Range Report: Barnes XPB Part II
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:34 pm
Note from Hoot: I have finally repaired the broken image links due to changing ISP a few years ago.
Range report Saturday & Sunday July 9th/10th
Jogging Shorts and Tee shirts ruled the day as temps started at 80 and went up from there, along with the kind of humidity that makes a postage stamp curl up in record time. Forget muffs, it was plugs only. Anything to help with making the outing more humane. At least there was a breeze Saturday. Actually too much as it became downright blustery as storms, generated by the conditions, marched in. Groups suffered a little from sudden bursts of crosswind. Sunday brought even higher temps and sultry conditions as it was still as a tomb. Saturday's winds looked like a godsend in hindsight. Both outings took probably twice as long due to the barrel taking what seemed like forever to cool down every few shots.
I did another water shot per BD1's interest. I loaded down a round to simulate the velocity the 200 grain XPB that exited the barrel at 2400 fps would be going at 300 yards, despite not considering this caliber a 300 yard caliber. I had just enough milk jugs for one shot until I make another foraging run on recyclable day. So, my rationale was if it expands at 300 yard, it will do fine at 200 and 100. Well it didn't.. I have never had a shot from this caliber go through more than 5 jugs of 7. At 1175 fps, the bullet bored through all 7 jugs with only the first two showing trauma and the rest having a caliber sized hole drilled through them. So, no porn today. The bullet disappeared downrange after exiting the last jug. IMHO, the Barnes 200gr XPB is not an acceptable 300 yard bullet. Once I gather some more milk jugs, I will load one to 200 yard velocity (1500 fps) and try again. This should not come as a surprise, given the bullet is intended for the .460 S&W, with MV's around 2000-2300 fps. OK, I got that out of the way.
I continued where I left off with the last outing on the 5th, backtracking a few loads and adding more taper crimp to see what velocity increase it would provide and also reduction on velocity spread. Forget applying OBT theory to this bullet, in this caliber, with this powder. If it's indeed there, I could not find it. These babies love speed. The more the merrier. The 275's SD and velocity were less affected by neck tension, which comes as no surprise since the additional weight requires a lot more energy to get moving. In the case of the 200 it needs the neck tension more to hold it back (like a heavier bullet) before it releases from the case. Though I haven't gotten to the Alliant 2400 tests with the 200 yet, in the case of faster 2400 powder, neck tension is not as critical.
On Sunday's outing, after a few shots, I was troubleshooting my equipment, scratching my head, wondering about the effect of the hot weather, etc, due to the fact that I went down in velocity, despite having gone up in charge weight. I eventually continued on, finished my work and went home. While transferring my data, I remembered that I had exhausted my old bottle of Lil Gun and switched to a bottle I recently got. Wow, talk about giving credence to the tenet that powder can vary from lot to lot! So, you will see in my results a backtracking of velocities. There is something to be said for buying those 8lb kegs after all.
So, continuing on where I left off on the 5th, here is the data for Saturday and Sunday merged together:
That led to the following groups at 100 yards for the 200 grain XPBs:
And for the 275 grain bullets, which really shined:
For the 275gr, the best 3-shot group goes to 40gr of Lil Gun with almost a single hole! It was hard keeping track with the 275s as there was hardly a group that didn't have some redeeming aspect to it.
Today (Friday) was recycling day for the section-8 housing next door to where I work and I made a haul on milk jugs. So some more water shots are coming for both the 200s and 275s. Also coming are 200gr XPB loads using Alliant 2400 and seeing how far safety allows me to go further upward with both bullet weights and Lil Gun. As I said in my last thread, these bullets perform marvelously, as they should at that price. You can load up a box for hunting using some of my work, but keep in mind, you will get different results with the shorty and not to let the opportunity get by to reiterate this, from variances in powder energy content from lot to lot. The brass is holding up like yeomen, with no pressure signs knock on wood. I look forward to being able to close out the Barnes' in part 3. I will be taking a handful of these deer hunting this fall. Hopefully, my Dad will show some restraint this time and allow me to actually take a deer or two on my tags.
I can't say this enough, but a big thanks is in order to commander faschisto for his help doing these experiments.
Respectfully submitted,
Hoot
Range report Saturday & Sunday July 9th/10th
Jogging Shorts and Tee shirts ruled the day as temps started at 80 and went up from there, along with the kind of humidity that makes a postage stamp curl up in record time. Forget muffs, it was plugs only. Anything to help with making the outing more humane. At least there was a breeze Saturday. Actually too much as it became downright blustery as storms, generated by the conditions, marched in. Groups suffered a little from sudden bursts of crosswind. Sunday brought even higher temps and sultry conditions as it was still as a tomb. Saturday's winds looked like a godsend in hindsight. Both outings took probably twice as long due to the barrel taking what seemed like forever to cool down every few shots.
I did another water shot per BD1's interest. I loaded down a round to simulate the velocity the 200 grain XPB that exited the barrel at 2400 fps would be going at 300 yards, despite not considering this caliber a 300 yard caliber. I had just enough milk jugs for one shot until I make another foraging run on recyclable day. So, my rationale was if it expands at 300 yard, it will do fine at 200 and 100. Well it didn't.. I have never had a shot from this caliber go through more than 5 jugs of 7. At 1175 fps, the bullet bored through all 7 jugs with only the first two showing trauma and the rest having a caliber sized hole drilled through them. So, no porn today. The bullet disappeared downrange after exiting the last jug. IMHO, the Barnes 200gr XPB is not an acceptable 300 yard bullet. Once I gather some more milk jugs, I will load one to 200 yard velocity (1500 fps) and try again. This should not come as a surprise, given the bullet is intended for the .460 S&W, with MV's around 2000-2300 fps. OK, I got that out of the way.
I continued where I left off with the last outing on the 5th, backtracking a few loads and adding more taper crimp to see what velocity increase it would provide and also reduction on velocity spread. Forget applying OBT theory to this bullet, in this caliber, with this powder. If it's indeed there, I could not find it. These babies love speed. The more the merrier. The 275's SD and velocity were less affected by neck tension, which comes as no surprise since the additional weight requires a lot more energy to get moving. In the case of the 200 it needs the neck tension more to hold it back (like a heavier bullet) before it releases from the case. Though I haven't gotten to the Alliant 2400 tests with the 200 yet, in the case of faster 2400 powder, neck tension is not as critical.
On Sunday's outing, after a few shots, I was troubleshooting my equipment, scratching my head, wondering about the effect of the hot weather, etc, due to the fact that I went down in velocity, despite having gone up in charge weight. I eventually continued on, finished my work and went home. While transferring my data, I remembered that I had exhausted my old bottle of Lil Gun and switched to a bottle I recently got. Wow, talk about giving credence to the tenet that powder can vary from lot to lot! So, you will see in my results a backtracking of velocities. There is something to be said for buying those 8lb kegs after all.
So, continuing on where I left off on the 5th, here is the data for Saturday and Sunday merged together:
That led to the following groups at 100 yards for the 200 grain XPBs:
And for the 275 grain bullets, which really shined:
For the 275gr, the best 3-shot group goes to 40gr of Lil Gun with almost a single hole! It was hard keeping track with the 275s as there was hardly a group that didn't have some redeeming aspect to it.
Today (Friday) was recycling day for the section-8 housing next door to where I work and I made a haul on milk jugs. So some more water shots are coming for both the 200s and 275s. Also coming are 200gr XPB loads using Alliant 2400 and seeing how far safety allows me to go further upward with both bullet weights and Lil Gun. As I said in my last thread, these bullets perform marvelously, as they should at that price. You can load up a box for hunting using some of my work, but keep in mind, you will get different results with the shorty and not to let the opportunity get by to reiterate this, from variances in powder energy content from lot to lot. The brass is holding up like yeomen, with no pressure signs knock on wood. I look forward to being able to close out the Barnes' in part 3. I will be taking a handful of these deer hunting this fall. Hopefully, my Dad will show some restraint this time and allow me to actually take a deer or two on my tags.
I can't say this enough, but a big thanks is in order to commander faschisto for his help doing these experiments.
Respectfully submitted,
Hoot