Tony_the_tiger
Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2011
- Messages
- 905
Hello fellow citizens! The purpose of this post is to report on the performance of Buffalo Bore's Hard Cast Lead Flat Nose Gas Check 180 Grain .357 Magnum round out of a Ruger GP100 KGP-141.
10 shots were fired at approximately 10' from the chronograph. The temperature was exceptionally hot Florida summer weather! Here are the results:
String: 1305, 1317, 1314, 1325, 1341, 1289, 1302, 1274, 1250, 1243
Descriptive Statistics:
Buffalo Bore advertises this load as traveling at 1375 ft/s out of a 4" S&W L Frame Mt. Gun. Today's test used a 4.2" barrel from the Ruger GP100.
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via boxplot with whiskers:
The shaded area is the interquartile range, which is inclusive of 50% of the shots fired. The dark line in the shaded area is the median. The dotted line represents the mean. The median is the preferred measure of central tendency for this figure, however given that there were no outliers I chose to visualize the mean here as well.
A single round of this ammunition was shot through a 2.25" Ruger SP101 and clocked in at 1158 ft/s (not pictured).
Using the GP100, a single shot was fired into a row of one gallon water jugs. No denim or other material was used.
The round penetrated completely through 9 water jugs and kept going. Needless to say it was not recovered! I imagine it still looked like this:
But we may never know...
I won't extrapolate penetration into these water jugs to predict performance in other ballistic media - but it is my opinion that this round can't help but penetrate most anything you might be pointing at with a .357 Magnum. In previous limited experiences, I have seen hardcast rounds penetrate 5 or 6 jugs and then veer off course into the unknown. It was notable that it plowed right through all 9 jugs in a relatively straight course.
This Ruger is sighted in for heavy hardcast lead. I stocked up on BB 180's and Corbon 200 Grain Hunter Hardcast before and determined that my preference was toward this load based on accuracy and design.
These shots were fired from approximately 10' and were the same used to record data on velocity. The hole at the top is a puncture that was used to hold the target up against wood.
I am not sure if it needs minor tweaking on the adjustable sights... it is more likely that the slightly left skew and up skew of this target is due to my technique but I intend to test it again for point of aim and impact when I get a chance.
By the power invested in me by Bill Ruger...
Discussion: In this particular gun, the Buffalo Bore 180 .357 mag load measured lower than BB's published velocities. The range and standard deviation from this string were greater than any other shot today, but not unreasonable. This load does seem sensitive to barrel length.
However, given the accuracy and expected penetration characteristics of this bullet design, and for my personal use, I am not sure that having it any hotter would benefit me. I use this gun mainly as a hiking companion in the south-east and in Appalachia.
I like this round for what it is, and I will continue to use it based on these tests and others. I will report back on this thread if I am able to compile more data.
Thanks,
-Triple T
10 shots were fired at approximately 10' from the chronograph. The temperature was exceptionally hot Florida summer weather! Here are the results:
String: 1305, 1317, 1314, 1325, 1341, 1289, 1302, 1274, 1250, 1243
Descriptive Statistics:
Buffalo Bore advertises this load as traveling at 1375 ft/s out of a 4" S&W L Frame Mt. Gun. Today's test used a 4.2" barrel from the Ruger GP100.
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via boxplot with whiskers:
The shaded area is the interquartile range, which is inclusive of 50% of the shots fired. The dark line in the shaded area is the median. The dotted line represents the mean. The median is the preferred measure of central tendency for this figure, however given that there were no outliers I chose to visualize the mean here as well.
A single round of this ammunition was shot through a 2.25" Ruger SP101 and clocked in at 1158 ft/s (not pictured).
Using the GP100, a single shot was fired into a row of one gallon water jugs. No denim or other material was used.
The round penetrated completely through 9 water jugs and kept going. Needless to say it was not recovered! I imagine it still looked like this:
But we may never know...
I won't extrapolate penetration into these water jugs to predict performance in other ballistic media - but it is my opinion that this round can't help but penetrate most anything you might be pointing at with a .357 Magnum. In previous limited experiences, I have seen hardcast rounds penetrate 5 or 6 jugs and then veer off course into the unknown. It was notable that it plowed right through all 9 jugs in a relatively straight course.
This Ruger is sighted in for heavy hardcast lead. I stocked up on BB 180's and Corbon 200 Grain Hunter Hardcast before and determined that my preference was toward this load based on accuracy and design.
These shots were fired from approximately 10' and were the same used to record data on velocity. The hole at the top is a puncture that was used to hold the target up against wood.
I am not sure if it needs minor tweaking on the adjustable sights... it is more likely that the slightly left skew and up skew of this target is due to my technique but I intend to test it again for point of aim and impact when I get a chance.
By the power invested in me by Bill Ruger...
Discussion: In this particular gun, the Buffalo Bore 180 .357 mag load measured lower than BB's published velocities. The range and standard deviation from this string were greater than any other shot today, but not unreasonable. This load does seem sensitive to barrel length.
However, given the accuracy and expected penetration characteristics of this bullet design, and for my personal use, I am not sure that having it any hotter would benefit me. I use this gun mainly as a hiking companion in the south-east and in Appalachia.
I like this round for what it is, and I will continue to use it based on these tests and others. I will report back on this thread if I am able to compile more data.
Thanks,
-Triple T
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