Barnes Varmint Grenade Bullet tested on a Varmint

[LanceOregon]

My son and his friend are into reloading, and finally were able to test the new Barnes 36 gr 22 caliber Varmint Grenade bullet on game.

This bullet was loaded in .22-250 to a velocity around 4100 fps. Their impressions were that accuracy was excellent, and equal to their other favorite varmint bullet, the 40 gr Hornady VMAX. While the bullet was explosive, it was felt that it was not quite as fragile or explosive as the 40 gr VMAX.

They managed to shoot a large Jackrabbit with the bullet, and it did blow out a big exit hole in the animal, delivering an instant kill.

Here is how the bullet performed:

Our consensus at this point is that the bullet holds promise to be a good coyote load, where you want to have more penetration. Otherwise, for smaller size varmints, the VMAX still looks to be the best choice. Especially when you consider that the Varmint Grenades are more expensive.

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[ginshun]

Thats gross dude. :barf:

but I like it.

 

[UniversalFrost]

awsome!

I got a box of the sitting on my bench just waiting for me when I get back.

Glad to see that they actually can perfom up to their name

now go shoot us a yote and post the pics of bullet performance, that is what i wanna know about

 

[LanceOregon]

now go shoot us a yote and post the pics of bullet performance, that is what i wanna know about

I'm leaving for a 5 day varmint hunting vacation with my son in 12 days. Ground squirrels, Jackrabbits, and Coyotes will be our targets. With any luck, I should hopefully come back with some nice pics then. We definitely will be doing some coyote calling.

My son lives in Nevada, while I am in Oregon. He emailed me this photo, to show how their test had gone.

The 40 gr VMAX is definitely superior at making smaller varmints explode. We have used it for a number of years, and it has on countless occasions caused all of the insides of ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and rabbits to explode completely outside of their body. It is easily the most humane bullet to use on such pests, as death is instantaneous, even if bullet placement is not that ideal.

Here is another rabbit that we shot last year with the 22 caliber 40 gr MAX. All of his insides were blown outside of his body. Nothing was left inside him. You can partially see some of his stomach and intestines in the lower right corner of the photo.

This sort of performance sure makes life easy for the crows and magpies. They just swoop in, and dinner is all prepared for them.

This is actually the tamest photo, out of all of my VMAX'ed rabbit photos.


P.S. - Yes, VMAX is now also a verb. At least to those of us who hunt with it.

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[alfred]

Neither is a "good eating" load I see.

How was the accuracy?alfred

 

[LanceOregon]

Oh, the accuracy with the Barnes Varmint Grenade was great. These appear to be very well made bullets.