I have had these pictures on my computer for a year now and clearly had forgot to post them here. So here's the backstory: last summer I was invited to an oryx hunt in south Texas. I was not a shooter but was along for the ride/spotter. Well the guy I was with shot one through the spine/upper shoulder. It instantly put the animal down but did not kill it. Not wanting to shoot it again at close range with his 300 Win Mag and not wanting to ruin the cape with a knife it was decided to use my H&K P2000 in .40S&W. I had it loaded with 180gr Remington Golden Saber JHPs.
The oryx was shot once through the chest at a range of about 2 feet. The animal expired. Later when we were cleaning the animal we recovered what you see in the pictures. There was definitely core-jacket separation. The core traveled about 3 inches further than the jacket which was recovered on the far side of the chest cavity. The core was against the hide on the far side of the chest. If you aren't familiar with oryx it is a large animal that is fairly tough. The amount of penetration was impressive even with the core-jacket being separated and that the bullet had to go through the bulkiest part of the shoulder (tough bones in there). The bullet and jacket obviously expanded very well. Unfortunately I don't remember the measurement of expansion and I didn't include a scale in the pictures.
Take from this what you will. Some might see this as a catastrophic failure, some won't. For me I was impressed with the penetration and good expansion. Golden Sabers are known to have core-jacket failures, and this is no exception but I feel the failure did not have a negative impact on the outcome. Obviously in a perfect world it would have stayed together.
*Edited to add: I no longer carry Golden Sabers in this pistol. Still looking for the optimum replacement.
The oryx was shot once through the chest at a range of about 2 feet. The animal expired. Later when we were cleaning the animal we recovered what you see in the pictures. There was definitely core-jacket separation. The core traveled about 3 inches further than the jacket which was recovered on the far side of the chest cavity. The core was against the hide on the far side of the chest. If you aren't familiar with oryx it is a large animal that is fairly tough. The amount of penetration was impressive even with the core-jacket being separated and that the bullet had to go through the bulkiest part of the shoulder (tough bones in there). The bullet and jacket obviously expanded very well. Unfortunately I don't remember the measurement of expansion and I didn't include a scale in the pictures.
Take from this what you will. Some might see this as a catastrophic failure, some won't. For me I was impressed with the penetration and good expansion. Golden Sabers are known to have core-jacket failures, and this is no exception but I feel the failure did not have a negative impact on the outcome. Obviously in a perfect world it would have stayed together.
*Edited to add: I no longer carry Golden Sabers in this pistol. Still looking for the optimum replacement.