Winchester h.p's

[Confederate rifleman]

Being a fan of light loads ,due to the results of a car accident 3 years ago, I realized the importance of matching bullet construction to velocity in order to get the best balance of expansion and penetration. For a couple years I had been playing around with a .45 cal 230 grain jhp that Winchester loads in the .45 GAP and .45 ACP. My Omega shot them well but I was nervous about using them in the field because specimens recovered from the dirt at 100 yards were usually over 3/4 " in diameter. They uniformly held their cores as well.I fired 1 into the dirt at 20 yards and got a 1" diameter expansion, core in place and expanded FLAT. My Omega had to go to the shop, so I tried these bullets in my Black Diamond XR ( Harvester crush ribs and 50 grains of 3f T7 muzle velocity 1450 fps chrono'd)and they shot superbly. That was the load that was down bore on the 2nd day of our muzzleloader doe season and I got a nice fat doe with a front 1/4 ing shot at 55 yards. the round went in just ahead of her right shoulder, breaking a rib, absolutely trashed her right lung and was only slightly less kind to the left, and exited between the last 2 ribs on her left side. She ran about 30 yards and left a blood path. On deer does not a trend make , but I must confess the little Winchester pistol bullet was a most pleasent surprise. Its a good load for the kids or if you're tired of pouring 1/2 a can of powder downbore , or dont want to get beat up by a load. I buy them in bulk at Cabelas. Its results like these that have caused me to abandon breechloaders for hunting.

 

[sabotloader]

Confederate rifleman

Another bullet that you might want to look at that is a light shooting, but devastating bullet is a Hornady 10mm 200 grain XTP. While it is a light pistol bullet it shoots very accirately from my inlines and does stay together a high ML velocities.

 

[MOdeer]

Thanks for the report, good thinking on trying an ACP bullet for a light load. Sounds like it's a good idea too.