How far out can I expect explosive bullet performance?

V

VaniB

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How many yards out is it that the energy drops off in say a 22-250 for example, and a small animal like a prarie dog just more or less gets pushed over to the side, but no longer does the spectacular red-mist or acrobatics?

What I'm really trying to do is use ballistic charts based on your experience to estimate the necessary energy or speed of a bullet out of my next long-range rifle that will deliver such performance.

I'm thinking that at 200 yards, a 22-250 sends a 55 grain Vmax to a prarie-dog with 981ft.Lbs energy and at 2,835fps delivering this kind of performance. (??) So then.....at 500 yards, will a 7mm mag sending a 120Vmax to a prarie dog at a heftier 1,265 ft.lbs, but at a slower 2,179fps deliver the same acrobatics?
 
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Higher velocity seems to produce more aeronautical experimentation by prairie dogs than high energy. Last week I was using a 6x47 (6mm-.222 Mag) with 58 gr V-Max's starting at ~3575 fps. At 200 yards Hornady's ballistic table show just over 1000 ft lb energy. The first part of June I shot some with a .222 Rem with 40 gr V-Max's starting at about the same velocity as the 6mm 58's. At about the same ranges the .222 seemed to produce more flights or no fewer at any rate. Got no explanations for that.

Prairie dogs are pretty small critters and even small ones when hit by the 58's from the 6x47 were just swept off the mound. A lot of energy is wasted on them, and using a (relatively) heavy bullet doesn't seem to me to show much of an advantage. I'd think that a 50 gr bullet starting faster would give better results than a 55 gr in your .22-250. I use a 50 gr V-Max in my .22 BR, and it produces about the same initial ballistics as the .22-250 with bullets up to 52/53 gr, and can't say that I'd consider a 55 gr.
 
As far as lethality, I try to stay above 400 foot pounds of energy on PDs. But as far as the acrobatics, that is hard to tell, it is so dependent on the shot placement. I hit a PD at 1,020 yards with an 87 grain V-Max leaving home at 3600 FPS, and it still knocked her over the hole and five feet back, but it went through both shoulders which gave a little more resistance than the abdomen. We found where the bullet struck the ground after exiting the PD, and we only found a small shard of jacket material in the bullet strike.

My brother has a 7MM STW that shoots 140 grain B-tips at 3500. We tried it once on a PD at 50 yards, and I wouldn't exactly call it acrobatics, more like an explosion, sending parts and pieces 30 feet in the air.

Out past 500 yards, I'd say you need a 6.5mm or above to get really significant acrobatics. Hope this helps.
 
Launching PD's

I don't think that it is the velocity as much as the construction of the bullet I shoot PD's with a 223AI using 40G vmax bullets and for the long shots I use a 25-06AI with a 100G SMK. I don't get the aeronautical experimentation with the 100g bullet that I do with the 40G. I think it is due to the thinner jacket and not the energy. I know SMK's are not hunting bullets.
 
I've already bought a 7mm Rem mag action that I was planning on using for a dual purpose informal long range target rifle (I don't formally compete), and a PD rifle. It will weigh at least about 14lbs and have a muzzle brake. It will launch the 120 Vmax pills at a muzzle velocity of 3,400 FPS.

The 120 vmax's drop, windage, and velocity numbers are all superior to a 22-250 at 250 yards and on out. And such bigger bullets like the 120 Vmax have superior BC's and also require bigger cases to deliver such high velocities. (ie; the small and efficient 6BR is a 600 yard cartridge but will not deliver "acrobatics" at long distance) But.... just because the 7mm has superior numbers to the 22-250 doesn't tell me if it still has what it takes for the acrobatics. (??)

A 55vmax .224 bullet with 3,600fps muzzle velocity out of a 22-250 is at 2,174fps and 577ft.lbs at 400 yards....

VS,
....a 7mm caliber 120Vmax at 3,400fps muzzle velocity is doing 2,399fps and 1,533ft/lbs of energy at 400 yards.
I would especially like to rely on the 120vmax at 600 yards (doing 1,973fps and 1,035 ft.lbs of energy at that distance).

I just don't know what ballistic numbers are necessary to cause explosive effects or 7' high back flips I want to see. If I'm just going to be knocking them over a little harder, then there's no sense in me going through all the trouble of using a large 7mm cartridge. All that extra powder and noise needs to pay off and deliver the desired effect.




EDIT: Stall you were posting as I was writing this; I really wonder what a 25-06 Vmax might have done at a long distance, because you are right that we really can't know with a match-king bullet. Sometimes even the thin jacket Amax will not expand as well as we would hope. (hence, why I'm eyeing the 120gr Vmax in the 7mm)
 
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With the 25 the 75 gr Vmax is the bullet.

It flys and slows down much less than most charts & programs predict.

With N 160/65 it can be made to go very fast.

The VV powders produce less barrel heat than most other powders.

Give it a try.
 
I whacked a coyote at about 250 yards with 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip out of my Parker Hale 7mm Mag. No expansion whatsoever. Exit hole was same size as entry hole. The animal never moved after being shot. Bullets are very accurate out of my rifle. I had them humming around 3300fps, but Nosler load data can crank them up to 3500fps with R22.

My .22-250 50gr Vmax loads are 3915fps and are very flat. According to the trajectory tables, the 120gr 7mm Ballistic Tip has roughly the same trajectory at 3500fps.

But you aren't going to empty prairie dog hole after prairier dog hole with a 7mm Mag.
 
ForneyRider said:
I whacked a coyote at about 250 yards with 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip out of my Parker Hale 7mm Mag. No expansion whatsoever. Exit hole was same size as entry hole. The animal never moved after being shot. Bullets are very accurate out of my rifle. I had them humming around 3300fps, but Nosler load data can crank them up to 3500fps with R22.
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Nosler uses the same jacket for their 7mm 120 gr BT as the 140 gr BT, the difference is they cut a touch off the nose to shorten it to proper lenght. This results in a very tough thick jacketed bullet, one that works well on deer/sheep sized game. I doubt a dog offers enough resistance at most ranges to open one properly from the majority of cartridges.
 
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