Recovered Bullet

[Berkhoven]

With luck I will have successfully attached a photo of the only bullet I have recovered from game killed with my Grendel, a 20" Sabre upper. This is a Nosler 100 grain Ballistic Tip with 2,725 fps muzzle velocity placed on a 165 lb. Texas buck last year. The bullet entered the chest just inboard of the near side shoulder, traversed the chest cavity and fetched up against the diaphragm where it joined the rib cage. After clean-up the bullet weighs 55 grains. No tracking was required as the buck fell where shot.

I have used 120 Nosler BTs and 100 grain Barnes TTSX on deer and hogs and all were pass through. Generally the animals went 20 - 40 yards after being hit. The Barnes passed through a 90 lb. sow and crippled a smaller hog on the off side requiring a finishing shot.

The 100 grain Ballistic Tip shoots very well and will be my primary load for the coming year.

[toolsofthetrade]

Wow, nice expansion, what's it measure? Lots of shed weight though, how was the wound channel?

[Berkhoven]

The bullet expanded to .560" and pretty much turned the chest cavity into mush. It is interesting to me how bullets perform but rare to catch one. I thought the advertising quality expansion of the bullet to be pretty neat.

[rickOshay]

What was the weight of the recovered NBT?

[Berkhoven]

After clean-up the bullet weighed 55 grains

[hm2 clark]

With respect, I call 55% weight retention "iffy". If the buck was closer, the velocity would have been higher and the bullet weight even less. Shot broadside, you could have hit a large sholder bone that could have shattered the bullet. That said, there is no arguing with DRT. Any estimate as to how far the bullet traveled through the buck? Was it a straight line or did it curve?

[Berkhoven]

The only points of reference on bullet path was the entry hole and where it ended up. The chest cavity was simply mush and offered no help ... straight, curved, looped bullet path, beats me. Based on the buck's size and the angle of the bullet path (whatever that was), I would guess penetration was 22 - 24 inches; nothing particularly hard where the bullet went.

[Bigfoot]

Thanks for sharing Berhoven, nice pic and details, except distance maybe I missed it.

This is what the 100 BT does, DRT but not much room for error and often no exit. It just doesn't have the weight to push it through after throwing off it's fragments like the similar constructed 120 BT does. Really wish Nosler would give it a thicker jacket as they have done w other BTs or Accubond it. Like I've said in other posts most 100s work great in .257 caliber but bullet manufacturers (and many 6.5mm shooters) think that with the faster twisted 6.5s we need to shoot 120-140s and the lighter weight bullets suffer from lack of interest. I have a box of 100g BTs and a box of 100g Hornady SPs but I'll use em up practicing and take the 100g TTSXs hunting. BTW the 100g H SPs are a bit tougher than the BT.