Hornady 185 grain XTP loads for the 450 Bushmaster...

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Has anyone experimented with these rounds for the 450 Bushmaster?
45100  45 CAL .451 185 GR XTP®.
Mine should arrive next week. They are the freebies Hornady is offering
With the purchase of a set of dies. If possible to use them, I would load these for Whitetails and Coyotes.
All input, positive or negative appreciated.

[pitted bore]

TSD-
A couple of years ago I started a too-long saga about loading 185-grain bullets. A list of threads about this is in my post of June 4 here: Re: load development. (It's the 12th post on the thread.)

Short answer: Lil'Gun worked well with 185-grain loads using side crimping. Without side crimping the results were messy.

For your intended uses: I don't think these bullets are designed for deer hunting with the velocities possible with the 450 Bushmaster. Hornady's blurb says that the "heavier jacket stands up to the high pressures and velocities of the highest performance handgun cartridges." Presumably they would be OK with a 460 S&W at 2200 fps, for example. But, at the 3000+ fps you can get with the Bushmaster these may come apart too quickly for whitetail hunting. They would likely be fine on coyotes. (I have no 450B experience to back up these opinions.)

--Bob

[Hoot]

Has anyone experimented with these rounds for the 450 Bushmaster?
45100  45 CAL .451 185 GR XTP®.
Mine should arrive next week. They are the freebies Hornady is offering
With the purchase of a set of dies. If possible to use them, I would load these for Whitetails and Coyotes.
All input, positive or negative appreciated.

I just posted this in another thread, but my Chrony has pieces of 230gr XTP jacket permanently embedded in the front of it. Don't shoot them over a chronograph or anything else of value. Of the ones I loaded and shot that made it to the target board, they used all 4ft x 4ft of it to pattern and I was only pushing them out the barrel at 2200 fps.

Not to threadcrap, but for approximately $6.00 more, Hornady would have sent you a box of 250gr FTX or whatever model and weight of 450 bullet you wanted. One of the other members covered that process in a recent thread. I forget who though.

Hoot

[wildcatter]

Has anyone experimented with these rounds for the 450 Bushmaster?
45100  45 CAL .451 185 GR XTP®.
Mine should arrive next week. They are the freebies Hornady is offering
With the purchase of a set of dies. If possible to use them, I would load these for Whitetails and Coyotes.
All input, positive or negative appreciated.

I just posted this in another thread, but my Chrony has pieces of 230gr XTP jacket permanently embedded in the front of it. Don't shoot them over a chronograph or anything else of value. Of the ones I loaded and shot that made it to the target board, they used all 4ft x 4ft of it to pattern and I was only pushing them out the barrel at 2200 fps.

Not to threadcrap, but for approximately $6.00 more, Hornady would have sent you a box of 250gr FTX or whatever model and weight of 450 bullet you wanted. One of the other members covered that process in a recent thread. I forget who though.

Hoot

Yupper Tex, Hoot & Doc here, have it right. Any bullet that was intended for the 45acp, means they're still expanding at 300fps or less, now witness the results at 3000fps+. Some of the brands will hold together and make excellent loads when penetration is not wanted, like for some home defense applications and others..

..t

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Oh well, I can always load up some 45ACP with these for my Glock.

[BD1]

I'm going to add my thoughts on JHP pistol bullets and hunting. I owned a "hair on" tannery in Northern Maine for about 7 years. Among other joys, that business allowed me to get up close and personal with 500-700 bear hides, 100-200 moose hides and several hundred deer hides every year, along with fur bearers and the odd assortment of exotic stuff sent in by taxidermists for tanning. I'll bet I've fleshed a least 50 240 grain JHPs out of the side of bear heads, forward of the ear, that were put there by guides using a .44 mag for a point blank "finishing shot" before they started into dressing out the bears. None of those bullets had penetrated the skull. I've fleshed dozens of fully expanded JHP pistol bullets out of moose hides that were still in the hide on the entry side, completely healed over. And I think all of those were at handgun velocities. You run those same bullet designs up to 2,000 fps and I believe your penetration and terminal effect will be very poor, even on lighter skinned game. There's just not enough sectional density in your average pistol caliber JHP to get the job done.

I also guided bear hunters in Maine for about five years, and ran bear with dogs for years after that. When playing around with bears, my .44 mag was loaded with 310 grain hard cast flat points. They're only traveling about 1,100 fps, but I've never recovered one as they all went through and through, even on "Texas heart shot" hogs. These days I use a 265 grain grain hard cast flat point in the same pistol for deer and pigs with substantially the same results.

BD

[wildcatter]

I'm going to add my thoughts on JHP pistol bullets and hunting. I owned a "hair on" tannery in Northern Maine for about 7 years. Among other joys, that business allowed me to get up close and personal with 500-700 bear hides, 100-200 moose hides and several hundred deer hides every year, along with fur bearers and the odd assortment of exotic stuff sent in by taxidermists for tanning. I'll bet I've fleshed a least 50 240 grain JHPs out of the side of bear heads, forward of the ear, that were put there by guides using a .44 mag for a point blank "finishing shot" before they started into dressing out the bears. None of those bullets had penetrated the skull. I've fleshed dozens of fully expanded JHP pistol bullets out of moose hides that were still in the hide on the entry side, completely healed over. And I think all of those were at handgun velocities. You run those same bullet designs up to 2,000 fps and I believe your penetration and terminal effect will be very poor, even on lighter skinned game. There's just not enough sectional density in your average pistol caliber JHP to get the job done.

I also guided bear hunters in Maine for about five years, and ran bear with dogs for years after that. When playing around with bears, my .44 mag was loaded with 310 grain hard cast flat points. They're only traveling about 1,100 fps, but I've never recovered one as they all went through and through, even on "Texas heart shot" hogs. These days I use a 265 grain grain hard cast flat point in the same pistol for deer and pigs with substantially the same results.

BD

Yuppers, For my 450b, I always use non-expanding flat-points, for serious work and there is never-ever a question of their results. I also use Hollow-Pointed pistol bullets for when penetration is not wanted..

..t

[pitted bore]

BD1-
Your post above is my current front-runner for winning the prize for most informative post of the week (month? year?).

Thank you.
--Bob

[wildcatter]

BD1-
Your post above is my current front-runner for winning the prize for most informative post of the week (month? year?).

Thank you.
--Bob

I second it!

Nothing substitutes for real world observations.

..t