Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Water jug tests

Yesterday a son-in-law and I headed to the range to get him sighted in for antelope and elk. For elk he had a custom 1903A3 .300WM that was handed down to him and a Savage 111GNS .30-06 I gave him as a wedding present he will use for antelope. I took three rifles that will be used for antelope - my Ruger M77 .257 Roberts Daughter #3 will use, a Savage FXP3 .243 Win I plan to use and a 20" barreled synthetic/blue Ruger Hawkeye .30-06 that Daughter #3's intended will get as a wedding present next April.

Part of what I wanted to accomplish that trip was to test some cup-and-core bullets by shooting them through a water jug with a target in the background to catch whatever came out of the water jug. We tested six loads at 20 yards. All loads were chrono'd except the Core-Lokt:

.243 Win, 95g Hornady SST, 2925fps (avg.)
.257 Roberts, 100g Barnes TTSX, 3233fps (avg.)
.30-06, 150g Winchester Ballistic Silvertip, 3005fps (avg.)
.30-06, 165g Hornady SST, 2863fps (actual)
.300 WM, 180g Winchester Power-Point, 2825fps (avg.)
.300 WM, 180g Remington Core-Lokt, 2700fps (factory spec)

Here is a photo of the setup after one of the jugs was destroyed. The two 2x10's on the ground are nailed together. For the shots they were on top of the sawhorses and the one gallon water jugs were placed on top, one jug per shot, on the target end of the 2x10s. The boards are lying where they landed after the .300WM/180g Core-Lokt test. Note that the target is completely soaked.


.243 Win/95g Hornady SST/2925fps. Lots of small holes from lead and/or jacket material. This was the case with all but the Barnes TTSX.


.257 Roberts/100g Barnes TTSX/3233fps. Two holes, the second from a broken petal.


.30-06/150g WW Ballistic Silvertip/3005fps


.30-06/165g Hornady SST/2863fps


More photos below.