I'm hoping to achieve a couple of things with this post: 1) Get some opinions and anecdotes about real-world bullet performance and 2) Generate a discussion about something other than trigger-adjustin' and chest-thumpin'.
I've got some velocity data from my 25-45 (223 necked up) Bullberry barrel and can start to figure out trajectories, etc for various loads. What I'm curious about is how some of the bullets we use in rifle-chambered handguns actually do at lower-than-intended velocities.
I'm getting around 2600 fps from Speer Hot-Cor 87 grainers with very good accuracy (I'll throw in a target pic below just spice up the post). That muzzle velocity isn't too bad but it drops pretty fast at up to 200 yards. Since this bullet (and most that I'm likely to shoot in this chambering) are designed around 250 Savage velocities, are they likely to expand well and perform on medium size game at slower speeds? I've also got a good supply of Speer 100 gr Varminters. I expect that those might be pretty explosive even at lower velocities so might not be a good medium game round.
Another bullet I'm curious about is for my 6.8 SPC. I have a good supply of 130 grain Hornady spire points that shoot very accurately over a full load of Varget but the velocity is pretty slow - in the sub-2400 fps range. For a bullet designed for 270 Winchester speeds, I'm not sure what to expect with that one. The trajectory looks good with that one out to 200 yards but then drops off a fair amount at 300, so realistically, it's a fairly short-yardage round.
So what are some of your results with slow-moving bullets, especially in .257 and .270? I'm sure Bobby Tomek will chime in with some great data concerning bullet performance but most of his work is with carbine-length barrels and somewhat quicker velocity.
Here's the promised pic - 2 fouling rounds and three 3-shot groups from a brand-new 25-45 barrel on a 50 yard 3" target...very promising accuracy. :)
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