.223 gel test: Hornady 55 gr soft point hand load

[chopinbloc]

Link to video of test




Hornady 55 gr SP over 25.4 gr TAC fired from 11.5" and 16" AR-15 pattern rifles into calibrated 10% gelatin. Surefire FA556AR silencer was attached to both rifles.

BB: 590.5 fps, 3.7"

16" barrel results

Impact velocity: 3,014 fps
Penetration: 10.7"
Retained weight: 26.9 gr
Max expansion: 0.425"
Min expansion: 0.335"

11.5" barrel results

Impact velocity: 2,751 fps
Penetration: 12.1"
Retained weight: 31.3 gr
Max expansion: 0.410"
Min expansion: 0.350"

 

[d2wing]

Thanks. That confirms what happens in flesh. A slower bullet will expend less energy and expansion and penetrate further. The faster bullet will expand quicker and do more damage over a bigger area, but penetrate less. That is why higher velocity kills faster and gives better bullet performance providing correct billets are used in that situation.

 

[David4516]

Is that the flat based bullet with the cannalure?

If so it's the same bullet I load .223 with. My loads are with 25.0gr of H335, I forget the exact number (don't have my notes handy) but I think I was getting about 2,800FPS out of a 16 inch AR-15.

When I first chornographed my reloads I was disappointed that I wasn't getting a little higher velocity. But your test shows me that maybe I'm already at the ideal speed for this particular bullet. Thanks for sharing this!

 

[JamieC]

I just started loading the Hornady 60gr SPs, starting at 22.8, 23.4, 24gr of H335. I'll see what kind of groups I'm getting. Wonder how the slightly heavier bullet might do in gel. My first thought is since it'll be traveling a bit slower, there might be less expansion and more penetration? I loaded 55gr VMaxs up to 25gr, I thought the slightly heavier bullets would be a bit less powder, but what I found, (Hornady info), seems like quite a bit less.

 

[chopinbloc]

Is that the flat based bullet with the cannalure?

I believe so. It was loaded by a member on Arfcom. I haven't pulled one but it does have s cannelure.


JamieC, I'd agree. Lower velocity and higher mass often means deeper penetration, to a point.

 

[GooseGestapo]

I've shot that and the heavier 60gr a good bit.
Only my testing has been in live media.... deer. results are very similar.

I've only recovered one from the half dozen deer I've shot with the 60. I've also never recovered a 55gr, simply because they are usually in the intestine area after partially penetrating the chest cavity on raking shots.

The single 60gr bullet was recovered because the deer was at an angle and the range was close, so penetration was indeed limited to ~18" of deer. Impact was to right front shoulder and bullet was under hide in front of the opposite ham.. pass through torso shot taking out lungs, liver and left kidney. Not to mention passing through stomach and intestines. Recovered bullet weighs 38.5gr and resides on my reloading scale shelf along with a number of other recovered bullets. Bullet was in a nice mushroom "ball".
It was fired from a 16.5" AR loaded over 26.0gr of RL15 for ~2,900fps m/v.

As I've often posted on THR, with a .22cf, use a Soft Point of 55gr or heavier and place the shot well, and you'll ususally be cutting/eating venision for a while....

The Hornady's are some of my favorite. I do however, prefer the Sierra 63gr Semi-pt and 65gr GameKing. Never recovered either one from the 2+ dozen deer I've shot with them.
But then again, I've killed even more with a .22Hornet and 45gr Spt's well placed !
I would love to have a video of the evening I knocked down 4 deer in 10 seconds with 4-shots from my Ruger M77/22Hornet. The deer couldn't figure out where I was and instead of running from field away from me, were running towards me! First shot was at ~110yds on largest doe. Last shot was at 15yds, all were head shots/neck-spine.
But, shooting from prone with a bi-pod w/heavy bbl w/4.5-14x scope, it was easy.

Hardest thing about that hunt was finding the tiny brass in the tall grass. Had to use a metal detector the next day to recover 2 of the 4.

Load? Sierra 40gr "Varminter" HP. Over 12.8gr of Hod. Lil'Gun seated to 1.780"oal (feeds through magazine). The reason for grousing over the brass it that it's from a box of 20rds of Sellier-Bellot that I've neck-turned and has very, very small flash holes. Using Federal small-pistol primers the loads from that brass will shoot 1/2" 5-shot groups from my rifle. Nothing else comes close !!!

 

[chopinbloc]

I like that 65 gr SGK too. It's very accurate from my rifles and has good terminal performance. I'm working on loading enough of it to replace my PPU 75 gr BTHP as my go to stuff hits the fan and home defense load. One advantage of it is that the flight is very similar to M855.

 

[d2wing]

Thanks for the report.

 

[scottbird]

and they say that won't kill a deer!

 

[chopinbloc]

I'm not much of a hunter but I think the concern is that light .223 might not be enough to reach vital organs and make a clean kill if the hunter has to take a quartering shot.