Bullet Performance

[petey]

I shoot 240Gr Hornady XTP .44 mag (.430) Bullets with Sabots out of both my new inline and My TC Renagade Flintlock (for some time now)

I just got my Traditions Thunder Bolt this past summer and went with this combo since it's produced very good results in the past with my Flintlock. Out of the Flintlock I'm actually shooting 90 gr of 777 lose, and 100 grain of Pyrodex out of the Inline; pellets.

I've only had the opportunity to retrieve this bullet twice from deer. One came from the off shoulder hide of a 230 pound dressed "white" buck that Tom LaValle shot at Rathmel Run.

The second was from the doe I shot this past Saturday. I jumped her from her bed and she ran a little over 50 yards over a hill and turned to see what I was. Having just came from over the hill I knew my backstop. She was far enough over the ridge that all I could see was the head and neck, giving me only a forward-on shot. I place the crosshairs in the center of the neck and pulled the trigger.

The bullet entered the neck and rode the spine all the way until about 2" from the hind-quarter. Believe it or not I managed not to ruin any of those good ol' backstraps either. The result was a deer laying where she was when I shot and the bullet perfectly formed like you would see in an advertisement. I weighed the bullet and it came out to 219 grains, only losing 21 of it's orignal mass and mushrooming twice it's size. That's 91.25% retention!

This was my first with this gun but far from my first with this bullet, haven taken many with my flintlock. The mass majority never took another step. The accuracy isn't that great at a whopping 1-3/4" to 2" at 100 yards, but it sure puts them down.
Granted this doe wasn't a whopper, but meat is meat

[petey]

The bullet side view

[petey]

The bullet back view

[kt]

very cool i unfortunately spent the whole day on stand and saw nothing, to much rain the night before. it poured to midnight and at first light the field was covered in extremely fresh (post rain) tracks. so i dont know where they got to between midnight and 630 AM but they went crazy. any how that is very impressive weight retention and as for the accuracy, i wouldnt knock it with 44 caliber bullets, 4 touching at 100 yards makes close to a 1 3/4" i'll take that any day
kt

[petey]

I measure my groups from outside to outside then subtract the diameter of the bullet to get a "true" group, so 1 3/4" as really 2.61" outside to outside...now that's not too impressive (in my book) But hey, what do you want using a plastic sheath?

Every deer I saw on Saturday was in it's bed....a much better day for guys still hunting than sitting...At least that's what the 2 of 3 of us were doing and guess which 2 killed deer?

The 3rd actually missed , but we pushed the deer to him. I'm not knockin' him though since he was nice enough to invite us to come hunt with him... just gave him a good harrasin after it was all done with

[trex]

I've killed quite a few deer with the exact same bullet myself in a few different guns. Actually know a few other folks who use it also and it is very effective. Out to 150yds I'd put it up there with the best of them. Seems to shoot well in alot of different guns

[mazter]

Way to go Petey, I have 2 packs to shoot up at the range this year, You have given me a little more hope on them now.
Maz