Best splat for the buck - I don't mean fur I mean explosive bullets for Pdogs and such.

Spot

I shot alot of Speer 50 gr. TNTs and was happy with the "splatter factor"....

ingwe

i bought some of mid-souths varmint exterminators .223 55gr. loaded with 25g. of benchmark. They shoot very accurate , my target is a 3/16in. plate steel with a piece of 5/8 plywood screwed to it. at 100 yards they punched a pretty hole completely through my target ! Not the frag I was hoping for. Rifle is a bushmaster varminter ,24in. barrel.

I was shooting a 17 Remington when they first came out and found the factory ammo quite explosive. At that time you couldn't buy just components, so I started with factory ammo to get my brass.

Hornady had the only readily available bullets, so I used them and couldn't duplicate Remington factory ammunition in velocity or explosive results. After some time I did find a company selling Remington bullets. I tried them and the results matched the factory ammo quite well.

Since the ugly Remington bullet blew up so well I tried some of their .22 PLHP bullets which looked identical to the 17 bullet. I have never looked back. These bullets seem to be magic. They blow up at .222 velocities, yet still hold together at .220 Swift velocities until they hit the target.

They aren't pretty, they are cheaper than all the plastic tipped stuff and still bench rest accurate...

I used to have a Rem 40XB in 220 Swift. It liked 50 grain Speer TNT's loaded to 3600 FPS.

The box says not to load above 3500, but this gun had a real smooth barrel and shot them well.

Sure would make a mess out of varmits...(grin!)

Lost this rifle and many others to a home break in.

Virgil B.

Barnes Varmint Grenades, and they are also quite accurate. Speer 50gr TNT is right in there but sometimes cannot withstand the higher velocities in my large cased faster 22's, even with moly. I can run 36gr Grenades at 4300-4400fps out of my 22-250AI. FUN! FUN! FUN!

"Best splat for the buck"?

So if price plays a part?

Hornady SPSX and Sierra Blitz ($)
Speer TNT ($$)
Hornady Vmax ($$$)
Barnes VG ($$$$)

All plenty accurate.
But the Barnes do make things come apart.
I shoot them all.

Calhoun DBHP bullets have great effects on woodchucks.
Crows are not held together very well, almost anything tears them up

For me I'd go with the TNT as well, plus they're incredibly accurate.

Dober

Mark,

I was very happy with the red mist that 50 gr .224 Nosler bt made @ 3860 fps from my 22-250. I used to burgerize the tiny ground squirrels and the occasional marmot on the Wall Creek Range years ago.

A 55 gr nosler bt @ 4050 fps from a 243 made a 10" entrance and 8" exit on a jackrabbit at 180 yds. It was its "blooding" outing. Haven't had a chance to get it out in the field again. Too busy fishing.

The TNT and the Sierra Blitzking.

A couple earlier posts reminded me I used to shoot a bunch of 40 gr NBTs in a .223

they put gophers on another astral plane....


Ingwe

I bought an ammo can with 1000 rounds of 223 ammo about 4 or 5 years ago.($119.00/1000) that were reloads with 45 grain "Hornet" bullets loaded in them. It was amazing what those bullets would do to a prairie dog out to about 175 yards. If you were under 100 yards it was difficult to locate the tails to turn in at the Rapelje Gopher derby, just bits of fur and bone. I only have a 100 or so of them left and I haven't been able to find any since then at any price.

Speer TNTs work very well - both for accuracy and for explosiveness. Ballistic Tips, V-Max and Blitzkings all work well.

Bought a box of Remington 30-06 accelerators once. They would hit about 8" horizontal from where the rifle was sighted in with 150 gr, bullets. One box, so I didn't bother to readjust the scope, and still have a couple of em somewhere

Hornady VMAX, Nosler Ballistic Tip, Sierra Blitzking in that order.

I've never found the TNT / Blitz / SX class of bullets to be nearly as explosive as they're advertised to be until you push them about 300 fps faster than their maker says is ok. At the hairy edge of jacket ruptures they begin to get pretty entertaining.

Tom

What he said, and I will add the Barnes VLD,s.

VLD, or Varmint Grenade? 'cause I forgot all about those. Sad to say I have not used them .. yet. I have a box of 26 grain .204s to try out in my .204 when it comes back with its brand new barrel. I bet those put some hurt on little fuzzys.

Tom-

Hmmm..

Most folks find it to be -

Sierra BlitzKing
Horrady Vmax
and then Nolser BT..

What velocity ranges are you running thsoe bullets and on what size of vermin??

http://www.speer-bullets.com/ballistics/detail.aspx?id=1
Knew I had seen the "Hornet" bullet name somewhere.

AWESOME pics!

If that ain't advertising, I don't know what is.

Interesting.

My experience with the Blitzking is pretty much restricted to the 39 grain .204. It was a hair more accurate than the Nosler and a lot more accurate than the Hornady in my rifle but it didn't produce quite the splat. Velocity roughly 3600 fps.

Critters are pretty near 2 pounds I'd say, half pound up or half pound down depending on time of year. On the little ones especially, shot angle is important. A "thin" shot like broadside is often not real impressive, but lengthwise ... wow!

What you're saying track better with what a friend reports with his .22 PPC. He says the Blitzking shoots better and splats better in his gun than the other 40 grain options.

I've shot a LOT of ballistic tips and VMAXes in various calibers, .20, .22, 6mm, and some .25. At least between those two, I find the VMAX to be noticeably "softer" and the b-tip to be measurably more accurate. I tend to shoot VMAXes when I can.

So ... maybe reasonable to conclude that it depends on what caliber, what bullet weight, and how fast it's going at impact exactly how the rankings come out?

In hundreds of non scientific tests I'd have to say a .22 cal 50 gr. TNT ran right up to the speed they nearly come apart in flight. A center punch shot on a prairie dog is a sight to see.

Yep indeed.

My last .22-250 was a POS. I shot a lot of different loads in it, never could keep it under 2 MOA ... with one exception. I went to 37.5 grains of Varget under a 50 TNT, later a 50 SX. Those would hold 5 shots in the .2s. Wow. Like a light switch, all or nothing. And a 50 grain TNT at ballpark 3800 fps is a grenade Mr Hole Digger does not want to meet.

Surprising to me, I lost no cases to primer pocket expansion, ever case loss I had was to a neck split. Spooky lookin' primers, but otherwise the gun was a junker.

53 gr Horandy HP in the 220 Swift

VMax's blow up whistle pigs real well. 52 grain Speer HP's at about 3000 FPS are hard on em too,

Most damage I ever did to a coyote was using a soft point 180 grain 30 caliber bullet from a 30-06 at about 40 feet or so. His mid section just kinda exploded.
Only shot a deer or two with those bullets because of the damage they would cause, even though I had bought a lot of them. Major brand name too. The copper jackets must have been either to soft, or to thin, never was sure which, if not both.

Found out an interesting thing after I'd asked a similar question in the Reloading Varmint Rifles forum. I'm shooting a 223 and just wasn't getting the results I wanted on prairie dog size varmints. I'd been shooting 40 grain Vmax, then tried 50 grain Vmax figuring there would be more fragments. Didn't work out, so I thought I needed a bullet that would come apart even quicker than the 40 grain Vmax. Then I thought some more, because the 40 grain Vmax had spectacular results on ground squirrels. I wondered if the 40 grain Vmax was actually fragmenting too shallow, so I got some 40 grain Ballistic Tips and tried them out. It worked! What I learned is that you need velocity AND fragmentation at the proper time.

I have a theory about this stuff which stems from eons ago when I lived in town and defensive handgunnery was a lot more important. There was a lively debate about permanent (primary) vs temporary (secondary) stretch cavity ... expansion vs penetration, etc.

So, the "Tom theory of blowing [bleep] up" says when the secondary cavity shape and volume exceed the shape and volume of the varmint, you get spectacular blow up. If the volume exceeds but the shape does not cover, you just get something blown in half. If the volume and shape don't exceed, you just get a hole through Mr Fuzzy.

I don't know why I thought it was important to put that here, but it seems to fit.

I like it!!


Ingwe

90 grain Sierra HP in 270 Winchester. Spectacular on jackrabbits. In 22 cal,I like the Barnes VLD or whatever they are called. Blue meanies for sure!

Well, I had plenty Sierra Blitzkings in .20-cal come apart before they even got to my front chrono screen - but that's probably a little bit too much of a good thing. Costly, too.

In .22-cal, The 50 VMax is awesome, as are the simple but effective 50 TNTs. Those new 30-grain Barnes VGs for the Hornet are a quantum jump ahead of any other Hornet bullet I've used, even the eye-popping Calhoon 37 DHP.

Were they the 39 grn Blitz, and did you determine what the problem was?


I see most claim for a heavy 204 load use the 39 BK over 40 Hornady's if you want stability with a 12 twist barrel. Getting ready to reload for 2 rem 700's and an AR in 204, any additional info appreciated.

Allen

Sierra 70 or 75 gr. in a .243. Hit a prairie dog with one @ about 100 yds and it was like dropping a hand grenade on it.

Just came back from shooting Oregon sage rats with new .243 WSSM barrel on a Savage custom. Used 62 grain Varmint Grenade with max load of Hunter powder. This is the singularly most explosive varmint bullet / cartridge combination I ever used. The rats simply vanished - gone - reduced to pink spots of goo over a large circle. Some that didn't vaporize were unfolded with just the skin and pink froth remaining. The bullet impact went though the rat and cut little tunnels through the alfalfa just like a tunnel boring machine was at work. The alfalfa was shredded as if it went through a blender. I heard the "pumpkin splat" sound of each impact as if a firecracker went off. So, grab a box of 62 grain 6mm Varmint Grenades, a 1:8" twist barrel and load 'em up to 3,800 fps or more and have some fun. Just remember, that bullet with a powdered metal core is spinning at 342,000 rpm, so when it hits and comes apart, strange things happen.

What bullet would you shoot in a reduced load, .204 Ruger?
Want the most "splat" factor I can get!

Going to be shooting about 22 Hornet speeds, 2800 FPS or so.

I've got an alfalfa farmer who dosen't like loud rifles used to shoot his Sage Rats, thus the reduced loads.

Thanks! Virgil B.

Try any of the "new" lead free bullets, Barnes 26 gr. Varmint Grenades, Hornady's 30 gr. NXT's in the .204. The Hornady is a polymer tipped boat tail, while the Barnes is a hollow point flat base. I would suspect that the Barnes will shoot better in the standard 1:12" twist at lower velocities, but that's pure speculation.

The Barnes has a powdered copper-tin core that has the consistency of chalk - it seems to splat at all ranges and velocities. I Like the appearance and consistency of the Hornady but haven't had time to develop load data yet.

WranglerJohn,

Thanks!

That's what I was thinking. Found some Hornady Vmax'es locally, but will order some Barns for the next go round.

Good information!


Virgil B.

I use those V-Max bullets in the 40 grain for my .222 CZ rifle and they sure do explode things up, more so than the 50grainers did in the past.

Earlier in this post I
stated I loaded up some Mid-Souths varmint exterminaters. Shooting a plywood target with a 3/16
steel plate backing , at 100 yards the exterminaters just punched a clean hole thru the target with no
evidence of fragging. I was a dissappointed. This is a follow up report. I spent the week-week end in the
Oklahoma panhandle , shooting pd's. these bullets were awesome ! I cut im in half , turned im inside out ,sent pieces flying into the air.for a cheap bullet they meet all
my splatt factor expectations. I will use them again .

Home swaged open tipped 458 bullets weighing in at 200 grain. Used corn starch behind pure lead and fired out of a 45-70. They would mist a big neutra.

Once you have tried a 25-06 with a 75 gr Sierra or Hornady HP at 3600 fps everything else is like oatmeal without brown sugar.
We called it "launching" them not shooting them!
I heard a 340 Weatherby with 250 gr Noslers works ok too!
I wasn't there that day but I heard it from a reliable source.
whelennut

40 gr V max out of a swift. Turns crows into mulch.

i have to agree the 40gr vmax is pure death on what ever it touches

WranglerJohn: Your quote:

"The rats simply vanished - gone - reduced to pink spots of goo over a large circle. Some that didn't vaporize were unfolded with just the skin and pink froth remaining. The bullet impact went though the rat and cut little tunnels through the alfalfa just like a tunnel boring machine was at work. The alfalfa was shredded as if it went through a blender. I heard the "pumpkin splat" sound of each impact as if a firecracker went off. So, grab a box of 62 grain 6mm Varmint Grenades, a 1:8" twist barrel and load 'em up to 3,800 fps or more and have some fun. Just remember, that bullet with a powdered metal core is spinning at 342,000 rpm, so when it hits and comes apart, strange things happen".

It appears to me you are having entirely to much fun out there and you are entirely to intense when it comes to your Varmint Hunting!
Just funnin ya!
I hope your savage custom and you have many more decades of fun afield together!
"Reduced to pink spots of goo" - I am just grinnin at that line.
Keep up the good work.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

"Now that's funny right thar... I don't care who ya are..."

I think most of us could enjoy that...

Now that really would have been something fun to see..

I've learned to bounce one right in front of a sage rat or prairie dog.. as the bullet fragments and then hits the varmint.. you really have a big mess then...