300 gr HXTP @ 1300 fps??

[trevman11]

I have a goal of putting the 300 gr Hornandy XTP at a velocity of 1300 (or more if possible) fps from my SRH. I am using H110 powder, and right now I am right at about the max load in my loading books (20 gr). This got me about 1230 fps on my chrono. I am fairly sure the SRH can handle a little extra beef, so my question is, has anyone attained the 1300 fps mark with this bullet on H110, and if so, what was the formula?

Thanks,

Trev

 

[Johnny Guest]

Greetings, trevman11 - - -

And I seem to have the honor to reply to your initial post on THR - - - Welcome aboard, sir.

I trust you have read the thread at - - -
http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18001
dealing with those bullets in that revolver. Some pretty good stuff there, if not exactly on point with your powder.

Not to discourage healthy experimentation or the general Quest for Knowledge, but - - -
If you look at the expansion which mec has attained with the 300 gr. XTP at about 1215 fps, is there a particular need to reach 1300? I can understand if you are using the LBT super hard cast stuff in seeking for extreme penetration for a big bear load or something. From my limited experience with XTP bullets, and doing a lot of reading, I wonder if there isn't a point where you lose structural integrity and begin fragmenting the bullets.

In any case, there's nothing wrong with discussion of superhot loads on this board, but I ask that Anyone posting beyond published maximums include some sort of bold print disclaimer for the protection of everyone involved.

An example: CAUTION: The included hand load information exceeds currently-published MAXIMUM LOADS. It is provided for reference only. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! Neither THR ownership nor staff assume any liability for damage or injury to persons or gear resulting from use of this information.
Something like that.

Johnny Guest
H&R Moderator

 

[trevman11]

Well to be honest, I was trying to eak (sp?) some more penetration out of an expanding bullet. The 300 gr XTP seemed like a natural candidate for this. I have seen the hard cast penetrator style bullets, but I think these have a tendency to be a bit to far on the other side of the spectrum and just slicing on through with very little ballistic effect. If the 300 grainer will hold together at a slightly higher velocity, then that may be the ticket to good penetration with a solid balistic effect. I guess what would be really nice is a Barnes 44 mag X-bullet. At any rate, I'll check out the thread mentioned above. Thanks!!

Trev

 

[Robert inOregon]

If you are looking for penetration, the XTP is the wrong bullet design. Need a solid with a wide meplat. Want your game to bleed off both ends.

 

[mec]

Possibilities

go to sixguns.com and check out john taffin's range tests ( I think that the internal link) then go to .44 magnum. I'm not sure but I believe I have seen loads he has listed with the bullet seated out to the bottom crimp groove to increase powder capacity. He may well have attained the velocity you seek. Taffin does warn against trying to get the velocities you can attain with cast lead bullets with the more resistent jacketed ones. I have found that Blackhills loads the 300 xtp to 1124 fps which is a bit slower than the 19.5 grain 296 load I tried.

When the 300 xtp first came out, it had only the top crimp groove. ( 1.6" loa) and there was no data yet published. Some of the famous Gunwriters were loading 20.5 296 CCI 350 Magnum primer. ( Incert strong disclamer here) I shot the load in a Collection of Ruger SAs- a 5.5" Blackhawk and a custom barreled 7.5" Super and a stock 7.5 Super. the Super would get 1280 fps while the stock gun was doing about 1250 and the 5.5 would average about 1230. These mommys would expand the core to 80 caliber if they hit any water column at 50 yards. Sometimes the cases would slide out of the gun easily. Other times there would be visible swelling forward of the head and it took a slight shove to eject them. they were real accurate- much like the load I mentioned in the other string. I think they might have contributed to the end shake in the custom Super.

The only time I've ever sheared off the ejector housing screw was with this load in the 5.5" stainless ruger. One time, I rested my left hand on the bench to shoot a group and it looked like the hand had been shark-bit. It wasn't a whole lot of good for a week or too.

Some of the gunwriters went hog hunting with this load when the bullet was new and were shooting the texas pigs end to end to capture bullets. They expanded greatly and they came away with the concensus that this was a bullet for light game and not for extreme penetration. They are kind of neat in that they take on a larger final diameter than the 240 xtps just because there is more lead to expand. By the way, a 240 will go through both sides of an average texas pig's ribcage without apparently slowing down very much.

 

[Phil in Seattle]

I suppose that I could load some of these in my 444 Marlin lever gun and get somewhere around 1700-1800 FPS and see how badly they would fail.

 

[trevman11]

Well if you do that Phil, lets us know. I'd be very interested in the results.

 

[JohnK]

Well to be honest, I was trying to eak (sp?) some more penetration out of an expanding bullet.

In that case you might want to slow it down, not speed it up. Pushing a hollowpoint faster is more likely to cause it to expand more or faster and reduce penetration than it is to increase it.

 

[mec]

A few years ago, I loaded the speer 300 grain sp and the sierra Soft point to mid 1100s and shot them into water saturated telephone books. this sort of activity would turn an xtp into a gigantic mushroom. the speer bullet expanded to a long stemmed 60 caliber while the sierra went through all of the materila I had and into the hard clay backstop. Aside from minor flatening of the exposed lead, their was no expansion at all.

this is interesting because a gun writer had just gone into print predicting the opposit result.

Corbon loads the sierra jsp to 1300 fps. in a 7.5 " barrel. It does 1265 out of my 5.5" Redhawk. Just this morning I shot it through water jugs totaling 36" and it went on through about 4" of dry catalog before it stopped. There was minor distortion of the nose.

If somebody was looking for a deep penetrating game bullet without going to the still somewhat exotic heavy lead numbers, this might well be the one to pick. The XTP only made it through 18 inches of jugged water, expanded and was played out.

You would need to check current loading manuals for loads for the speer and sierra but when I did the experiments, it took 1.5 grain's more 296 to equal the velocities of the xtp.