Tulammo and/or Herters hps

[thepenguinknight 0]

Are the HP bullets loaded in the herters or tulammo suitable for deer hunting? Different HP bullets are designed for different things, so i thought I'd ask the experts...

 

Thank in advance.

[draftpick 5]

Not sure with out setting up some kind of test fire in to some water or sand and finding the bullet and seeing how it expands. I know that Herters makes a 154gr Soft Point that would work.

[jrance@iacwds.com 716]

When hunting you are generally better off with soft point ammo IMO.

[pjj342 632]

Make sure SPs shoot well out of your rifle. I am one of the guys whos rifle shaves off a bit of the soft point. I have checked in the middle of quite a few mags and found shaved tips, and relating 7"groups at 100yds. With tula hps and my stockpile 8m3s Im getting around 3-4" groups at 100yds. I cant say that all hps will expand reliably in soft tissue. The regular 122, 123, 124 or 125hps will blow up a gallon jug like crazy, but I dont think that goes the same for animals, every time. If you are going to hunt with an hp, try to get a 124gr 8m3 bullet like wolf MC 124hps, or sapson 'brand' cartriges. But if your rifle doesnt like sps, any hp is better than fmj by far.

 

The 154gr sps drop like a stone after 150yds, although they hit like a ton of bricks. If you are going to use a sp, keep it in the 123-125 range, if you are going longer range. Close in, 154s are good, if your gun likes them.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Boomsick42

[hutchsaiga 93]

Make sure SPs shoot well out of your rifle. I am one of the guys whos rifle shaves off a bit of the soft point. I have checked in the middle of quite a few mags and found shaved tips, and relating 7"groups at 100yds. With tula hps and my stockpile 8m3s Im getting around 3-4" groups at 100yds. I cant say that all hps will expand reliably in soft tissue. The regular 122, 123, 124 or 125hps will blow up a gallon jug like crazy, but I dont think that goes the same for animals, every time. If you are going to hunt with an hp, try to get a 124gr 8m3 bullet like wolf MC 124hps, or sapson 'brand' cartriges. But if your rifle doesnt like sps, any hp is better than fmj by far.

 

The 154gr sps drop like a stone after 150yds, although they hit like a ton of bricks. If you are going to use a sp, keep it in the 123-125 range, if you are going longer range. Close in, 154s are good, if your gun likes them.

 

position and shape of the bullet guide Will effect wether it shaves SPs or not. Which is why I made my own. Bullet guide and tested it until SPs fed prefectly.

Is yours a flat trunnuion? I could see the flat ones Effecting the SPs more than the round

 

Also make sure you check you're zero if you deciede to use 154 SPs for hunting. It will vary greatly at 100yrds from your standard 122,123,124 gr loads

[pjj342 632]

Its a round dinzag one, pushed all the way to the back. When I opened the screw hole up and tried to push it forward, it didnt want to load fmjs as well, which is unacceptable. So I pushed it back and only shoot hps and the occasional fmj. Gave up on sps.

[BigChongus 765]

I've heard that the 154gr. SPs give the rear trunnnion a pounding.

[pjj342 632]

Right after I bought my saiga, and before having a bullet guide installed, I bought a couple hundred of the 154sp's. I thought the accuracy of the walmart tula fmjs was a good bit better, so I shot what I had left for fun. Cinder blocks, bricks, gallon jugs of water, and some cans of beans.

 

All got destroyed, and with much more violent effect than the lighter sps, and much much more than the fmjs(obviously). In hindsight, they seemed to give the sapson 8m3 a run for its money, just the way it blew the softer things up. But the 154s hammered the blocks and hard targets harder.

 

I've heard that the 154gr. SPs give the rear trunnnion a pounding.

It would definately depend on how the rifle is set up. Before my conversion, with factory internals, hell yes. After my conversion with my hammer set a bit higher, I couldnt tell the difference from any other load.

[thepenguinknight 0]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

After thinking about it, I guess the real question I needed to ask would be the following: Are the Herter's/Wolf/Tulammo/whatever hollow-point bullets (122-124gr) designed to expand?

 

OTM (open tip match) bullets in various calibers have a similar nose-cavity to the herter's/etc 7.62s, but are not designed to expand at all-- rather, they act very similarly to FMJ rounds, but with the advantage of greater long-range accuracy. Are The cheap ones from Cabelas/walmart of similar design, or is the HP cavity intended to be used as an expansion aid?

 

I read up a bit and see that the 124s are often 8m3 bullets... are the 8m3s designed to expand, or are they designed as described above? Seeing as one of their distinctive features is the cuts on the inside of the cavity, I imagine they do indeed expand by design-- but I'm not sure.

[hutchsaiga 93]

I find that they do fragment and explode soft targets pretty well. And would put them right between Fmj and 8m3 for reliable soft tissue damage.

You might occasionally get similar results to 8m3 and sometimes they won't fragment/expand at all and end up like fmjs. The big thing here is reliable and repeatable expansanion through a variety of targets. Which 8m3 will be your best bet for.

 

If you're familiar with 9mm rounds as well id put them in the Winchester white box 147hp range when 8m3 would be more like a gold dot or Winchester ranger/pdx1 in 124gr+p. (proven,relaible, expansion through most targets)

 

Eta: / thread

Edited March 1, 2012 by hutchsaiga

[thepenguinknight 0]

I find that they do fragment and explode soft targets pretty well. And would put them right between Fmj and 8m3 for reliable soft tissue damage.

You might occasionally get similar results to 8m3 and sometimes they won't fragment/expand at all and end up like fmjs. The big thing here is reliable and repeatable expansanion through a variety of targets. Which 8m3 will be your best bet for.

 

If you're familiar with 9mm rounds as well id put them in the Winchester white box 147hp range when 8m3 would be more like a gold dot or Winchester ranger/pdx1 in 124gr+p. (proven,relaible, expansion through most targets)

 

Eta: / thread

 

Gotcha. Good information, and pretty much answers my questions.

 

Here in MO, we are restricted to using "expanding-type bullets" for our deer hunting escapades. While I'm fairly convinced the 154gr SP will do just fine (at least till I pick up reloading for the caliber), I like to know what all my options are.

 

Thanks, all.