460 Rowland and Lehigh 250 grain extreme penetrators

Hey guys,
I recently had a barrel for my FN FNX Tactical 45 converted to 460 Rowland. I liked the idea of woods carry with some heavier solids and decided to try the 250 grain extreme penetrators from Lehigh. I loaded some up with blue dot which ended up being a compressed charge at the max load I was willing to test, which didn't show any dangerous pressure signs. I won't give data on here but they were under other published 250 grain loads. I was underwhelmed by the results. 950 FPS was the max I was able to achieve. I know that because these copper bullets are longer because of the driving bands and coppers lower density than lead; I lost some case volume to the longer bullet, but I was surprised how slow they were moving. I expected closer to 1200 FPS. This morning I also tried some 265 copper solids in my Smith 329 PD 44 mag with slightly larger powder charge about 7% more blue dot and was hitting 1100 FPS. I know, different bore size, case capacity, sectional density ect...but figured they would be similar enough to perform on par with each other. Has anyone else tried these bullets in the Rowland? Were you able to get better velocity with a different powder? Please share. I'd really like these to work.

 

I'm not surprised. The problem is probably those bullets. They're going to be overly long anyway and you're also losing mass with the screwdriver tip, compared to their WFN. The screwdriver tips are kind of a gimmick anyway. I would opt for a ~250gr cast instead.

 

I watched a video last night, comparing one of the extreme penatrators to a heavier hardcast wfn the both did the same amount of damage from what I could tell in the video and penatrated exactly the same. I think it was a 200 grain penatration against 250 grain cast, higher velocity with the 200 grain.

 

We've tested them in big critters and the damage was less than that with WFN's. Could find no reason to justify their cost. However, the Lehigh WFN is very good if you're shooting the big stuff. For all else, cast is preferable.