A couple of weeks ago I tested some .308 slugs for penetration, expansion, muzzle velocity, energy and BC. I've finally gotten some time to write up the results.
I was shooting my DAQ Exile .308, and most of the slugs were sent to me by Bob Vogel to test (all except the long FN Lee mold slug). I posted on the accuracy of many of these recently:[www.airgunrendezvous.com]
That accuracy testing did not involve 3 of the slugs in this test, the 80RN, the 111 ribbed HP and the long flat-nosed Lee. I'll test these at 100 yards one day soon.
I used the old wet telephone book (4 of them actually) test, and was shooting at 50 yards, a likely hunting distance, with chronys at 5 yards and 49 yards. This is what my test bed looked like after the shooting was done:

This next shot is 2" into the books. The two non-HP slugs are cutting a very clean path through the books, while the damage caused by the HP's is already evident:

The long flat-nosed Lee 90366 slug penetrated a long way and ended up facing backwards:

Here are the recovered slugs:


Below are the statistics, courtesy of Chairgun:
Grains,,,,,,,,,,Penetration,,,,,,,,,,,,Muzzle velocity,,,,,,,,,,Energy,,,,,,,, BC
-------------------(inches)-----------------(fps)---------------------(fpe)
68--------------- 5------------------------- 1080------------------- 176------ .0711
148------------- 7.5------------------------ 829------------------- 226------ .0727
80RN--------- 10.5---------------------- 1003------------------- 179------ .0817
158------------- 8--------------------------- 799------------------- 224------ .0902
120------------- 6.5------------------------ 890------------------- 211------ .1185
111------------- 7--------------------------- 903------------------- 201------ .1246
155FN------- 12--------------------------- 816------------------- 229------ .1952


(I had real trouble formatting this table, as whenever I pasted from MSWord it stuffed up. Any thoughts...can someone fix it for me, I'm going mad here!!?)

It was a fun test. I did a few too many at once, which made it difficult to follow the path of the slugs through the phone books, but I think I got it mostly right. One interesting slug was the 148 grainer, which, like another of Bob's HP's I tested a while back, shed its HP in petals and left the base to continue on.
Hope you find this interesting!
Cheers
Neil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2010 02:37PM by Jerry.

Great post Neil. It looks like the HPs work pretty well in wet paper. I suppose you'll be wanting my ballistic gell formula next!

I did what I could with the table. Apparently this software deletes "extra" spaces to save space so I just opened it up with characters.

Thanks Neil,

Great job. Very thorough. I can tell you enjoyed yourself.



Gary

Thanks Jerry for fixing that! I struggled for some time but my pea-brain couldn't find a solution Hmmm, ballistic gel might be next......

Thanks Gary. Now I have to decide which slug(s) will be the best for any particular use. I guess I'll just have to keep shooting and shooting, what a chore
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

Happy Father's Day down under.

Yeah - you'll just have to keep shooting and posting here on the "ABB Forum". That's (Anything But Barnes).

Gary

Thanks for the Father's Day wishes Gary, but we don't celebrate it at this time. Hope you had a good one though! By the way, it's snowing here this morning. I'm going to leave a bit early for work in case the road over the hill is closed and I have to use the Lyttelton road tunnel.
Cheers
Neil