Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Nosler JHP bullets?

Hello,

I was wondering if any of you have used these for plinking or taking game? If so, what were your results?

I've been shooting them from my 1911 45acp accurate and feed well in my Kimber no complaints.

What caliber are you interested in?

I have had some of the .452" 250/260? grain, accurate but am leery of them as they say for target, plinking or some such thing on the box, so not sure how they would be on game.

Jerry

"Sport Handgun Revolver Bullet

Whether you punch paper, shoot steel, or use your handgun for hunting, Nosler� ensures you have the very finest in accuracy, consistency and overall quality. Each bullet is produced on the most advanced, fully automated machinery and, like our premium rifle bullets, Nosler� hand inspects and then polishes all Sporting Handgun� bullets to a bright finish."

Not bashin' ya, but I find it hard to imagine a .45 cal 250 of any sort that wouldn't be fine for most game at handgun velocities.

Stuffed in a .45-70 might be a different story. As might chasing mean toothy creatures...

IMO, they are a very basic cup and core handgun bullet. The bullets made for revolver calibers seem to all have a bit of lead beyond the mouth of the bullet jacket, while bullets sizes for semi-auto calibers seem to have a jacket extending to the nose of the bullet with no lead beyond and skiving to help with expansion.

I used to use a lot of their 135 gr 40 caliber bullets because they were darned near as cheap as cast bullets. This was about 20 years ago and I could order the Nosler 250 count pack for $18.99 plus shipping from Discount Bullets.

The bullets worked fine on paper, but I noticed that not all of the bullet noses had the skiving cut evenly. It might be a good bit deeper on one side of the nose than the other. Almost to the point that there was practically no skiving on one side. The paper didn't seem to care, so I didn't either. Again, this was quite a while ago and I haven't examined any recently made Noslers made for semi-auto pistol calibers.

A couple years ago I picked up 500 Nosler .429" 200 gr. JHP bullets for use in my .44 Special and magnums. They were about the only bullet I could find at the time and I used them on a small white tail buck from my 7 1/2" Redhawk at about 25 yds. The first shot hit him just in front of the shoulder and put him down, but he wasn't bleeding or dying, so after waiting a couple minutes for him to check out I put one through his ribs.

Neither bullet exited, but the one through the lungs nearly did. Both bullets were found expanded and with loose cores, but had lost quite a bit of weight. They did the job, but didn't give me much confidence and I'll probably not use them for deer again.

Before I switched to mostly cast bullets I shot some of the .429 240gr JHP in my Super Blackhawk 44mag. Good accuracy. I shot one whitetail doe at approximately 80 yds. In and out the base of the neck and not recovered. Decent-sized exit hole but no signs of the bullet coming apart-she went straight down and was done kicking when I got there. Not much of a sample but it worked fine.

Probably not much help here, but I load Nosler 185 gr JHP Custom Competition (blems) for my wife's .45 ACP. She is complex woman--loves her 1911, loves the idea of shooting a .45, doesn't love recoil. I can't get her to even consider another cartridge. So anyway, she practices with those 185's at speeds just fast enough to cycle the gun.

The JHP's do just fine. They feed well, are accurate, and easy for me to load (the jacket doesn't shave off or anything weird like that). Basically, they are no better and no worse than any other bullet.

Here's a pic of her with a 5-shot group at 25 feet. She practices drawing from her gun purse, taking whatever grip she gives herself off the draw (no adjusting the grip before shooting), and then firing 5 aimed shots. She normally doesn't shoot that well (hence the pic), but she routinely keeps at least 4 out of 5 in the black, and often all 5 in the black. I'm trying to think...I can't say I ever recall her having any problems with those JHPs.

best not upset her!

I CONCUR !!!!!!!!

Yeah, and to think 3 years ago she'd never shot a gun. Now she can draw, aim, and put 5 in your heart at 25 feet (with a 3" gun) without spilling her mocha or losing track of a kid. She hopes it never comes to that, but if it does...what's a girl to do?

I shoot the Nosler 41 cal 210 gr when ever I can find them at Shooter's Pro Shop. They are almost as cheap as Berry's when they are in stock as seconds.

But it has been a long time since they had any. How long? About the same amount of time that Obama has been occupying the President's Office.

Nice shooting, Mrs. Waders!!

No kidding! Mrs. Waders can shoot.

When the Seconds (Now they are Blems) were dirt cheap -- maybe 20+ years ago -- I bought a lot of .357 125 grainers and .44 240 grainers -- all JHP. They are quite soft and not bonded or anything. I still use them in a .44 Special and a snub nose .38. Accuracy has always been good.

I've shot a couple Coyotes with the 125 grain .357s and never had an exit wound. These were out of a .357 @ 1350fps or so. I also remember killing a large Raccoon with one -- no exit wound there either.

I think they're acceptable as a defensive/hunting bullet, probably a touch pricey for plinking though. The only ones I have are the 135gr JHP .400", and I dispatched a racoon with one via my G23 loaded to around 1450-1500 fps. Coon weighed at least 20-25lb and the bullet traveled all the way through it, front to back, came out the rear and severed his right hind leg, total penetration, one shot is all it took.

Sorry, no handgun experience, I've only used the 300 gr 44 cal hp bullets in a sabot for hunting deer in my old Knight ML rifle, IIRC I was pushing those bullets just over 2000 fps with 150 gr P Pyrodex, they knocked the holy hellfire outta deer and one or two pigs.

Dont remember finding any of the bullets either.

Gunner