Just for the fun of it, Bfrshooter and I conducted a penetration test with one-gallon jugs of water as the test media. The test subject was the .475 Linebaugh. The bullet is a 420 grain hardcast bullet of bfrshooter's own design which is a cross beween and LFN and a WFN, pushed to 1,350 fps. 14 one-gallon jugs were placed on a plank, and shot with my custon SRH.





Next, we shot the front jug.........

The bullet completely destroyed the first six......and exited the 14th. I do believe if we had a few more it would have punched through them as well. Unbelievable.



And lucky number 14 with an exit hole......



I will post up the video later......

Well I guess that you should have no problem getting to the boiler works of anything those are used on, from just about any angle.

I am surprised that it actually made it through all of them with out rolling off to one side. This does however shot how well it is stabilized.

Might try a cardboard box with some fine loose sand in it to stop the next one. In some I have done similar the lose fine sand really doesn't do anything to the bullet other than catch them.

Could you show a pic of the bullet before loading?

Mike, I have never had these bullets do anything but punch through everything in a straight line. They never veer off course. If you look in the archives, we've done quite a bit of penetration testing including this bullet in other medias as well. Again, it never fails to impress, and it never fails to stay on course. I will post up a photo of the bullet. We've captured very few of them. The last time we built a penetration box, they all exited......

Mike, here is a photo of the bullet (I know it's out of focus, but it is all I could dig up this morning. I will look for a better one). It works like a charm!

The boolit only came out low at the rear because I could not get in line with all the jugs from the front. You could see a straight line of the holes from the side though. The boolit never changed course.
To have enough fun with this, you need a tractor trailer full of jugs!
That .475 will amaze a guy real fast.

Off topic I know, but did you realize (or care) that your camera's clock is set one day into the future? Pics posted here at 8PM July 5th have a pic date stamp of the 6th.

Dave -- I come from the future!

I did not realize that, but will correct it! Thanks!

Power failure!

That's a great looking bullet.

I can see why it would head straight on through. I also know what you mean about those jugs. We did a similar trial with some rifle bullets out at 500yds. The trick was getting them all lined up with the bench back at the barn via radio, and spotting scope. Then getting the shot on target with the 10 or so mph crosswind.

That is cool Whitworth...

quote:

Originally posted by Redhawk1:
That is cool Whitworth...

Thank you! Here is a video -- notice the splash the flat-nosed hardcast produces......

Gee whiz, that might kill something!

No, I don't think so. That hunk of lead can't kill anything. Heck, it is neither made of all-copper nor does it have a fancy copper or gilding metal jacket.

Thanks for the report and video, by the way!

Haha! Yes indeed -- they didn't cost a bundle, so they can't work worth a damn!

After the shot, it sounds like a waterfall.

I wonder what a Hornady factory 400gr XTP would do???

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
After the shot, it sounds like a waterfall.

I wonder what a Hornady factory 400gr XTP would do???

We've shot them in other media and they don't do real well. I think we got 11-inches of penetration in wet newsprint with that bullet and 40-something with the cast bullet. I still have to dig up my notes on the subject.

While I have never used the XTP you mention, those that I have tested do indeed come unglued rather quickly under hard impact -- and sometimes under minimal impact as well.

It was after poor performance of a 300 grain XTP from a 9.5" .44 Mag on a fallow buck that I began to use the Cast Performance 320 grainers and quickly found just how effective they really are.

Those XTPs are great for deer, but when the game has thick skin, give me the penetration of the hardcast.

Out of my FA 475, with Hornady 400gr XTP factory, I have shot a deer, wild pig and a black bear, with complete penetration.

I shot 2 of them into a zebra and they mushroomed great and held together perfect. penetrating to the off side skin.

I was just curious how they would do in your water jug test.

They've obviously worked well for you, but I never saw the need for expansion when the bullet is starting out at .475. Penetration, on the other hand is something I am always concerned about, and I really like two holes in animals (they tend to leak more! ). Pluse, unlike expanding bullets, these hardcasts tend to break bones really well!

I will perform a waterjug test with the 400 grain XTP at some point in the near future as I too would like to see how it does.

I got 7' of straight penetration in saltwater in my recording box with a 360gr FN out of a .454. No surprise on the number of dead milk jugs. I love Linebaugh's quote "long range punch press".

Whitworth,

How far away from the water jugs are you shooting? It would be interesting to see the difference in point blank penetration(in a last ditch emergency) vs shots from say...40yds.

Andy B

I would say that we were maybe 10-feet away from the jugs or thereabouts. The thing is that these slower handgun rounds don't scrub off speed lack their faster bretheren.

Great tests, and information.

Thank you all.

Makes me feel better about the choice of .475 ammo for my gun.

Plus, it's about free.

Looks like you're gonna need some more jugs!

And it took me long enough to collect those, and a fraction of a second to destroy them.......

Marko-

If you check with some of your local restaurants and fast food places such as Dairy Queen, you may be able to pick up more gallon jugs than you can shake a stick at.

They go through them pretty quickly and would otherwise just throw them into the dumpster.

Not a bad idea......thanks Bobby!

Good stuff Whitworth! When I lived in Arkansas I tried the same thing - lined up water jugs, and also used boxes of wet newsprint as an alternative media. With the jugs, I got similar results - JHP's in 357, 41, and 45 caliber would typically stop the 3rd or 4th jug. SWC's, even ones only pooping along at 1000fps would just go sailing through every jug and never be found. Of course I was only lining up about 9 jugs, so it makes me feel better that someone tried it with 14!

Thanks sputster! I now wish I would have had twenty jugs!

I had a similar outcome with cast performance 330gr bullets in my 45 colt. Went through 10 jugs and couldn't be found. The 300gr XTP penetrated 5 jugs and came to rest in the 6th. There is something to say about heavy lead bullets when it comes to penetration. I am now shooting lead out of my .303 Brits and wanting to test the penetration into wet phone books but I know I am going to need a bunch for that.

Just out of curiousity,does anyone have any idea how the water jug test would translate into penetration of a large game animal.

For example, would there be enough penetration to take a 'Texas heart shot' on say a Cape Buffalo.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses,
Best,
brair

brair wrote:

quote:

For example, would there be enough penetration to take a 'Texas heart shot' on say a Cape Buffalo.

There might be, but I sure wouldn't want to try it!

But a broadside shot with the type of bullet/load Whitworth & bfr used, even through the shoulder, would be a piece of cake.

i've read one verified account about 12 or so years ago of a ph using a 454 casull to kill an elephant with a frontal brain shot and went completely through the brain and was found almost exited out the back. i've heard similiar accounts but unverified accounts about the .475 as well. i've not heard much on the big smiths yet however.

Otto Candace got 4 1/2-feet of penetration on a rhino with his .475 Linebaugh. I don't recall the bullet, but it may have been a Punch and I don't think he was driving them faster than 1,200 fps.

Even the puny .44 Mag with bullets of J.D. Jones' design have been used to take quite a few elephant, though from what I recall, these have been side brain shots. Properly designed and constructed hard cast bullets are capable of phenomenal penetration.

My favorite is the Cast Performance 320 grainer in the .44 Magnum at 1350 fps from a 7.5" barrel or right at 1400 from a 9.5" barrel. These are actually considered heat-treated solids and shoot through just about anything I have put them into. Busting through both shoulders of a big boar hog is no problem for them at all.

Best of all, they leave a nice, wide wound channel.

A very cool test, I like big bullets with a large meplat. I may have to have one of those .475's in the future.

Didn't you say it would shoot a .480 or was that someone else?

My largest revolver is a .454 casull but I do have a TC BP pistol in .54

It will shoot .480 ammo -- the .480 is simply a short .475 Linebaugh. I highly recommend both cartridges!

Brair,

I am not sure how to convert the water penetration into real life penetration, but I do have the conversion chart from a book that has calculations to convert to different media. For example if you were shooting into wet phone books and wanted to convert it to what it would do in Ordance Gel you would multiply the depth of penetration by 1.68. so 15" of wet phone book would be 25.2" of penetration in Ordance Gel.

Whitworth I tried to set up 14 jugs and shoot them this weekend but I didn't hit them centered and after the 6th jug the bullet exited the side. I also tried with the .480 with factory 325gr but samething happend veered off to the right. I didn't have the rest set up as I just wanted to hurry up and shoot my new toy and with this heat I didn't want to be outside very long. I am going to try it again soon so I will try and post the results.

I have shot plenty of wet newsprint with this same load and it always goes more than 40-inches and in fact it has exited the back of the box on more than a few occasions.

I've shot exactly two heads of game (hogs) with .480 325 grain factory loads (Gold Dots), and while one performed admirably (on a 250-lb hog), the other failed to exit on a small hog. I have low expectations for the 325 grain expanding loads.

Good luck to you and please report back with your results.