Quote Originally Posted by lensman57 View Post
I tend to agree with you. I too spend much more time " testing" my gear than I really should. Anyway a couple of months ago I did a reasonably accurate test of the ft.lbs required to properly mushroom the better .177 hollow points . Predator polymag, Crosman Destroyer and Barracuda Hunter and Hunter Extreme. The lightest pellet was the Crosman Destroyer and surpisingly accurate in my Hw 100. I crancked the gun up from its target point of 10.8 ft.lbs to a full 11.6 ft.lbs with JSB 8.44s. This is right on the legal limit with JSB Heavies with my gun.
I did quite a bit of testing in different materials including water and my very unscientifc conclusion is that almost all of those pellets properly mushroomed as intended given an impact energy of around 10.00 ft.lbs. any reduction from this figure and the mushrooming effect quickly dissapeares.
The pellets I tested returned an ME of around 11.2~11.4 ft.lbs depending.
Now I said Impact energy not muzzle energy. To achieve 10. ft.lbs from a rifle of 11.6ft.lbs of ME the range has to be around 8~12 yards max. Within this short range with those pellets and a gun set up for hunting and not the usual 10. something ft.lbs target nonesense, the hollow points are deadly. But TBH if these were to be used at anything like the typical 25~35 yards range then much more muzzle energy is required, atleast 20 ft.lbs. The 12 ft.lbs limit just does not hack it.
At longer ranges it is best to stick to a decent diabolo design pellet or the heavier quasi bullet JSB Heavies.

A.G
Well said that man!

I did my testing for a range of 35yds which worked out in the 7-8ftlb range, as you say testing at 11.5ftlbs is pointless, you don't stick the barrel in a rabbits ear!