Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Shooting Thor bullets

I got a sample (4 bullets) in an assortment of sizes to figure out which size my rifle wanted. It ended up taking the .500" Thor Bullet.

These are Solid copper conicals with a hollow base that flares out and grips the rifling. The head of the bullet is also hollow and of course, The plastic tip is shoved into that hole.





The blue color in the base of the bullet is just color coding for the size of the bullet. This one for instance is .503" Dia. Much to big for any of my rifles.


.500" Thor started into the muzzle of my CVA Mountain Stalker .50cal Loaded with 90gr 3f Goex.


First shot @ 20 yards, off hand into my sand trap.


Thor plowed through this cement like sand mixture. This is only half of the actual sand that was in the bucket. The Thor blew that other half into chucks and exited my bucket.
[img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm53/thepowerbeltforum/Thor%20Bullets/250grThor003.jpg[/img]


My next test was with the .501" Thor and it was a Super Tight fit. So tight, i had to use a small hammer and pound it down onto the powder. This rifle wants only the .500" Thor!!

Now i figured a nice seasoned 9" log of cedar would catch it as its caught every other bullet ive shot into. This was at 5 yards with the same load.
[img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm53/thepowerbeltforum/Thor%20Bullets/250grThor005.jpg[/img]

Exit,
[img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm53/thepowerbeltforum/Thor%20Bullets/250grThor004.jpg[/img]

Internal,
[img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm53/thepowerbeltforum/Thor%20Bullets/250grThor006.jpg[/img]

Two Shots, Two Exits through tough material :shock:

I plan on building a new sand trap thats 24" long and 12" Square to see if i can catch them the next time i get some to test out.

This bullet does seem to be an execellent bullet and left me in shock after only 2 shots.

BB, is this Thor bullet manufactured by Powerbelt Mfg?
I am very interested in it for my T/C Greyhawk.

I got my bullets today so i took a Cabelas Sporterized Hawken .50cal out to my 100 yard range. My first shot was at my sand bucket so i could recover the bullet ( I did!!) and my next 3 shots were at the target.

I ordered the .500" 247gr Colorado Thor and on a clean bore, they will lift off the charge but once you foul it, they stay in place tight. This rifle will be using a fouled bore during hunting season.




Accuracy - My first outing i was pretty over heated with firing 3 rifles and getting everything on.

First 3 shot group @ 100 yards.
I was damn happy with this group because this rifle has a 1:48 twist and supposedly wasnt supposed to do to great with these bullets. My guess is due to the length but im a believer in the words "You'll never know, Until you try"


After the 4 shots, i took it home and swabbed the barrel clean and took a rest to settle the nerves and measure out more powder charges and to weigh the bullets on my scale.

I used (94 grains by weight) Goex 3f in this rifle and the fouling was very acceptable.

Accuracy again, Pretty darn awesome! I blew shot #3 probably due to running up and down the range after each shot but thats okay, thats what you do when you're in the field hunting.

Shot #1 left a big smile on my face ear to ear.


I do plan on swabbing between shots just to see if accuracy will get even better or if it will do the opposite.

It was an awesome day and the rifle is now ready for hunting season after just 7 shots!

BB,

Where did you get yours from? Their website only list .501, .502, and 503.

HaYen

The website has not yet been updated. Barnes actually produces these under contract i believe, for Thor bullets. If you email thor and ask for their sample pack, they'll send you all 4 sizes so you can find the one that fits your barrel. A couple sheets of info and what bullets are available are also included.

I think the TC Greyhawk would do pretty well with these. My first time out with them i was pretty impressed.

Thanks BB, I will do that.

90gr 3f goex, 247gr colorado thor @100 yards. Same cabelas hawken. Only thing different was that my ol pappy was doing the shooting.


Tested the colorado thor @ 50 yards into a water jug / damp sand.
90gr pyrodex RS.





[img]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/...ts/247gr%20Colorado/247Thor-Test2006.jpg[/img]

soooo perrrdy. I tried to order some but the guy insisted he send me a sample pack ... ok.

yes! be sure you get the sample pack (free) so you can figure out what diameter bullet you need. If you go one size to big, they wont load.

Got the sample pack today and made a bee line to the range. I started with the .500 in a clean barrel. It went down a little tight (about 20-30PSI). Very accurate!!! I did pull a knuckle head move though. I wanted to shoot it with 110grs of BH209, but instead put APP down the pipe. Oh well no worries.

Thanks BigBlock for the info. I'll be ordering me some.

20-30lbs is perfect, exactly what they call for.

Heres how the .500 247gr Colorado Thor shoots in my CVA Accura with 110gr Pyrodex RS @ 100 yards.

Installed the Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 on the Accura and sighted in with 90gr pyrodex RS and the 250gr Harvester Sabertooth bullets. I wanted to save the thors as i only have 19 left out of 82

The sabertooths and Thors shoot the same POI so thats a great thing.

My first 3 shots with the Thors at 100 yards ( 110gr RS/ W209 Primer) I allowed a 4 minute cool down and shot a Quarter size hole. Shots #2 and #3 are basically in the same hole, but as you can see from shot #1 the difference in the size of the hole.

Im impressed! When my brother in law and i go for his new mexico deer/elk hunt we will be sighting in with the 250gr Ballistic Tip Thor. He has a deer hunt in Sept - 4 days after my hunt ends in colorado ( Be nice and tired for his hunt) . He also has a cow elk hunt in mid/late December.

Im all finished shooting the Accura until hunting season is here! My open sights were adjusted in a way so i could mount the scope without removing them and having to resight in.






Now the 2 shots in the black were my final 2 shots, i didnt give them any time to cool down. Just shot and reloaded as fast as possible. Also note the taped up hole above the 3 shot group. That is were the 250gr Sabertooth conicals impact with 90gr RS.

My deer hunt is on Oct 30th in Unit 9 (next door to the Grand Canyon). Some members of the Game and Fish Department have asked that we not use lead bullets in that area. There are some portions of the unit that are very thick and you won't get off a 100 yard shot. For those area's I'll be taking the ML with Thor bullets and for the longer shots, the 30-06 with a 130gr TSX.

Just out of curiosity, why did they ask that no lead bullets be used?

California Condors nest there. Its actually a funny situation. There is a difference of option among the G&F employees. A letter goes out to everyone that got drawn in and around that area asking to use non-leaded ammo. When I mentioned to a couple of G&F educators, that I was scrambling to load some non-L's the last time I hunted that unit, they actually got upset at me. They felt that I was "giving in to pressure" and people like me would contribute to a total ban of leaded ammunition. I'd gotten some PM's from people on the CampFire that felt the same. And here I was thinking I was doing a responsible thing. :-)

I still hunt with leaded ammo, just not up there.

Hayen, what rifle are you going to shoot them out of?

Also, theres not a damn thing wrong with switching to a copper bullet. If you want to respect the land around you and the wildlife, i give you 2 thumbs up for that + another 2 thumbs up for putting up with those who talk down on you for just wanting to help out in your hunting area. Its obviously not a law in your area to shoot strictly copper/brass, but you chose to do so to help out a little with the wildlife, i respect you for that.

IMO i dont care what anyone else shoots as long as its legal. I'll shoot what i want to shoot & i expect everyone else to do as they wish.

Well, the reason I asked the question is because finding non-leaded bullets for muzzleloaders, finding the right size, and getting them to shoot ain't quite as easy as it is for centerfires so the request might seem a little unreasonable to someone shooting a muzzleloader. Thor bullets shoot well in your rifle and that's great, but maybe they don't shoot well in others--what then if you can't use sabots?

Plus, the one knock I've heard on all copper bullets used in centerfires is the tendency to fail to open at low velocities. Muzzleloaders = low velocities, so it's reasonable to ask if bullet upset (or lack thereof) will be an issue with muzzleloaders. It'll be interesting to see how the all-copper ML bullets perform on game as opposed to sand.

Add to that the fact that with a bore-sized conical, nothing you can do will make it go fast so you're banking on a heavy, slow-moving projectile to do the job, and many times, heavier=better because a heavy slug has more momentum, and more momentum = more penetration. So using a lighter (copper) projectile seems to be possibly moving in the wrong direction as far as effectiveness goes.

Killing the animal as quickly and humanely as possible with a clean, one-shot kill is the goal, and using a bullet that performs (and has been demonstrated to perform) is respecting the animal every bit as much as anything else written here.

120gr RS with the 250gr thor gets you 2031 fps. Thats plenty to open them up. Heck, they open up with 90gr rs @ 100 yards.

The Thor is made by Barnes. Its going to open up!!

Well, when you recover some from animals, you'll know whether they open up. I just re-read HaYen's post and realized he can use a centerfire so it's not such a big deal but if he was just shooting a muzzleloader, it would be.

Thor has a hard time recovering these bullets. The owner shot a 1900lb buffalo and it went in and out. I'll be shooting them this season so we will find out how much damage they cause!!

smokepole if you were in Oregon and hunting during ML
you can only use round lead or mini ball(can't be more than twice as long as dia.) no glass only open or a basic peep sight and
cap must be exposed to the weather at all times and no 209
caps. Is truly primitive hunting. Cheers NC