300 grain Barnes TSX .411 (405 Win.)on top of 80 gr. H4350 2254 FPS in my 450/400 VC into a steel plate at 50 yds.

more pics

Quite a bit of damage!

A monolithic solid would probably have penetrated through that plate.

George

steel plate is a bit harder than flesh and bone

If you load Punch bullets and shoot that steel plate from 50 yards, be sure there is a good backstop behind the plate as they will punch right through it.
http://www.beltmountain.com/punch.htm

When prepping for a bullet testing safari a few years ago, we shot a 5/8 inch steel plate from 50 yards with 430 grain Punch bullets (and several other bullet types) from a .45-70 at around 2000 fps and it put a hole in the plate. That same load later was used on a frontal brain shot on an ele bull and it shot through the head and well into the carcass. Not even marked up and could have reloaded and used again.

Leo I've been thinking about trying that bullet in my 400 Whelen.
I hear some guys shooting the 400 H&H are using it and driving it pretty fast.
Would be interested to hear more when you try that bullet on animals.
Right now my 400 Whelen is shooting 400 grain bullets at 2150 fps with a 300 grain bullet I think 2300 to 2400 would be obtainable.

Snellstrom,
We have some limited experience with these bullets on African animals. 3 plains game animals that come immediately to mind are: Gemsbock, Red Hartebeest and Warthog. 300 Gr. Barnes worked as to be expected on these animals. The Gemsbock was shot the second time even though it wasn't making an escape attempt, just to keep it from suffering. the other 2 were one shot kills, the warthog was shot in fading light after some disagreement between the tracker and the PH as to whether the pig was facing left or right, it was decided he was facing right. He went down at the shot, turned out he was facing left. the only difference it probably made was a little destruction of ham.
All the shots described above were pass throughs. i am posting two pics of 300 gr. Barnes recovered from the butt of a lioness after traversing her stem to stern.
We are returning to Africa mid August in quest of Cape Buffalo and plains game, we are taking the 450/400 with 400 gr. bullets for the Buff and 300gr. Hornady interlocks for the plains game. I am switching to the interlocks because point of impact is very nearly the same as with the 400 gr. bullet.

I've shot quite a few steel plates with my 460 Weatherby, as well as .30 cal. black tip. Regarding the Weatherby, while my results are anything but scientific, it seems that lead tipped soft points penetrate steel plates better than FMJ's.

I've also shot 6"x12"x24" Doug Fir beams layed end to end. Round nosed FMJ's tumble and go half as far as flat meplat solids, understandably.

I tried a few Barnes 500 gr. monolithic solids, 450 gr. "X" types and found they didn't do well either (on steel plates). Speer 500 gr. AGS tungston units do quite well but the core separates on the way through a piece of 5/8" mild steel plate. Again, the very inexpensive Hornady 500 gr. SP's seem to do very well.

This is not meant to be a commentary on penetration in hunting situations, of which I have zero experience. All of the shooting I do with my Weatherby is for fun.