I was asked a question today and I didn't know the answer. I have heard that 150 gr. bullets in 300 mags. give terrible damage, just heard no personal experience. I read a lot about heavier well constructed bullets but I didn't see anything really on this topic or I was looking in the wrong place. Reason I ask, I have a hunting partner that wanted to try some 150 gr. x-bullets in his 300 Wby this season. What have been your experiences?

Thanks

Any hi-velocity light for caliber bullet will do a lot of tissue damange and mangle meat...the 150 gr. BX is no exception...I have seen them used and have used them, and they kill very well with a high percentage of one shot instant kills..I have also witnessed a couple of failures to expand, I think on ocassion the nose cavity pinches shut on bone, but that's theoretical on my part...

To answer your question, yes there is normally much bruising, but probably a bit less than one would get with a conventional bullet at the same velocity I am sure.

Based on that and the use of other bullets, I settled on the 200 gr. Nosler with my 300 H&H and it still is quite destructive on meat. The same bullet in my 06 is much less damaging and still very effective.

I just have to jump in here, because for once I strongly disagree with Ray. My experience is limited to the 7mag and light bullets, but a 140 gr. bullet impacting at about 3200 fps is probably a pretty close analogy and a valid comparison.

I have shot a couple of elk and a small handful of muledeer with the 140 gr. XLC. All impacts were well above 3000 fps -- all but one above 3200 fps (calculating back from MV and distance).

In EVERY case, blood shot meat was less than 1/2" from the hole. All were thru shots, and all were quick kills.

I do feel Ray is right on the nose pinched shut theory. I do clean them all with a little drill bit before going out. I have noticed that the last box I bought had a measurably larger nose opening; perhaps the lack of opening was the reason. JMO, Dutch.

Friend of mine used 150's in his 30-338 on antelope. The results were pretty disgusting.

beeman, what kind of bullet? Dutch.

Dutch, Duh, I don't know. This was long enough ago that about the only "premium" bullet around was the partition. As well as he fucked everything else up, I wouldn't be surprised if he used MK's (couldn't resist) I'm going to guess that it was probably horns or corlokts at around 3500fps. In his favor, this was back when they were first getting into hyper velocity and were having problems with bullets coming apart. He's also the one that developed a load for his rifle and only after we got 50 miles beyond road's end did he discover that the shells wouldn't fit in his magazine. Hee hee, we took each shell and drew a witness line on the bullet. Then we set the bullet on a up ended piece of fire wood, put a flattened piece of kindling on top of the bullet and tapped it down to the witness line with a hatchet. We all hid behind trees when he lit the first one off.

[ 07-25-2003, 21:41: Message edited by: beemanbeme ]

Beeman, the reason I asked is that I have seen other bullets (including 180 gr. Partions at 308 speeds) make a total mess out of elk. So much so that we had to turn half a quarter into dog food.

The X-bullets seem to have overcome that problem, at least in the high speed impacts I have seen; none of which hit bone. I did kill one elk with a 130 gr. GS HV, and you had to look hard between the ribs to find the holes. Jelly in between, however. Again, this is what I have seen, and that's all I can go by. FWIW, Dutch.

We have had very good luck/results with BarnesX 130 and 140 grainers out of our 300WSMs over a slightly less than max charge of RL-19......this has been on nothing larger than eastern white-tails though. No excessive meat damage and complete pass throughs. I hope to someday have the chance to try the 150 grain triple shock on a nice bull or cow elk......

Brewtcl

I used to play with light X bullets quite a bit on deer sized game.
The X seems to get fairly violent above 3200 fps in smaller bullet sizes. If you are one of the instant kill clan, they do kill quickly.
Randy Brooks likes the 300 win with 150 grainers for elk. Randy says the light bullets are giving all the pentration he requires.

While I have found this to be true I have come to prefer the 180 Barnes or the 200 Nosler in the 300 win. They are cleaner killing and in bigger game they are in a class of their own.

Just my opinion!
Have fun!

Jamie