Was out cutting firewood yesterday afternoon before the snow set in today and saw a great opportunity to do a bit of (not so scientific) ballistics testing with my FA83. The load was a factory Hornady 400gr XTP at an advertised 1300fps. Impact was about 15' from the muzzle, into the end grain of a 14" round of hickory, cut down about two weeks ago and bucked about 30 min prior to becoming a target.



I'd expected less than stellar penetration due to being an HP, but expected more than 2.125"! Now I'll have to get my hands on some hard cast lead 440's and see how they fair in the same wood.

On the plus side, the dry firing and grip practice has made a pretty good impact on my shooting with a single action. Yesterday's groups at the range (before tree cutting) were about 2" from 25yds kneeling.

That's extremely dense wood and going with grain which makes it harder to penetrate. The 400s slide through deer like butter.Casts completely penetrated my very large water buff and casts did about 3 1/2 feet on rhino.
Even 325 XTP-HPs act like FMJs on deer. These bullets need a lot of dense material to slow them down, like hickory.

Unless they are extremely hard cast, they most likely won't fare as well. Shooting wood is no where near shooting animals. The 400 grain XTP will almost completely penetrate an adult cow elk. In fact, there is little in the way of animals in the lower 48 or Alaska the 400 grain XTP won't take.

Relax and enjoy your fire.

The .475 400 gr. XTP is capable of delivering outstanding performance on game. On Hickory trees, I guess not so much.
I've used that bullet on bull elk, large bears, hogs, bison, and South American water buffalo, to my complete satisfaction. Many of those bullets have penetrated those animals completely.

I personally wouldn't be too alarmed with the lack of penetration on a piece of hickory. That is a material way tougher than animal flesh.

I by no means thoughts the hickory was a medium comparable to an animal. I was more so surprised with how well the wood arrested the projectile.

I remember putting up a barn.For flooring they gave us mixed hardwoods and the hickory always took 1 or 2 more wacks with the hammer to drive the nail !!

I remember shooting a 44 Mag with max loads with a 300 gr XTP.Shot it into a end of green red oak.Pulled the trigger and heard something whistle past my head.Did not believe it could be the bullet so I shot again.Sucker clipped my arm and made me a believer in not shooting at the ends of green hard wood.

I have shot lots of wood mostly red oak but never the end.

The penetration or lack of does not surprize me.

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
I remember shooting a 44 Mag with max loads with a 300 gr XTP.Shot it into a end of green red oak.Pulled the trigger and heard something whistle past my head.Did not believe it could be the bullet so I shot again.Sucker clipped my arm and made me a believer in not shooting at the ends of green hard wood.

That is insane. Lucky you were'nt killed.

quote:

Originally posted by RPW:

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
I remember shooting a 44 Mag with max loads with a 300 gr XTP.Shot it into a end of green red oak.Pulled the trigger and heard something whistle past my head.Did not believe it could be the bullet so I shot again.Sucker clipped my arm and made me a believer in not shooting at the ends of green hard wood.

That is insane. Lucky you were'nt killed.

Ya, definitely making me rethink what I use for a "test medium."

That seems about right to me. I have a rossi puma 20" barrel in 480 ruger. I often test fire out my front door into a woodpile about 25 yds away, hard maple and beech. Some of ja-bok youngs 440 grn hardcast @ 1400 fps penatrate 4" of dry hardwood. 400 grn from a lee mold @ 1100 go 2 1/2 -3" with only a little expansion.

I have shot a deer, pig, and a black bear with the Hornady 400gr Factory load in a 6" FA. I got complete penetrtion in each case.

I shot a couple of Zebras at point blank range with that load and almost got complete penetration.

quote:

Originally posted by FFemt5287:
I by no means thoughts the hickory was a medium comparable to an animal. I was more so surprised with how well the wood arrested the projectile.

Hickory has a tendency to do that to bullets even large rifle cartridges