Another Trip to the Dinger Farm

[sabotloader]

Nothing great to report - just another good outing with a Knight

Different rifle this time - I took my Knight Stainless Steel 45 cal fast twist.

The goal of the trip was to confirm that the rifle was sighted in with the Lehigh .400x230CF-HP Brass bullet. And a second goal was to load a couple of the resized Lehigh .458x260 Sabotless bullets. They have been resized to .451.

I did not use a paper target at all as I was sure the rifle was sighted in from a previous trip. So, I setup 5 clays at 100 yards. You can see the Lentils are starting to pop up and using clays is going to get more difficult to see. The adjacent field is Winter Wheat and it is already to tall place clays. It will not be long before I move to the Pope farm to shoot. Gas is to darn expensive to drive the truck out and back to the Rock Pit.

The two bullets on the right are the two versions of the Lehigh .400x230 I wanted to test. The red sabot is a special run of a MMP sabot that Del pushed out of the MMP factory several years ago when I suggested that a sabot with a longer petals might well be needed for the longer ML bullets being made. The Tan sabot is the normal MMP 40-45 sabot.

It did turn out to be a very good day - actually a couple of hours - leisurely shooting at the farm. The rifle and the bullets destroyed the clays. Although... the 3rd bird either from right or the left did cause me a problem. You can see that I set it up to deep in the soil, and was really difficult to see or to get a bullet to without hitting the soil. It did take make me two shots to pummel it - but I got it!

 

[MTY]

Looks like fun. There have been a few really nice days between the rainstorms here on the Palouse. I'm mowing, weed eating and working in the garden today. I just came in for lunch.
If the thermals are not too strong this evening, I plan on shooting a bit.

 

[sabotloader]

Same here - just finished mowing the front and north side of the house.... Got the much bigger back to do. With all the rain the yard has over stocked itself in re-growth!

Where are you on the Palouse?

 

[D55]

Those are some effective looking deer pills.

 

[MTY]

The lower end of Texas Ridge. Pine Creek is between me and HWY 3.

 

[sabotloader]

Wow - you are in the neighborhood! Terry and I use to teach in Kendrick - many years ago! Lots of driving between there and Moscow.

 

[sabotloader]

Those are some effective looking deer pills.

That is what I am thinking... I really want to try them. You can see the two varieties in the picture. One has a solid hollow point and the other has slit petals.

I am quite sure that the solid will work down to 1400FPS and slit petals are rated down to 750 FPS.

This ballistic sheet make me quite comfortable to 200 yards and more.

 

[D55]

That is what I am thinking... I really want to try them. You can see the two varieties in the picture. One has a solid hollow point and the other has slit petals.

I am quite sure that the solid will work down to 1400FPS and slit petals are rated down to 750 FPS.

This ballistic sheet make me quite comfortable to 200 yards and more.

I have shot a deer quartering hard to @ 90yds. where the neck and shoulder meet with a 275xpb Barnes @2275mv and the bullet fell out from beneath the hide on the offside hind quarter when I skinned it. Bullet still weighed 275 an had opened pedals perfectly. Wish the bullets weren't so hard to find as I am not fond of break away pedals. Same load @ 150yds broadside though both shoulders of a big bodied Ohio buck, drt with minimal meat loss. I like the solids for hunting.

 

[sabotloader]

I have shot a deer quartering hard to @ 90yds. where the neck and shoulder meet with a 275xpb Barnes @2275mv and the bullet fell out from beneath the hide on the offside hind quarter when I skinned it. Bullet still weighed 275 an had opened pedals perfectly. Wish the bullets weren't so hard to find as I am not fond of break away pedals. Same load @ 150yds broadside though both shoulders of a big bodied Ohio buck, drt with minimal meat loss. I like the solids for hunting.

Over the years, I have learned the petals coming off are not big thing - other than they create a greater Terminal Performance in the animal by piercing internal organs creating more internal damage. also know that the bullet does not open until it hits a liquid environment. It will pass right through the shoulder into the liquid environment of the chest cavity, then the petal operation begins. One other positive feature I have found on more than one occasion a petal will come off and puncture the spinal cord. That puts the animal down right away. The petals are so light in weight (6 gr.) they really can't move around in muscle tissue. But the other part of the equation is the solid remaining bullet - which most often exits even on quartering shots.

The top of the body of the bullet creates a real cutting machine as it passes through meat and even bone. This is what the bullet core looks like when stripped of the petals. You can see the sharp cutting edges the bullet retains - what you can't see it the small con-cave depression in the top of the bullet that now collects blood, liquid and then ejects it outwards to continue cutting organs.

 

[Hausser1]

Over the years, I have learned the petals coming off are not big thing - other than they create a greater Terminal Performance in the animal by piercing internal organs creating more internal damage. also know that the bullet does not open until it hits a liquid environment. It will pass right through the shoulder into the liquid environment of the chest cavity, then the petal operation begins. One other positive feature I have found on more than one occasion a petal will come off and puncture the spinal cord. That puts the animal down right away. The petals are so light in weight (6 gr.) they really can't move around in muscle tissue. But the other part of the equation is the solid remaining bullet - which most often exits even on quartering shots.

The top of the body of the bullet creates a real cutting machine as it passes through meat and even bone. This is what the bullet core looks like when stripped of the petals. You can see the sharp cutting edges the bullet retains - what you can't see it the small con-cave depression in the top of the bullet that now collects blood, liquid and then ejects it outwards to continue cutting organs.

Great explanation! Thank-you.

 

[WV Hunter]

Nice. I do like those bullets, they perform very well on game!