the 1800fps one. Went out tonight and tested the 1800fps (estimated) round. It expanded much less, but still made a fairly good wound channel. Penetration increased and the bullet ran nice and straight with no tumbling. Average penetration is almost as good as the Woodleigh with adding this bullet.

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The 220 Barnes Original penetrates about the same as the 200 A-Frame. It will core separate once the jacket has expanded past the cannelure but this is always after pretty good penetration. The soft core and jacket really open up nicely and this was the best expander of the test. Great wound channels.

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The 250 woodleigh was the best penetrator. Interestingly one at low speed began to tumble and wrecked itself (though still weighing 197.2 grains. This is due in part because I load the bullet down to simulate long range and lose some rotational speed and stability. Good bullet for Bison... I think though I'll go 200 A-Frame or 220 Barnes for moose.


Video here if you want to see more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OaJcGjEBfo

Last edited by North61; 05/29/16.