The test finally got done last week and I’ve been putting all the information from it together since.
Goals / Reasons for doing this:
#1 I wanted to setup a shooting test using a reasonably consistent resistance to measure the depth of penetration & weight retention of bullets. Not that I don’t trust people, but I wanted to see for myself and have a little fun while I was at it.
#2 I want to specifically compare the bullets of factory loaded ammunition for a 30-30 rifle to determine what the different performances are.
#3 Once I have established what the 30-30 can do I want to compare that information to what a 44 magnum rifle will do under similar circumstances.
#4 I want to learn how the different bullets & loads compare so I can make the best informed choice possible for caliber & ammunition to take bear hunting. I honestly think all this would be a complete waste of time if it was to test for deer hunting performance. Black bears are built differently and the requirements for hunting can be different.
**The load that will be the benchmark for all others to be compared to is my handloaded 44mag Hornady 240gr HP-XTP that I used last season to take an 8pt buck with. At the 60 yard shot this bullet weighed 184.2grs and was found under the skin on the far side of the animal. This is the only comparison where I have a bullet recovered from game with one of the loads tested.
The books were set at a lasered distance of 60 yards from the muzzle. I choose this distance because it would make for a more accurate comparison to the performance of the benchmark.
The rounds tested were the following:
I included the 9mm in the test because I had it with my at the range and there was an open spot on the books to shoot. It was for my own curiousity more than anything.
The guns tested were a stainless Puma 20” 44mag and a Marlin 336W 30-30.
I started this by stacking books and wrapping some packing tape around them so they’d stick together. I also tried to make sure that the books were as flat as possible to make things easier.
I didn’t want to have bullet holes too close to one another because I was worried that the cavity created by one bullet may effect how another performs. I used two stacks of books to eliminate that problem and fired the benchmark round into each set of books to make sure I had something comparable to reference between the two sets of books.
I had planned on measuring the depth of penetration by putting a rod into the each of the bullet holes until it touched the back of a bullet and then measuring the rod. With the most of the bullets being completely separated this wasn’t a reliable way to measure how deep the bullets traveled. Especially since the bullets all traveled about the same distance give or take an inch, it didn’t have the vast differences I was expecting. I was a little disapointed that I couldn't measure bigger differences between the penetration of the different rounds, but it's possible that there isn't a big difference.
I would have liked to have setup more stacks of books and fired more of each different type of round into those stacks to take an average performance. I would have liked to done the same test at 100 yards also to see the difference that the distance would have made. I was limited by time, but I may go back out again another time and do this again, but on that day I’ll be taking my 30-06 too.
RESULTS;
Weight Retention: The results ended up that every lead 30-30 bullet basically came completely apart and didn’t hold together. The Barnes triple shock bullet was completely in tack with the exception of one broken petal. The largest chunks of bullets found were from the 44mag rounds, but in all fairness they were much heavier bullets too.
Penetration: I had stacked over a foot and a half thick of books for the bullets to go into but nothing penetrated past 6” into the books. The hard cover on the back of the second book seemed to be the final barrier that stopped all the bullets in their tracks except one. The only bullets to break through that last hard cover was the Grizzly 320gr hard cast ammo and even through it was sticking out of that back cover, it didn’t penetrate into the front cover of the next book.
What’s all this mean?
I found some information that would be useful and some information that wasn’t any big surprise, but I got to see it for myself. As far as the 30-30 goes the clear winner in my book was the Barnes bullet. It didn’t out penetrate the other bullets like I was expecting it to, but at least the bullet stayed together and there’s something to be said for that. Regarding the 44mag, the heavier bullets did seem to make a difference because I was able to find larger chunks. The winner in the 44mag test was the Grizzly cast bullet, because it out penetrated every other bullet in the test and retained much of it’s weight.
Maybe this information will help others, maybe it won't, but after doing all this I wanted to at least make the information available to everyone.
