Tha rest of the story...
The first try with this particular bullet used a 16gr charge of AA-9 with the bullets tumble lubed. This was simply an exercise to see if the alloy would hold up tot he load. I had used this same load with another alloy and it shot fine but this was the softer blend and failed miserably.
After rethinking and knowing that it was probably more due tot he lube used than the alloy, being I was shooting it up to 1300fps over 13grs of AA-9 in my GP-100 in a 160gr version, I decided to try another test. I had been reading about the powder coating but hadn't decided I really wanted to give it a go. This somewhat goaded me into it and the results were rewarding. Initially I loaded up 50 rounds, in 5 round batches. I started with 14grs and worked up to 16. Half I loaded with the powder coated 220gr, and the other half I loaded with plain lead lubed with Carnuba Red.
When I tested these I fired them in order from lowest to highest charges, first the PC, then the plain. After each of the first two shot of each load the barrel was inspected for any signs of leading, and then again after the final three shots. After shooting each 5 rounds I ran a brush through followed by a dry patch of which neither removed anything more than powder residue.
Following this, I came back and loaded up the "Lite" version of shown in the first link. I decided with these I was going to up the annie and went with a load I shot with the 170gr Remington bullet several years ago which was 23grs of 296. While I had that powder in the measure I also loaded up 10rounds, 5ea. of the previous coated and plain 220gr ones over 18.5grs of 296.
When tested these all shot wonderfully, but I still hadn't had a chance to set up the chrony so I didn't have a clue as to the velocity. That changed this past weekend when I finally got it set up and ran some for speed checks.
As the picture above shows, the 175gr pills are running at a fair pace of right at 1600fps. That is right in the same ball park I got with the Remington jacketed version. I do have to admit though these don't hold together quite as well as those did. They have shown to shed the nose ring within the first 4-6" of the sand but the bases are still penetrating up to around 10 more inches after that.
The 220gr ones however are rolling back into near perfect mushrooms with almost every one recovered. Usually they have flattened out down to within around 3/8 - 1/4" of the bases depending on if I shoot them into the recovery buckets at 25 or 50yds. While none of this is scientific by any stretch, I have found through a lifetime of shooting into this baby powder type sand that it does render a bullet to a very close resemblance to ones that I have recovered from game. I'm getting just over 1300fps with these which is real close to the load I have been hunting with for the past 15 or more years, using the 200gr Remington SJHP. That load shoots around 2" or less at 50yds if I do my part and has accounted for numerous hogs up to and a bit over 200# with a couple being taken at just over 100yds. I can clearly see that with a little practice this bullet will soon be replacing those if the field performance proves to be on par.
Now that I have the alloy and the velocity working, I just need to find me some hogs to try them out on.
Below are a couple of pics of a few recovered bullets. As you can see it is pretty easy to determine the ones I shot at 25 verses the ones at 50 due to the length of the shank. As for the 175's, well it really doesn't matter what range I have shot them they end up the same, usually in two or more pieces.
