ssyoumans
Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2010
- Messages
- 709
After shooting for the past 2 years Hornady 240gr XTP's over either 2400 or 296, I decided to try something less expensive out of my Marlin 1894. This is the only 44 Mag that I own. I have a little 4x scope mounted on it.
I picked up 500 PowerBond 240gr Plated Hollow Points. Priced nice at $70/500 including shipping, that's about 1/2 of the XTPs. I sent an e-mail to PowerBond and they responded back that they are good to 1400 - 1500 fps due to the thicker plating. The bullets measure .429" and look very nice.
With the XTPs I can keep 5 shots inside 1.5" at 50 yards, with several touching (44's make nice big holes).
I loaded up some with 10.0gr of Unique, with a light roll crimp (seater) and a firmer taper crimp (Lee FCD). 10 shot avg 1207fps with ES of 105fps, SD 30.8. Not very consistent. Bullet grouped about 6+" at 40 yards! I thought I needed to push them harder, so I switched to blue dot with 13.5gr. These came out at 1424 fps, but again, ES of 92fps and 6" groups. Using CCI LP primers.
I have downloaded XTPs with both Unique and Blue Dot, and they shot lower, but maintained nice groups. Not sure where to go from here. I know the XTPs are .430" and the PowerBonds are .429", but I wouldn't have expected this kind of difference group wise. Velocity wise, the downloaded PowerBonds are about the same as the download XTPs, but just don't group at ALL.
Where to go from here???
I picked up 500 PowerBond 240gr Plated Hollow Points. Priced nice at $70/500 including shipping, that's about 1/2 of the XTPs. I sent an e-mail to PowerBond and they responded back that they are good to 1400 - 1500 fps due to the thicker plating. The bullets measure .429" and look very nice.
With the XTPs I can keep 5 shots inside 1.5" at 50 yards, with several touching (44's make nice big holes).
I loaded up some with 10.0gr of Unique, with a light roll crimp (seater) and a firmer taper crimp (Lee FCD). 10 shot avg 1207fps with ES of 105fps, SD 30.8. Not very consistent. Bullet grouped about 6+" at 40 yards! I thought I needed to push them harder, so I switched to blue dot with 13.5gr. These came out at 1424 fps, but again, ES of 92fps and 6" groups. Using CCI LP primers.
I have downloaded XTPs with both Unique and Blue Dot, and they shot lower, but maintained nice groups. Not sure where to go from here. I know the XTPs are .430" and the PowerBonds are .429", but I wouldn't have expected this kind of difference group wise. Velocity wise, the downloaded PowerBonds are about the same as the download XTPs, but just don't group at ALL.
Where to go from here???