Slugs — Testing How Much They Expand and How Far They Penetrate

[JungleShooter]

Projectile Tests. PT021. Donnie Reed (Baker Airguns) (2020).
-Ballistic Gel.- 46-52FPE.
H&N 23 @990fps + JSB 25 962 + NSA 23 974 + FX 22 974

Video: LINK (just add www. to the front of this):
youtube.com/watch?v=9vlQuaAFBIo
Text: LINK: https://www.bakerairguns.com/general...gs-first-look/

[JungleShooter]

Projectile Tests. PT028. Steve Scialli (AEAC) (2020).
-Ballistic Gel Calibrated.- 16-26FPE.
H&N 27 @658fps + J Dm 763 + NSA 20 737 + Hades 667

LINK (just add www. to the front of this):
youtube.com/watch?v=sRyg8kIL-ys

[angrybear]

Well I've had a play with .25cal FX hybrid slugs along with Hades & Predator hollow point pellets and had very little expansion (42ftlb)

These tests, both US & UK are being done at close range, which is utterly pointless

What does it matter if a pellet/slug expands when shot in to a bucket of water from 6" away if I could sneak up to within 6" of a rabbit I wouldn't need to shoot it I could club it to death

Show me the expansion at 50+yds (including going through the fur & skin) when 2/3 of that muzzle energy has been expended & it will be of some relevance.

[Antoni]

... utterly pointless...

From getting up early and seeing these posts I wondered how they would be received - or even deleted.

It's pure data.

Data is good.

[JungleShooter]

angrybear,

I agree, many tests are being done under the most favorable conditions, that are totally unrealistic to normal hunting.

For that reason I took the time to calculate both the velocity at impact (and the kinetic energy at impact), so that we can compare apples with apples....
And that shooters can make a simple ballistic calculation how far their particular rig can be from the quarry and still deliver that velocity that has shown satisfactory expansion.


One of the big advantages of slugs for hunting is that they loose much less energy/ velocity than pellets – because of their higher BC.
I was surprised when I tried to calculate how much muzzle velocity I needed to make a hollow point pellet hit quarry with at least 800fps at 40 yards. IT CAN'T BE DONE (without shooting them supersonic/ transonic, where accuracy goes down the gutter).
Because the pellet looses so much velocity, that even shooting it at the upper velocity limit for pellets, say 950fps, will get me to 30 yards but not 40y: The H&N Baracuda Hunter Extreme (18.52gr), with a for hollow point pellets very high BC of 0.026), shot at 950fps MV, will arrive at 30y with 800fps. And much less than that at 40y: 770fps | at 50y: 730fps | at 60y: 700

Now compare that to a slug with a BC of 0.060 (very conservative!). Shot at 950fps, it will at 30y still have 880fps | at 40y: 860fps | at 50y: 840 | at 60y: 820


Great times to be an airgunner (and get a FAC license*).


Matthias


*Or you could do as I did -- move away from a country with excessively strict gun laws -- like Germany's 6FPE (7.5J) airgun power limit -- and move to a country where the sky is the limit of the legal airgun power -- like Peru....