by cljohnson24 » Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:59 am
I decided to try the Winchester 250 grain XP's this season after shooting a little tighter 200 yard groups than the Hornady 250 FTX Black/Customs. They chrono'd 35fps less in both of my guns yet grouped with the Hornady's at both 100y and 200yds. The ES/SD over chrono was slightly better than the Hornady's as well.
Took a nice doe @ 150 yards offhand quartering towards me. Entered slightly slightly high of my POA into the forward edge of Right shoulder blade pulverizing it and exited with a 2" hole just behind left shoulder.
My experience with the 250 FTX(in 450BM as well as Smokeless MZ's) lend me to believe that I would've found the bullet on far side separated from jacket(although usually nearby). This bullet(based on my first and only experience)seems to indicate that it remained intact.
My theory why the FTX bullets seem to shed jackets more readily is that the "thicker" jacket they use to limit the expansion, is in turn stiffer and once expanded has an umbrella effect. It's lighter weight grabbing flesh etc, allows the heavier lead core with more momentum to continue forward and pull free of the jacket. Another observation is that with thinner jackets the jacket and lead core become much more entangled and intertwined which creates a better mechanical lock throughout the target..
I pulled a Winchester XP and did a cutaway of bullet. The Win's "tapered" jacket is thinner along sides of bullet and thickens 1/3 before base creating an "interlock" point similar to the Hornady. The Hornady's jacket seems to be the same thick construction along the sides with only a limited taper around tip/nose area. The Winchester skives are longer and shallower and they seem to be crimped or locked into the plastic tip leaving no gaps except below the tip's base. The Hornady leaves open gaps to the sides of the tip as well as below it, and the cavity the tip resides in seems to be a tapered cavity rather than cylindrical like the Win..
I'm going to continue with the Winchester's for deer, but have to start shopping for a Black Bear load now. I'm considering the Federal 300 grain Deep Curl load, the Hornady 245gr Interlock or IF it's released then the Barnes 250 TTSX ammo...
If not, I have a box of 275 TSX's I bought and will work up over my last bottle of H110...