[Mike5782]

What about using Benchmark as a powder and the 130gr Nosler Ballistic tip ? And what was your conclusion with the Bergers ? I just loaded 12 , 130gr Berger VLD's ( Berger said Classic Hunter might work better ) @ 23.0 grn's of Benchmark and 12 @ 23.5 grn's . Haven't shot them yet but am curious of the difference and powder charges . Over all bullet length on the Berger VLD is 1.18 . The Classice Hunter and the Nosler Ballistic tip both are @ 1.220 . The VLD's fit in my mag just fine with an over all SAMMI of 2.238 COAL . Any info will help me out . Thanks guys !!

 

[Xman]

Mike5782, I typically load 130gr bullets longer than mag length to get them closer to the lands for better accuracy, lower chamber pressure, and provide more case capacity for powder. H335 and CFE223 have been the best performing powders I have tried. Details can be found in this thread.

http://68forums.com/forums/showthread.php?44542-Longer-than-Magazine-COALs

Overall, I have found the 130 bullets have signficant trajectory drops after 200 yards. Typical 6.8 hunting bullets like the 120 SST, 110 AB, and 110 TSX or 95 TTSX will equal or even perform better than the 130 grain bullets and are easier to work with. The copper jackets of all the .277 Berger bullets are too thick and will not fragment so are better suited for target bullets.

 

[1stmarine]

Xman this thread deserves a gold medal. thanks for posting all this knowledge and experiences you are sharing with us.
This is a clear example what makes this forum, well, this forum.

 

[Xman]

Thanks, 1stmarine. I'm currently working with 130 CoreLokt, Fusion, and HotCore bullets. Work has me traveling too much right now and is delaying completion of their terminal performance testing. I do have some other information to report.

While reviewing other 68forum posts, I found pictures showing the cross-sections of the 100 and 110 AccuBond bullets. When the images are placed side by side, it becomes evident that the 100 AB's copper jacket is thinner in the area of the ogive. This explains why the 100 AB expands more and hits harder inside 200 yards than the 110 AB. Here is the link to the AB testing if anyone wants to go back and review it.

http://68forums.com/forums/showthre.../showthread.php?33178-6-8-SPC-Bullet-Performance&p=380407&viewfull=1#post380407

 

[Xman]

S&B 110 FMJs

I have purchased some S&B 110 FMJs for their brass and was using it to sight in a scope. I took the opportunity to do some terminal performance testing with them. I wanted to see if the FMJ would break-up and fragment after impact.

The picture below shows the results. The two bullets on the left were recovered at 250 yards. As expected, the FMJ yawed on impact. However, no fragmentation occurred. The water jug did not move and only leaked water on impact at this distance. A retest was then done at 25 yards to see if the results would change. The reaction of the water jug was significant up close. However, the bullet also maintained its structural integrity. Over-penetration occurred at both distances. Muzzle velocity was 2680 fps.

 

[bowhunter020]

Finally got my 18" arp put together and ordered some 100 gr accubond. Hopefully get out Thursday and sight it in and do some "testing" Saturday on a deer drive. Hoping this well provide the best brush gun (20-50 yards with the possibility of 250 if one takes off across a field. Hope to have pictures of recovered bullets soon!!

 

[Dude-Sweet]

I have yet to recover an Accubond from game... All pass throughs haha. Great performing bullets

 

[Dean1818]

This guy put many hours into these tests........, the word "irrelevant" by any member
in regards to XMans tests is disappointing.

too critical in my book


These tests show how different bullets do in similar media.

It's a comparison test



if he would have had FBI gelatin, someone would have said... Irrelevant! It's not CIA gelatin.



Great job Xman........ I have greatly enjoyed this thread

 

[dark1]

Some one needs to take their Prozac this morning ....

 

[semi_cop]

Some one needs to take their Prozac this morning . (quote dark1)

Did I miss a post or what? Who's hating on Xman ?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dean1818]

Some one needs to take their Prozac this morning ....

Actually its no coffee, AND it was more than I wanted to say...,

fixed it for you

However I STILL call BS on anyone that would add nothing but a criticism for ANY of the work done by some of the fine people like XMan and others

A few peoples unpaid, tireless efforts have helped make the 6.8 an awesome round

 

[pruhdlr]

i too greatly appreciate xmans work. i have gained tons of knowledge from his postings. they are completely relevant and have enhanced my enjoyment of my 6.8 weapons. --- pruhdlr

 

[Subeng]

As pretty much a newby, this thread never fails to amaze me and has saved me a hell of a lot of money on ammo as far as what I use for hunting. Everything said about the 95 TTSX I got to see first hand during deer season this year resulting in two great deer sent to the processer, in fact brought in some jalapeno/cheese deer sticks and pressed jerky into work today for the coworkers from them. I'm so grateful you guys spend your HARD EARNED TIME AND MONEY doing this testing, I don't know if you realize how much you do for us newbies making look like we really know what the heck we are doing. Both of my younger brothers though I was crazy building an AR for deer, well this season was the first I got to use it and now they both know why. Anyway, keep it up, it just seems that this forum as a whole just seems to get better and better.

 

[Mr. Chitlin]

A few peoples unpaid, tireless efforts have helped make the 6.8 an awesome round

So true. I post very little but try to read every day. These bullet threads have been absolutely fantastic!! Lots of time and $$ went into these for the benefit of the board members.

 

[Lights]

Thanks for all your testing and information Xman?

 

[Xman]

Remington's 115gr Ultra-Bond & Three More 130gr Lead-Core Bullets

Thanks for your support and encouragement. Even though I have been out of town a lot these past couple of months, I have been testing four additional bullets whenever I could catch some range time.

115gr Remington Ultra-Bond (UL)
130gr Federal Fusion
130gr Remington Core-Lokt (CL)
130gr Speer Hot Core (HC)

Thank CatDaddy, gicos, and Mr. SAAMI for contributing these 115gr and 130gr soft-points for testing. The three 130gr bullets, designed for the .270 Win, were tested to see if they still functioned at 6.8mm velocities. Pictures of the recovered bullets and observations will follow in the posts below. Up front, you should know that all these bullets expanded well and were top performers - Yeah! - add three more 130 grain bullets to the list of good candidates in the 6.8mm SPC II. Considering their BCs, however, it is unlikely that these 130gr bullets will significantly out-perform the 110 AB or 120 SST downrange.

From 6.8 SPC II - 18" ARP 1:11 barrel
115gr Remington Ultra-Bond - 2460 fps (28.0gr AA2200) [0.936" BC 0.295] - 2.295" COAL
130gr Federal Fusion - 2314 fps (29.0gr H335) [1.106" BC 0.400] - 2.400" COAL
130gr Remington Core-Lokt - 2425 fps (28.3gr H335) [1.041" BC 0.336] - 2.405" COAL
130gr Remington Core-Lokt - 2500 fps (33.0gr CFE223)
130gr Speer Hot Core - 2415 fps (29.0gr H335) [1.040" BC 0.408] - 2.365" COAL
130gr Speer Hot Core - 2580 fps (33.5gr CFE223)

Caution - these loads worked in my rifle but this is no guarantee that they will work safely in yours. Note, these 130gr bullets are loaded longer than mag-length COALs to get them closer to the lands and achieve better accuracy. Always start with a reduce charge, especially if loading shorter COALs. Details of loading long can be found in this thread.

http://68forums.com/forums/showthread.php?44542-Longer-than-Magazine-COALs

 

[Xman]

115gr Remington Ultra-Bond & 130gr Federal Fusion

115gr Remington Ultra-Bond

A sleeper in the component market, you will also see "Premium Core-Lokt" used in the name of this Ultra-Bond bullet from Remington. The lead-core of this bullet is bonded to its copper jacket like the Nosler AccuBonds and Federal Fusion (made by Speer). On top of 28.0 grains of AA2200, the muzzle velocity was less than expected. It was, however, a cold day in the low 40s and I have been seeing significant velocity drops as the weather has cooled down. This bullet opened up and peeled back on impact. The first bullet on the left expanded so much, it is sitting on the mushroom, not the base of the bullet. The bullet wrapped around itself similar to the 90 Gold Dot except the mushroom did not separate into 5 pedals, it stretched out like an umbrella. The first impact velocity is not a typo, I shot the left most bullet out of my 20-inch ARP where all the others were from the 18-inch ARP. The UB showed excellent weight retention on par with other bonded bullets. At 100 yards, the penetration was through the 1500 pages of the phonebook and two magazines which is just right for medium game such as deer. The UB demonstrated that it can still expand at lower energy states and will likely function in the 1700+ fps range. If you like the performance of Federal's Factory 115gr Fusion MSR, this is a viable alternative for those of us who handload and desire similar performance.


130gr Federal Fusion

These are pulled bullets and not normally available as a component from Federal (or Speer who makes the bullet), just like Federal's 115gr Fusion MSR and 90gr Gold Dots. I was curious to see if the 130gr Fusion bullet, used in the .270 Win and faster cartridges, would function at the lower velocities like the 6.8mm Fusion bullets have demonstrated. The answer is yes. This bonded bullet's terminal performance closely matches Federal's other 6.8mm offerings - good weight retention and five expanding pedals. When fired from a 6.8 with lower velocities, the 130gr Fusion had impressive expansion. Even with a low 2130 fps impact velocity, it expanded more than any other .277 or 6.8mm bullet I've tested so far in the 6.8mm SPC and .270 Winchester with a 0.65" mushroom. At 100 yards, the penetration was through the 1500 pages of the phonebook and two magazines, just right for medium game such as deer. Penetration at all velocities was consistent. In the minimum velocity test using 25.0 grains of TrailBoss in the .270, the Fusion still expanded in the low 1800's and will likely function in the 1700 to 1800 fps range. It is unfortunate that this bullet isn't available as a component.

 

[Xman]

130gr Remington CoreLokt & 130gr Speer Hot Core

130gr Remington CoreLokt (CL)

The first CoreLokt I ever tested was shot from a .300 Win Mag. The bullet disintegrated on impact with the water jug leaving just the curled-open copper jacket stuck on the outside of the bullet trap. Thus, I was interested to see how the 130 CoreLokt would do in the 6.8mm. Before getting to the range, I had difficulty loading the 130gr Remington CL to a consistent COAL. I found as much as 0.015" variation in bullet length. Despite this, these bullet turned out to be very accurate in my rifle, < 1 MOA without any load development. I used CFE, H335, SSA, and Remington brass with CCI450 and it all was less than 1 MOA. I settled on a COAL of 2.405 which but the cannelures right at the case neck making it look like the bullet was made for the 6.8.

During terminal performance testing, the 130 CL expanded nicely and retained its lead-core in all tests. Penetration at 100 and 200 yards was excellent, going through the phonebook and 1 magazine at 100 and 1350 pages of the phone book at 200 yards. The trajectory was arcing enough at 300 yards that the expanded bullet went out the bottom of the trap. Significant bullet drop past 200 yards has been a common occurrence with 130 bullets fired from the 6.8. During the min velocity test using Trailboss in a .270, the 130 CoreLokt still expanded at an impact velocity of 1730 fps. Of the 6.8mm non-bonded lead-core bullet tested, the 130 CL has been best at retaining its lead core and expanding. A key contributor to this expansion may be the thinness of its copper jacket, measured at 0.010". This is less than half the thickness of the copper jacket on the Remington 100 PSP, supposedly a varmint bullet (the 100 PSP was test at post #381). Go figure? The 130 CL copper jacket peels back from the lead core without enlarging/ballooning the remaining copper jacket further back on the bullet's shank. This ballooning of the copper jacket is why other bullets lose their lead-core even though they are "interlocked" with the copper jacket. The good potential of this bullet, however, is reduced by its .336 BC which results in less kinetic energy and range than the 120 SST or 110 AB which have BCs of .400 and .370, respectively.


130gr Speer Hot Core (HC)

The Speer Hot Core is also a non-bonded lead-core bullet. The HC retained some of its lead core on some test and shed the core on a few. Even when it retains its lead core, there is some amount of fragmentation off the nose of the bullet. The bullets displayed are ones where the core was retain and show its expansion potential. The Hot Core did not expand as much Core-Lokt and Fusion but still did nicely. Accuracy was around 1 MOA but trajectory drop was noticeable past 200 yards which has been a common trait or 130gr bullets fired from a 6.8. The fragmentation and penetration of this bullet was consistent at all three distances with the copper jacket and lead fragments stopping between 1100 and 1300 pages in the phonebook (1100 pages of penetration will typically penetrate a mid-sized Southern deer but depending on the fragment size the hide may contain it). Reaction with the water jug on all tests was interesting and unique. Typically, the impact shock splits the water jug at the impact location. With the HC, the front face of the water jug was undisturbed with just a hole where the bullet entered. The back of the jug was blown-out and you could clearly see the fragmentation pattern developing. Not having the front face of the jug split may be an indication of delayed expansion which isn't necessarily bad when hunting larger game.

A low speed-test was conducted with an impact velocity of 1675 fps (23.0 grains of TrailBoss from a .270). At this speed the bullet did not function (only the lead tip gets knocked off going through the water jug, the bullet penetrated intact through the phonebook then flattened in the magazines). A second low-speed impact test was conducted with a 1690 fps impact speed. This bullet did expand but had deeper penetration.

 

[Mr.SAAMI]

Thanks again for all the testing. I was really surprised the 130 bullets tested performed so well at such a low velocity. I expected the Fusion to do well because they are soft but the Hot-Cor and the Core-Lokt were very surprising.

 

[Xman]

I was really surprised the 130 bullets tested performed so well at such a low velocity. I expected the Fusion to do well because they are soft but the Hot-Cor and the Core-Lokt were very surprising.

Remember its Kinetic Energy that defines expansion so a heavier bullet should expand at a lower velocity given the same construction. I was surprised by the 130gr Core-Lokt, also. It was the expansion king for a brief moment until I recovered the 130gr Fusion. The key to the Core-Lokt's expansion is the correct hardness of lead core combined with the very thin copper jacket.