Texas Sheepdawg wrote:How did these shoot? I've been warned that the jackets on the standard XTPs are thinner than the XTP Mag and it may not fair well at our velocities.
I realize this is an older post, but I've recently had some experience with these bullets and thought I would share what I've seen with anyone thinking of buying some for deer hunting.
The XTP has long been a solid performer in my hunting circle, and after shooting three deer each earlier this year with FTXs, my Dad and I decided to load up some of the XTPs to see how well they would do in the 450. Like many of you we noticed the 250gr non-mag XTPs were pretty inexpensive, and despite tales of jacket separation, we decided to load some up and see how they performed.
We started with 39gr of H110 just like we do our FTXs, and were impressed to see they shot exactly the same and required no scope adjustments. We like to shoot tin cans filled with water, and at 100 yards the XTPs turned them inside out and left us searching for pieces for quite a while. Impressed with the accuracy, and with nothing to lose, we decided to make these the loads we would take opening weekend for gun season in Indiana. If nothing else, we knew we could count on an entrance wound at least .45"...
The actual results:
Deer #1: 30yds, shot straight down through the spine/through the heart.
2" entrance wound/.45" exit.
Did not move an inch after the shot.
Deer #2: 25yds, shot through neck.
2" entrance wound/.45" exit.
Did not move an inch after the shot.
Deer #3: 85yds, shot just behind shoulder, shattered 3 ribs on each side and exploded heart and lungs.
2" entrance wound/2"exit.
Did not move an inch after the shot.
I'm not a physicist, but all I can figure is the entrance is bigger at close ranges due to some kind of sever over pressure inside the deer. It makes sense (to me at least) that all of that energy from the bullet hitting the deer has to go somewhere and in that first millisecond after it hits it's easier to go back through the existing hole, which causes the veritable explosion of an entrance wound. We shot some 1/4" steel with some factory rounds, and besides making a hole that looked like a hole puncher through paper, the bullet also made the metal do something similar. The steel actually flared back towards the entrance of they bullet instead of the exit... It was very bizarre, and now I'm thinking it was something similar to what seems to have happened to the deer.
So what about jacket separation you ask?
Well I can verify it did in fact happen. When skinning Deer #1 we found the entire copper jacket with no lead core inside. The copper peeled back as advertised and almost doubled in size before it came to a halt about 1.5" before it would have exited. As far as I can tell the bullet turned into two projectiles inside the deer, causing considerably more damage to the interior.
I can't say these bullets were the cause of any excessive meat loss, but I do think any bullet has the potential to ruin a deer if shot in the wrong spot.
My conclusion is the 250gr XTP non-mag is fine choice for whitetails, and jacket separation isn't as bad as everyone assumes (at least on thin skinned game).