Recently tested the 348 Win on some wet newsprint (6") followed by dry phone books and catologues. I tested at the equivalent of 50 yards and between 200-300 yards depending on the bullet.

This is my main chart which has an error with the silvertips and a bigger error with the aframes



The Aframes in 200 grain are an excellent bullet. The hold together well at close range and expand down to at least the tested 1800fps which gets you out to 250 yards. In my original chart I accidently tested two higher speed loads rather than a 1800fps load, this is fixed below.



The 200 Hornady FN is probably the easiest bullet to get ahold of. It is a pretty reliable design giving good penetration and expansion. It can core separate when pushed hard but at 50 yards and beyond should hold together well enough for even moose.




The 200 grain flex-tip is an intriguing design. It has a b.c. of .320 which gives it better retained speeds and a bit better trajectory. I am confident that it would expand to 300 yards and it also holds together pretty well at high speed. I'd say good for deer through eating sized elk and caribou.



The 200 silvertip I'll have to go and repost on my picture host site. I would put it just under the Hornady for expansion and it doesn't hold together any better. The error in the chart is that it has a reatined weight of 170 grains at low speed not the value on the chart.

The 220 Barnes original leaves awe-inspiring holes in the wet newsprint..by far the most destructive. It penetrates well but will shed cores at high speeds... not till the end of travel though. This would be a great Deer through Elk bullet, stretching to moose but not Bison.



Finally the 250 Woodleigh...it penetrates the best but it did tumble in the media at low speed and the jacket split but kept the core together. I reduced loads to simulate long range and thus lowered the rotational velocity. Pretty sure at full rotation this bullet would not tumble as badly. Most capable bison bullet (likely)




Video of this process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OaJcGjEBfo

Here is the 200 Silvertip... once expanded past the cannelure the core separates. At low speeds it expands under the aluminum tip but the jacket is fairly thick and it doesn't open up past that. Good deer bullet...better designs for bigger stuff.

Interesting bullet comparison.

I just picked up a Win 71 in .348Win. I started shooting 200gr cast GC bullets for fun at the range. I loaded some 250gr Hawk bullet for game.

I must say I am a bit surprised that the bullets you tested didn't hold up a bit better at .348 velocities. Pretty hard to beat A-Frames and Woodleigh.

try that test with your cast bullets at 2-k or so...
might surprise you what they can do compared to the expensive copper wrapped lead.

They are built to expand at low speeds. Also the hard catalogues and phone books are a very hard media.

Thank you for that report.
I need to get my 71 out. I only hunted with it once but got into a group of pigs. 5 shot later 5 on the ground pigs until I started loading skinning and gutting. then
WHAT WAS I THINKING???? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Glad to see your testing of the "flex tip" for bought few boxes of those. Have shot them from 100-200yds. and find them to be accurate in my 71. Like the caliber so much that I built a Ruger No.1 in same caliber and they work fine in it as well. The bullet brings a bit of new life to the old caliber.

Keep in mind that most bullets tumble a the last minute as they slow down and you will find most stop on the off side skin facing the shooter, not uncommon at all..even with the best of premium bullets..but the damaged was done prior to the turn around, that's not a tumbleing bullet btw.

I haven't been able to reproduce the Woodleigh split jacket. It is obviously possible but probably fairly rare. even with the split, the lead stuck to the jacket.

I have had excellent results on game with the Woodliegh 250 gr. and both the Horn and Barnes bullets, Have not used the flex point and probably never will, if I need velocity and ranging, I'l opt for a 30-06 or its ilk..

The best bullet I have used in my mod 71 Browning, hands down, is the 180 gr. GS Customs monolithic flat nose hollow point at 2750 to 2800 FPS and is super accurate..It will outpenetrate open up big time better than any bullet Ive used and by a good deal..Its a real hammer..

A question? I suspect most of the bullets came apart in the dry books, dry magazines and phone books are very damageing to bullets at any speed as a rule, Even wet books are more destructive than living flesh, including bone, but your test do give one an idea what would work best in game as your results are similar but tougher. so add some minuses to bullet performance and your probably pretty close in that all your test will do a little better on game..Just my two cents based on doing test in different mediums over the years..They are good for comparing bullets to each other, not so much getting actual game results..complicated!

What powder do you use with the GS-FN?

CEB makes a Lever Raptor in .348 which is a great bullet.

Monestery Forrester,
Ive been using 53 grs. of RL-15 with the 180 flat nose HP GSC bullet for 2645 5 shot average and super accurate..H-4895 is also a good powder but Ive not done much work with it..

Srose,
I will look into that, do you have any worked up loads for that bullet.

Thanks!
It is hard to get Alliant-Powder here in Germany, but I have some Norma 203B and some bad boys said, that Reloader 15 and N 203B are coming out of the same box at Bofors...

Sounds like a plan to me, The 348 isn't all that particular about powder, most of the powders Ive used worked well.

I have had pretty good luck with powders between 4895 and 4831 in burning rate with the sweet spot being in the 4350 area with 200-250 grain bullets. I imagine lighter bullets could go a mite faster and RL 15 would probably be very good. Love to try out the 180 GSC Bullets

NOrth61,
The are now available in the US and in Africa. For the USA contact Gina at 269-861-2553 or go on the web sight www.gscustomusa.com...Lots of information there..

HIt the jackpot this week, Passed thru Boise and stopped at Boise Guns my favorite Boise hangout and snagged a clean pre war mod. 70 for $699 and its shoots great groups at 50, one small hole for 5...

While there I found 4 new boxes of old discontinued .348 Barnes X, 220 gr. flat nose hollow points, what a find..loaded them all up and will hunt elk in Colorado on a friends ranch in Sept..I hope the make a run of these bullets in 200, 220 and 250 as they did prior to the new take over.

big hammers!

I just bought the last 200grs Barnes-X from my dealer!

I hope Barnes will make a run on those bullets. I have gottin two different stories from them, one rep said they would and another said well that's a maybe down the road, sounds like double talk meaning "who knows"...

North Fork makes a 230gr flat point for the 348. I've shot a few pigs with the round nothing bigger.

North--What is the equivalent of 50 yards?

Timely thread. I just bought Instructors Browning 71. I think I'll try the North Forks Ray mentioned. I did get a box of the Hornady Flex Tips, but after seeing the results I wish I had got the Hornady FNs instead. I am a one load per gun guy and I want to be able to use my 348 on Blacktail Deer, Elk, and Black Bear--at least on nice days in close range country.

I know one bullet doesn't tell the tale of what it's capable of but I thought the Hornady 200 Flex tip bullet would be a little tougher. I shot a whitetail a few years ago with my Model 71 at 157 yards. It was a medium height shoulder shot. I recovered the bullet in two pieces weighing a total of 102 grains. The weight retention doesn't bother me, I just thought it would be a pass through.
I'd really like to try some heavier Hawk bullets out of it if anyone has any experience with them I'd like to know.

I have a few 250 gr. Silvertip component bullets.
How many would you need to perform some similar testing?

I have had Hawk bullets come apart on game time and time again in 7x57 and 338 heavy jackets..They do work however at slow velocity but get the thickest jackets, Had great luck in my 38-40 and 30-30..I think they would work fine in most of the old Winchester calibers, probably the .348...Best .348 bullets on game for me were the 220 gr. Barnes X and the 180 gr. GS Customs in 180, they work on elk and deer real well. The Starfire 30-30 150 gr. monolithic hollow point is awesome on big game, I think they load the Barnes X, looks like a Barnes X....

quote:

Originally posted by Johnly:
I have a few 250 gr. Silvertip component bullets.
How many would you need to perform some similar testing?

Sorry I missed this email...I do have 6 250 Silvertip bullets on the way from Alaska and will update this test with those bullets as well as some 180 Speers and repeat with the other bullets and perhaps add some Hawks.

Good test info. If possible test the North Fork 348 soft and solid.

The 300gr NF softs and solids did most excellent on Australian Buffalo in my Winchester 1895, in 405 WCF. Before the Australian hunt the NF 300gr soft did great on a couple of Texas deer as well.

Years ago I shot a couple of deer with the 250 gr. silvertips, they killed the deer real quick as one would expect with any 250 gr. bullet, but the did come apart like a bomb..To there credit one was going away and I took the Texas Heart shot and he went down on the hit and was dead when I got to him..I found parts of the bullet and damage was decent in the lungs.

One think folks should realize, the .348 ain't no wonder caliber, it was designed by Winchester to duplicate the 30-06 shooting heavier bullets and it does that..Well maybe it is a wonder caliber, the old 06 sure is...