PJ and Spinafish /F.Y.I.

[Robert]

I finally got up the hill to do some testing today.  I have been soaking a stack of newspaper in the rain for about a week to see what some of these bullets would do.  P.J. was wondering about expansion with .308 150 gr Hornady ballistic tips in his Encore, and even though these were hot loads in my Whisper with 125's, I think it is relevant.
  First...let me say that J.D.s advice to stuff as much H-110 as possible behind a 130 gr Ballistic tip, is a bunch of B.S.  I used 20 grs of H-110 with 125 gr Noslers....same as my 90 gr. XTP load.  I had to pound the cases out with a cleaning rod, and I will never do that again.  The 90 XTP's love that load.  
  However, the 125 gr Hornadys went clear through 18 inches of packed wet paper, and most of the way through one 4x10 fir board that I used for backdrops. I cut the boards in half near the 'wound channel', and retreived two very nice little mushrooms with great expansion.  These bullets performed well, however...one shot is all you wil get since the gun is jambed.  My guess is that the Nosler Ballistics will perform EXCELLENT in the 30-06 at 2500 fps.  Penetration and expansion at appx 2100 fps.
  #2...the XTP's.  These are a kick in the butt to shoot, but I WOULD NOT use them on any animal that I wanted to eat or save a hide from.  It was pretty amazing what these little buggers did, left me in shock.  You could just about put a baseball through the 'entry wound' for about 14 inches, and there wasnt enough scrap metal left of the bullets worth saving to show the expansion, just a buch of debris, and they left what looked like 'volcanoes' about 3 inches high around where they entered.  Awesome.  These bullets are good for two things only: target practice and animals or people that you intend to kill instantly and not have much left to eat.
  #3.  Nosler 190 gr. Boat-tail softpoints.  I am guessing these biggies were doing about 1700 fps. Never found the bullets.  Went cleanly through the paper and both 4x10 backdrops.  Neat clean exit hole about .45 caliber.
   
  I plan on trying the 150 gr Noslers next, and try the 190s again with a lot thicker wet paper so I can see what the bullets are doing.

[T/C nimrod]

Try phone books instead of paper - one three inch book soaked will give you about 10" of material. I wouldn't trust your expansion results in phone books as compared to animals though.

[spinafish]

Thanks Robert..Good write up..I have yet to recover a bullet that hadn't slammed into my stacked wood backstop..I've used phone books,old magazines, and banded wet newspaper that had fallen out of the newpaper carrier's truck!  I think I will try Gramps idea with bottles of water.I have some 110 H.P's loaded I am going to try next along with some 180 grain GameKing Sierra's.