Hi Guys & Girls

Has anyone used the 500grain Speer AGS Solids, I am planning to load acouple for my 450 Rigby and would like to get a opinion, I think they are not Monolithics ? as I am getting alot of confusing feedback on the use of monolithics on a continuos scale.

Please advise

I thought they were monolithic solids made of tungsten. I could be wrong though.

Acording to their web page:
AGS Solids:

* Jackets machined from bars of commercial bronze
* Solid, dense tungsten carbide core
* Flat tip for straight-line penetration


Since they are tungsten cored and bronze jacketed they definitely are not monolithic solids.

As to their use it would depend on the intended application. I think you'll find when it comes to bullets there are many Ford vs Chevy discussions. There are many guys on the board with a vast array of experience. You can search for past posts on solids, you'll probably find quite a bit of info. If you can narrow down your intended use for monolithic solids you will probably get some straight forward and informative answers. I know there is more knowledge here than I have free time to discover.

Regards,
Eric

They are similiar to a conventional solid with the steel core of tungsten which is heavy and extremely hard...
I was the first to kill a ele bull with Bridger solids in Zim 04...

Mike

I understand that they have been discontinued. They were well thought of with an excellent reputation. You might be able to find some around. They are short for weight and allowed tight cases like the 458wm to be loaded with more powder for more velocity and performance.

Woodleigh's are guilding metal clad, steel jacketed, bonded lead cored solids and are the standard to which all other solids are compared. They have worked well for me on cape buffallo and elephant with every recovered bullet perfectly round and without distortion. My rifle fires the 500 grain .458" solid bullets at about 2100fps.

500 Grains, an experienced member of this forum, is an advocate of GS, Bridger and Northfork driving band, flat point solids. The body of the bullet has a diameter that is less than that of the lands. Only the driving bands are engraved by the lands, not the body of the bullet. This design leaves plenty of room for metal displaced by engraving to migrate. The flat nose of these bullet provides optimum solid bullet performance -
if you can get them to feed in your rifle.

You should try a search on the big bore forum for more on this topic.

JPK

I have shot both plains game and buffalo with the Speer AGS Solid. They are very accurate in my .458 Lott, and I have never recovered one from an animal. As long as I have some, I don't see any reason to change. What more can I say?

I know Mike at North Fork terms his bullets "grooved", and from examination I would label the others so as well.

I don't recall seeing a driving band on anything except an artillery shell.

Of course driving band is a most excellent term.

I have some of the Speer African Grand Slam solids in .375"/300 grain. Their main drawback was the $4 each price tag.

jim

Midway has them on inventory reduction ($75 for 25, packed in Frankford Arsenal utility box. I just bought some boxes a short while ago. However, Speer continues to list them on their site (as another poster noted). Speer has announced their new products (no .458 Lott in the lot). If they intend to discontinue, it would explain why the Lott didn't show up -- or at least argue that they don't intend to put it out.

Oh well -- hope springs ever eternal.

Dan

Hi there

Maybe my message was criptic,

I have used the barnes super solid, Kynoch, and Hornady Old and New in solid with good effect, on buffalo and elephant.

My main concern is that in my mind the monoloitics have more wear on my barrels and due to our insane gun laws I would love not too rebarrel in the soon future.

One of our local university metallurgists claim the abrasion fact from mono bullets are 25 times than those of conventional solids !!!

Understand why I am concerned and are considering the AGS especially as I am laying my hands on a couple of boxes 416 & 458 at about 20 dollars a box of 25 !!

You should take a look at GS Custom bullets in RSA. They are makers of one of the grooved mono solids. Easier on barrels than the Barnes, at least in theory and also in theory, easier on barrels than Woodleighs, Speers, old Hornadays too.

JPK

Have always regarded the Speer AGS to be the best bullet available for the .458 Win. It is somewhat shorter than the regular steel jacketed 500grn bullets so you can either add more powder or have less of a compressed load.

In .375 H&H they are not great and tend to come appart on elephant at close range.

Have used the 458 and 416 AGS solids with good success (never a failure).

Walter,

I don't know if the wear rate is 25x but if it is I can see why you would be concerned. As others have mentioned, one way around this is to utilize "grooved" bullets such as those offered by http://www.northforkbullets.com/. You might drop the proprietor of NorthFork an e-mail and express your concerns about barrel life for mono-metals vs. jacketed vs groove bullets. He seems to have many satisfied followers on the forum. I don't get to shoot much anymore to quantify an accelerated barrel wear as a result of mono-metal use.

Regards,
Eric