Does anyone use GS custom bullets? In particular I am interested in anyone having used the HV bullets on moose or bear. What calibers and how well did they work. I have poured over the GS custom website. Everything on their sight is so positive. It makes me wonder if they are only putting out the positives and not telling of the pitfalls of these bullets. I would like to hear first hand from anyone with personal experience with these bullets.

So far I can only comment on accuracy and in my 9,3x62 the 230 grain is fantastic. Also I appreciated the good communication with Gerard.

Well, I went ahead and ordered a box of 308150hv079. I am going to give these a try. I had read blogs on other sites of how slow they have been to fill an an order. I just got a confirmation that my bullets have shipped and are on their way. So far so good!

I would appreciate your experiences. And promise to post mine. Amazingly, in Europe I got them fairly quick.

quote:

Originally posted by Alaska-Hunter:
Does anyone use GS custom bullets? In particular I am interested in anyone having used the HV bullets on moose or bear. What calibers and how well did they work. I have poured over the GS custom website. Everything on their sight is so positive. It makes me wonder if they are only putting out the positives and not telling of the pitfalls of these bullets. I would like to hear first hand from anyone with personal experience with these bullets.

AH,

You might want to pm member Gerard with your question; he's the founder of GSC and well able to answer your questions.

I personally have not used GSC HV bullets but do have friends who have successfully used them against African plains game of all sizes, against Cape Buffalo, and against deer in the Southeast USA.

In the past bullets had to be purchased from South Africa, exported from South Africa, and then imported into the USA which severely limited their availability and use. GSC now has a USA manufacturing plant should eliminate these past issues.

I have used GS Custom HV Bullets. They were inconsistant in opening/expanding on large plains game. Sometimes they would not open at all. Very dissapointing, when your carry them half way around the world for a significant hunt in Africa. Brian

What calibre did you use?

GSC is trying to get to the bottom of Brian Canada's problem as it is completely contrary to how HV bullets are supposed to work. I have written two e-mails to Brian to get as much information as I can and I am waiting for a reply. We pride ourselves on the fact that GSC HV bullets expand from as low as 1600fps impacts and take every failure report very seriously. This is not what we design for and reliability is foremost with our designs.

Gerard, I sent you a thorough answer to your email questions on the Dec. 18th.

In my experience, three of your 30-06 HV bullets just did not expand at all on a plains game hunt where 17 animals were shot. I am telling fellow hunters what all of us in our hunting group, including the PH, witnessed. Not just one GS Custom bullet but three failed to open at all. I have had several GS custom bullets pass completely through large plains game (7MM Mag.) Maybe those bullets didn't either.

As you should remember I ordered these bullet directly from you in P.E.
No one is more dissapointed than me. If you check your records you will note that I have bought several hundred dollars woth of GS custom bullets from you and have been using them for several years.
Also, I bought out all of Corlane Sports stalk, a couple of years ago as they were not selling.
I have invested a lot in your product.

I travelled half way around the world to hunt with your bullets. My son and I hunted in Limpopo Province with them.
That was my experience, from one hunter to another.

Product reports, both positive and negative are helpful to everyone. I just wanted to be informative. I don't want to make a big deal of this. Don't blame the messanger. Brian

Jaegerfrank, 30-06.

Brian,

With all respect to you and your position, I can do something about this situation, the forum members who read this can not. If the aim is making forum members aware that GSC bullets have not expanded, well and good. If the aim is to prevent it from happening again, help me to prevent it.

Allow me to explain how GSC bullets work:

When all is normal, a GSC HV bullet will penetrate the animal in a straight line (a continuation of the line of flight), expand and form the wound channel, if stressed further by high speed, the bullet wil then lose the petals, the shaft will continue in a straight line and the three petals will each go its damaging way. The shaft will probably exit.

This is what you saw with the 7mmRM because I design for a pass through, if at all possible. A caliber size entrance caused by the bullet and a caliber size exit caused by the shaft of the bullet and major damage to any aqueous filled organ, through a well formed and reliable wound channel.

When all is not normal, as with your son's 30-06, I still do my best (through the bullet design) to prevent the animal from running and being lost. In such a case, we take it seriously and investigate every reported incident as thoroughly as allowed.

In either case, the aim is to prevent the animal from being lost.

Did you get my e-mail dated 20 December where I ask for any batch numbers you may have? I know that the majority of these bullets were manufactured 8 to 10 years ago but, we keep records for ten years and should be able to figure out what happened.

Gerard I directed this towards Brian,

Do you have pictures of the recovered bullets or are you basing the performance on entrance/exit wounds

As I said in my post, the three 30-06 bullets that did not open, did not exit. Everyone involved saw/inspected the bullets. They looked much like the bullets when they came out of the box. I may have picture, not sure.

This is not a condemnation of Gerard or GS Custom. In fact GS Custom bullets have features that make them one of the best in the world, IMO.

Their multiple rings around the shank, (driving bands,) are perfectly configured to provide the best Internal Ballistics.(In the barrel.) The multiple rings, not the shank, are engraved by the rifling, resulting in slightly lower pressures, and slightly higher velocities. GS Custom Bullets are one of the monolithic bullets that are double rifle friendly.

The external ballistics and accuracy are superior.

I will go so far as to suggest that it looks like the best of the modern custom designs in monolithic bullets came out after GS Custom bullets became popular. (Conjecture on my part.) And, the driving rings/bands look similar to Gerard's design. This is high priase to Gerard.

I'm just saying that three 30-06 HV bullets failed to expand for us during a South African hunt. Probably an easy fix. Manufacturers are constantly improving their products due to field reports. The web is full of glowing reports about bullet terminal performance. Sometimes a critical report can be helpful to everyone, including the manufacturer. Brian

Brian,
If the bullets did not open up they should have passed through, I think.
If they stayed inside it could be because, improperly stabilized, they tumbled.
It will be very enlightning to see the photos. May I suggest that you take one that shows, as clearly as possible, the "print" of the rifle grooves in the bullet rings"?
Thank you!

Montero, That makes sense. But, I don't have the bullets. The hunt took place 4 years ago. I am still looking for some photos. Brian

I have shot GS bullets into water soaked florist's foam below the expansion's threshold for cup and core bullets and see them expand beautifully.

On the other hand, bullets sufficiently stabilized to fly true in the air may not be sufficiently stabilized to stay head on while going through animal tissue and tumble upon impact.

I have seen this happen with a heavy for the caliber .30 caliber monolithic shot in a 1:12" gun, therefore my suggestion.

Best Wishes for 2016.

That could be it. The rifle was a Brno from the 80's. Might of had a slower twist. I'm not sure. cheers, Brian

There are some AK guides that are also AR members that might share with us some first hand experience of field performance of the HV bullets on the critter's in question, moose and bear. I personally have used the solids on cape buffalo's and they performed as they should with straight line full penetration out of 450 Dakota and 375 H&H chambered rifles, so I have no issue with that particular GS bullet.

I have not used the GSC HV, though I am very interested in their 400gr 458 offerings for the Lott and Win Mag.
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quote:

Originally posted by Alaska-Hunter:
Does anyone use GS custom bullets? In particular I am interested in anyone having used the HV bullets on moose or bear. What calibers and how well did they work. I have poured over the GS custom website. Everything on their sight is so positive. It makes me wonder if they are only putting out the positives and not telling of the pitfalls of these bullets. I would like to hear first hand from anyone with personal experience with these bullets.

I tested both the solids and their 265 hollow point bullets when they were first introduced in the states and found them to be fantastically accurate and in testing the solids penetrated at least as well, and better than most, other solids.
I loaded up some 265 gr HP bullets in the 375 H&H at around 2600 fps and allowed a client to use them on a moose hunt. The moose died but the recovered bullets showed almost no expansion, which I relayed to Gerard.
I had the same results with some of the early Barnes X bullets as well and Randy and Coni continued to work on and improve their design and I assume and hope Gerard has as well.

I also have seen examples of Nosler Partitions and Swift A-Frames that failed to open in game, which is a good reason to be suspicious of examples taken from small sample sizes.

quote:

The moose died but the recovered bullets showed almost no expansion, which I relayed to Gerard.

I dearly wish that I received that e-mail. How long ago was this? Do you recall how far the moose ran?

Not far enough, he died in a 3 foot deep swamp !

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Originally posted by 458Win:
Not far enough, he died in a 3 foot deep swamp !

That is when hunting becomes hard work!