G'Day Fella's,

I have been thinking a bit about this of late and recently among others, I thought about Nosler Partition bullets for the above task!
Now a lot of people swear by these bullets for hunting and some swear at them, so I got to thinking how they might perform at Sub-Sonic velocities?
Partitions have a reputation for the forward section being a bit soft, which makes them expand like a Varmint type bullet. So I thought this may make them a potential candidate, for this task!
Any body out there had any personal hunting experience with these bullets, at Sub-Sonic velocities?

Looking forward to most of your replies.

Doh!
Homer

What caliber are you planning on using. That will dictate what projectiles are best suited.

Most jacketed bullets are rated as requiring in the order of 1800fps to start expansion and this is way above sub-sonic to start with. Have you got a cast bullet mould in the designated caliber Homer as that is where I would look first. Heaviest bullet for the cartridge and in 50/50 ww/Pb as the hardest alloy with 70/30 ww/Pb to 80/20 as prefered for SS.Think of the 22LR and go from there.

meplat nose rather than point is useful in a SS projectile.

The bane of SS rounds in a conventional twist for calibre tube is stability due to the lower rotation induced by the lower velocity,
long pointy projectiles don't optimise the situation, short stubby heavy for length ones do.
( a dedicated fast twist SS tube is a different matter, ie a 16:1 2000fps tube with stability at 40gn needs a twist in the order of <8:1 to achieve stability at 1000fps & 60gn.)

optimisation of wound channel at SS impact velocities is promoted by initial projectile nose shape rather than deformation at impact and by weight for calibre.

Both performance issues in an ss projectile complement each other
what the projectile is made like internally( cup & core, partition, bonded core, cast etc ) is less important, but there are benefits in cast bullet formats achieving optimisation of accuracy & impact performance at SS velocities, as they can achieve the highest cross sectional weight for calibre & weight for length that is limited by the twist of the chosen tube.

G'Day Fella's,

Thank you for your experience and ideas, much appreciated.
At present, I'm using SS loads thru my 7.62 x 39 and my .308Win rifles, both of these have Std 1 in 10" twist barrels, so I'll keep my bullet weight to no more that 180grn.

Since posting this, I have read a bit about a painted on coating on www.castboolits.com web site! Apparently some fella's are using the dry powdery product that Powder Coaters use to apply to things, and dissolved in Acetone then sprayed onto As Cast bullets. they then bake it to cure it, in an oven! Apparently these blokes are getting 2000 + fps and no leading!!!
I'd be happy with a soft or pure lead cast bullet, coated with the above, to achieve what I'm talking about!

Hope that helps

Doh!
Homer

Homer, I have just started to experiment with cast bullet loads in my Zastava mini Mauser 7.62 x 39.
I find the 160gn Lee tumble lube mold to be OK & quite inexpensive using straight wheel weights.
I am using 20 gns of AR2207 to push them along & as yet have not chronographed them.
I will be interested to see what speed they do. As far as grouping, I am only getting 4MOA groups with this load, now before you laugh it is very early in the development stages yet & I have several other slugs to try yet with as many variations in charge weights.
May I ask what type of powder & charge weight you use for both your .308 & 7.62 x 39 to achieve Subsonic velocities.
I would certainly be interested to hear from another 7.62 x 39 shooter.
On the whole so far I have not been overly impressed with accuracy in the little Zastava.
Maybe my expectations are too high.

Also depends on what you are shooting.

What about Taipans for soft skinned smaller game.

If shooting Deer under a spotlight, what about
some of the Speer or Sierra ?

quote:

Originally posted by 505G:

If shooting Deer under a spotlight,

CHOKED on my pretzel reading that!

G'Day Fella's,

Yeah Gryphn !, its a bit that way!

What I was thinking of, is casting up some very soft (not quite pure Lead???) bullets and them coating them in the above Powder Coating powder etc, and giving this a try! Even they will have to expand, at Sub-Sonic velocities

505 G, yes it could be Deer but it could be anything that walks around Our Wide Brown Land!

The reason for this question is, I design and make firearm sound suppressors (legally and all above board!), and customers regularly complain about lack of bullet expansion (with conventional bullets and chest shots), at these low velocities! Hence the question!!!

Doh!
Homer