For the past several months, I have been reading and researching the concept of bullet length and its relationship to terminal performance. The Barnes "X" bullet got me started on this and after many hours of reading and allot of shooting, I can say that when hunting bullets are the focus, longer is by far better.

Using wet news print as a medium I fired several .338 bullets of the same weight into the long box. I exchanged the paper for fresh after each shot for a total of 14 rounds fired. In this very un-scientific test, the longer the bullet, the deeper it penetrated when compared to bullets of similar weight and similar construction. The bullet that penetrated the best of all used was a lathe tuned 275gr flat nose with a deeply concave base. As soon as the 458 Lott is done and delivered, I will conduct a similar test. If anyone would like to see the results of that test, let me know. I have 9 different 500gr bullets at the moment and I'm looking for more.

Have any of you you fellows noticed this in your own shooting? If so post your thoughts here, maybe we can all learn something new.

Joe

Hi LongshotRX,
I'm just curious if all the bullets you've used were of a monolithic design or at least without a lead core. Since you've mentioned the Barnes X bullet I would think that it would show the best penetration. The other bullets if they had a lead core probably lost more weight and also expanded more both things contributing to less penetration. The testing is always fun and interesting.
Take care,
Dave

There is a school of thought that the longer bullets tend to tilt up and go astray in solids..I, like you, have not found this the case, rather I have found that round nose bullets tend to go heywire from time to time...I am sure there is a happy medium to be struck here, where it is I do not know, but I do shoot Monolithics that are 50 grs. lighter than conventional solids, as they are the same length and penitration is better than conventional solids..

I also only shoot flat nose solids these days on Buffalo and such as they definately penitrate in line and do much more internal damage, not to mention they cut a wadcutter hole that does not normally plug up with fat or whatever and they leave a lot more blood on the ground....More to a bullet than just penitration..

Dave, I the only lead core bullets I used were full metal jacket type. I was concerned only with penetration testing, and in my experience, lead core bullets are less than the best in that arena.

What got me thinking about this was the performance of "X" bullets on game. I was shooting groundhogs with my 338-378wby and ran out of ammo. The bullet that day were the cheap winchester 225 spitzers because they cost next to nothing to shoot and my kreiger barrel likes them. I ran short but still had a ground hog at 200 yards running around. The only thing left were five rounds of 250 "X" bullets. The bullet hit and literally blew the ground hob to bits. Now the winchester bullet has a thinner jacket and would expand explosively on a deer or elk but normally poked small holes through the hogs. I was shocked and began testing right away. I have a long road yet to travel until I have the answer, but bullet length has something to do with energy transfer.

Joe

Ray, the round nose solids penetrated a great deal better than the round nose full metal jacket bullets. In each case, the monolithic bullets out did the same shape in lead core bullets, with the exception of flatnose solids( which I didn't have a lead core counterpart for). I'm hoping to find some 300gr flatnose monolithic solids for my 338-378 so that I can test them as well. And then I am looking forward to see if the Lott can out penetrate the 300gr 338.

Joe

Interested to read results of Lott testing when you do it.

I sent Don and email. This could turn out to be a very interesting test if I get enough different bullets rounded up.

Joe

George, I recieved a very swift reply from Don at Groove Bullets. They are working on the 375 and 416 solids but have not designed a 458 as of yet.

Joe