by Lorgar » 09 Dec 2013, 9:11 am
As I suspect we have all experienced, there are those at gun stores who are quick to talk something down or give it a poor wrap based on their own bias rather than experience.
I've been going through a few projectiles for my .243 (which is the girlfriends rifle really) to find at accurate load and found a great one, despite the panning that the guy at my LGS gave it. I'm really sharing this as a reminder for those new to reloading that things are often worth a go, despite some know-it-all putting it down.
Anyway, to the point...
I've gone through a few of the 'regular' go-to bullets for my .243 such as Nosler Ballistic Tip, Sierra Game kings and a few others in the 70-95gr weight range.
At the time I got around to the Hornady 87 gr V-MAX the buy behind the counter didn't have anything positive to say about them. He said accuracy was ok, that penetration wasn't great so it was only good for smaller varmints, and weight retention wasn't good, they fragment, not suitable for game at all, blah blah blah. Anyway, in the end I took them anyway and gave them a go.
To sum up...
They cloverleaf at 100 which is the best result I got from 4-5 different bullets tested.
In terms of penetration/weight retention etc. and all the other performance 'issues' the guys was bagging out... Yesterday I put up a 7mm steel plate from bunning's at 100m and put half a dozen rounds into it. All went clean through, and I even managed to find a pair of lumped bullets in the dirt behind the targets which were still mostly intact.
So obviously they have accuracy, penetration and weight retention aplenty, and will obviously work well for much more than "smaller varmints" like the LGS guy stated. My girlfriend now has her hunting round sorted.
So there you go. Hopefully this helps a few of the newbies... Always worth trying things yourself.