Greatest Penetration: .480 Ruger 425gr. of Lead vs. 275gr. Barnes Copper X-Bullet

[Gary H]

My reading has indicated that a heavier bullet, all other things being equal, will always provide better penetration. What happens when you compare 425 gr. of lead vs. pure hardened copper as in the Barnes X-Bullet?

[Hal]

Barnes X has a sd of .174
Lead has a sd of .264

With no expansion - the lead will go 40 some percent deeper.

[Dave T]

What Hal said, plus; all the "X Bullets" I've seen or heard of were designed to expand. The heavy lead projectile wins this one easily.

[Gary H]

OK, I understand that the heavier/denser bullet will penetrate the most. I think that I asked the wrong question. This gun is my trail gun. I purchased the Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger as my bear protection. I was thinking that the pure copper bullet might be better at bone penetration.

[Brasso]

The lead will outpenetrate the copper in almost any instance I can think of including smashing thru bone. Just be careful and use a good cast bullet such as a Beartooth or Buffalo Bore.

[Hal]

The heavier bullet is close to the ballistics of a 20 ga slug.
(W/ a JSP instead of pure lead you could almost have a six shot 20 ga slug gun on your hip. This would assume you'd do some research on the expansion charctersistics. Roughly figured, the .480 @ ~ 25% expansion would yeild close to .6 of frontal area. @ 425 gr, it's close to the 437 gr of a one ounce 12 ga slug. Even if it doesn't expand, it's still punching nearly a half inch hole.)

Most people fail to make the connection to just how close the hyper-bores are to a slug gun.

(The lighter one isn't really in the same class. Still,,it's a Barnes. Barnes makes good stuff. If it were me, and I was hunting a bear (or in my case-probably a boar) I'd probably consider the Barnes. It it was a case of the bear (or boar) hunting me,,,hands down I'd want the heavy.)

[Gary H]

Thanks for all of your help.

Just to complete the circle....

Where does the Speer 400 gr. Gold Dot Soft Point fit in this picture?

[Hal]

sd of the 400 gr is .248

My biggest concern here would be the velocity and ability to hold on/or follow up with a bullet that weight. A lot would depend on the velocity.
From all that I've researched the "sweet spot" for the .480 seems to be in the 370-385 gr area.