X-bullets vs. Nosler E-tip vs. ???

[.38 Special]

I need to work up a wild boar load in .30-'06, and here in SoCal it's going to need to be "lead free." I have had mixed results with Triple Shock/X-bullets and am considering trying Nosler's E-tip. I am figuring on using the 180 at 2700. Has anyone else tried these on big game animals? What kind of accuracy and terminal performance? And are there any other bullets I'm missing?

 

[bucktail]

Hornady GMX. I've killed exactly one head of game with all copper bullets. Antelope with a .257 weatherby. It went straight down. Sorry, but not much help here.

 

[shaggy430]

I can't comment on performance on game (I live in TN where there's not all that lead-free condor BS) but I've gotten horrible accuracy out of the X-bullets.

 

[ArmedBear]

Hornady GMX.

I've been testing a load with GMXs, and their accuracy so far is close to SSTs, which is to say, the best I've ever gotten from the rifle, about 1/2" at 100 yards from a .30-06. POI with the same load is less than 1 MOA different between SST and GMX bullets.

Haven't used the GMX yet on anything but paper, but I can vouch for their accuracy. Their design and materials (gilding metal with plastic tip over hollow cavity) seem utterly similar to the E-tip.

Note that Hornady shows the expansion they get at 3400, 2700 and 2000 fps. Nosler doesn't specify what velocity is needed for maximum expansion, but I'd suspect it's similar, since it's the same alloy AFAIK.

GMX:


E-tip:

 

[hardluk1]

38 special What kind of problem did you have with a x bullet. They open and bore a twice the diameter hole clean through the animal. Just don't try to push them like a compairable lead/copper bullet. Try some factory loads. I have used them for bigger game than deer and in a rifle for hogs an they have done just what they are made to do. Even shoot a mule deer on a elk hunt and the 140 grain in 7mm mag traveled 52" of meat and bone ,found under the front shoulder skin,shot next to the aaa, rear end. That one broke several ribs ,the back in 3places, went on throught the front shoulder joint and finally stopped under the hid. At 150 yards

 

[.38 Special]

This particular rifle copper fouls spectacularly with both the X and the Triple. I have no doubt they'd do the job on wild piggies, but I'm too lazy to feel like scraping that much copper out of my barrels.

The GMX looks interesting to me. I'm a fan of heavier bullets, and the lack of a 180 GMX put me off, but I know these bullets thrive on speed, so maybe a lighter bullet would be a good idea here. Nosler says at least 1700 for expansion, but doesn't say anything about "optimum" expansion.

Thanks to all so far.

 

[cdet69]

i have used both the nosler e-tip and the barnes tsx bullets in a 7mm stw. I found the e-tip to be a realy hard bullet when used on deer. it put a pencil sized hole in and not much of a larger one going out. The Barnes tsx showed better expansion and a better exit hole. I love the accuracy of the e-tip but where I was hunting I could not afford to track a deer 65 yards because of posted land. If I was hunting hogs though I would definitly use the e-tip because of it's toughness and it being super accurate. But don't knock the Barnes tsx it is almost as equal as the e-tip just expands a little better.

 

[ArmedBear]

I think there's an inevitable tradeoff.

Gilding metal alloy is harder than pure copper, so it fouls less, and it sounds easier to get good accuracy from it (I haven't tried Barnes in my rifle).

The downside is that you get less expansion -- that probably isn't such a downside in a larger animal, but it is for deer. For pigs? Probably not a downside either.

The 165 Grain GMX is as long as a conventional 180, but seems to like the same powder charge as a regular-size 165.

Remember, though, it's not necessarily what the bullet weighs that matters. If the bullet RETAINS 160 grains, it's better than a 180 that retains less. Whatever their expansion, I buy the premise that solid bullets don't come apart.

 

[hardluk1]

38 special the one thing about all of these design bullets is you don't need the heavier bullet to do the job so is if you can stay with the 165 gr but for a 06 maybe 150 . Get your self some jb's bore polish and wet a patch and apply some jbs and run 5 or 6 strokes and clean keep it up till clean again . Do that several times and that will help to slick a rought bore. I am not a fan of winchester but there x type bullet is payed for to use to barnes , just with that steel base added . You might try them if cost is not to high. I to did have coppering poblems back when pmc first started loading the x bullet ,maybe 15 years ago. I slicked my bore after copper'n it up. Had to work a bit but made for a good shootable rifle after about ahour with jb's bore paste and that rifle will shoot anything under an 1" rifle now. It's an old 308 788 remington. I have also shoot some in a kreiger airgauged barrel in 7mm rem with out ant problems at all about 8 years ago. Still shoot some of the old stuf in the 308.

 

[snuffy]

Hornady GMX
I got in a mood to do a little expansion testing. The Hornady GMX interested me in that it wasn't pure copper, so it would be less likely to copper foul the barrel.

This is hardly the first time I've done this sort of thing. Back in 2002 I did some tests on the then new Hornady interbond. Anyway, here's some pics of 2 recovered GMX bullets fired from my Browning A-bolt 300 WSM;












Now aren't those some beautiful mushrooms? Expansion is .615 and .640, retained weight is written on the paper in the bottom pic. Which is the absence of the plastic tip for one and maybe the loss of some of the metal and the tip on the other.

The story behind this bullet is that it is built from gilding metal, the same stuff most jacketed bullets use for their jackets. Therefore it's like shooting any other bullet, as far as the fouling goes.

I loaded these with my favorite powder for my 300 WSM, H-4831 SC. I choose a mid range load, Lyman 48th said start at 65.0 to 72.0,(for 165's), I went with 68.5, loaded 15 for testing. I wrote down the chrono readings, 3077 av, for two rounds.

These were fired into water filled gallon milk jugs laid on their sides, one behind the other, @ 100 yds. The first three were lost in the grass, the bullets kept skipping out the side of the 3rd jug. Finally 4 and 5 were captured. One came to rest in the third jug, one barely made it into the forth.

The first jug was mostly blown into 4 pieces, the second was split wide open, the third simply had a hole through with the bullet laying in the bottom, the one that made it to the forth barely made a slit in the bottom.

 

[shaggy430]

snuffy, that is impressive. I might try to work up a load for those.