#monolithicbullet

I get e-mails all the time about bullet performance in regards to everything from bullet sizing, to ballistic coefficients, and bullet expansion. I try to answer everything to the best of my ability based on either actual testing or my best educated guess (which I always say is a guess if I have to do it). I test, if possible, to solve the inquiries if I have not done so already but there is a finite amount of time I have available to me. Luckily, inquiring minds also want to know and are willing to share their findings. Dave in Iowa sent me the results of his penetration test using Kinetic Performance LLC 302gn BOMB and 300gn M-BOMB so guys could see what they look like after impact. 

The bullets were launched by 78gn of BH209 from a CVA Optima. With his chronograph twelve yards from the muzzle (to protect it from sabot strikes) it registered right at 1900fps. A little backward math means the muzzle velocity is in the neighborhood of 1924fps which is representative of what you can expect these guns to do from any modern substitute blackpowder. That velocity would be representative of factory Savage ML-II with an MV of 2400fps shooting between  200 and 300 yards or a .45 SML with an MV of 2800fps shooting between 350 and 450 yards.

CVA Optima, 78 gr by weight of BH 209 302 gr BOMB with MMP orange 458 sabot shot from Caldwell Magnum Fieldpod:

The jugs were filled with water and placed at 100yds with a 2x6 board as a backstop in case the bullets passed through the jugs.

The jacket from the 302gn BOMB was recovered in the 2nd and 3rd jug (which is where the core separated and is twice the thickness of a deer's thoracic cavity) and the core passed through all jugs and the 2" thick wood backer but was not recovered. That means that the 213gn core just kept on going. The jacket also looks a lot like the only one recovered from a deer killed with the BOMB; all others have been complete pass throughs: 

Dave’s results pretty much mimic what we saw from Jeff Fisk last fall. As I mentioned above, this test is about what one could expect from a Savage ML-II or .45 sabotless gun using lots of BH209 and an MV of 2400fps would do at 200 to 300yds. Jeff shot this brute that field dressed at 231lbs through both shoulders at 236yds using a 302gn BOMB where impact velocity would have been about 1900fps:

Bullet entrance through shoulder blade:

Exit wound through off-side shoulder blade. Jacket caught under skin and separated hide from body all the way up the neck to the head. Bullet core exited the body and was not recovered as jug tested showed:

Jacket as recovered from buck:

The 300gn M-BOMB went through all jugs and the backer and the last time the spotter saw it was when it hit the 200yds berm. 

Unhappy with the fact that the BOMB’s core and the M-BOMB were not recovered Dave conducted the test again but added a high density plastic bale behind the board to catch the bullets as they passed through. 

This time the jacket passed through all jugs and stuck in the backer board. The core was found 4 inches into the bale. Total retained weight 278.7gn which is 92.3 percent of original weight;one ear of the pedal was broke off.

The second BOMB is shown with all pedals with the core with a total retained weight of 299.9gn or 99.3 percent of original weight. The pedals were found in jugs #3 and #4, and the core was 5 inches into the bale. 

Same set up as before, but was shooting the 300 gr M-BOMB with the MMP 458 sabots. One went thru 4 big jugs and 6.5 inches into the bale; the tip was the only thing missing, weight was 292.8gn for 96.9 percent. The next bullet opened up a little going thru 6 jugs and hitting at the base of the 2 x 6 and the backer board. 

Edit: 20 minutes after I posted this Dave killed a deer with the M-BOMB and e-mailed me the results.

Keith,  

Down by where I hunt, a farmer has a tree farm, and he gets special deer tags, so was able to do a hair test with the Optima, shooting the 300 gr Mono's 110 gr of BH 209, shooting out of a pop up blind, 83*. Saw the deer at 158 yards, watched it come thru the field and jump the fence onto our property, 132 yards, double lung ran 32 yards.Went to where I had shot him and found parts of the lungs 4 foot away from where I had hit him. The pictures are marked entrance 1 and 2, exit 1 and 2, and lungs. After we started to clean him up, took the pic of the lungs, there was nothing left of them. Then I noticed the size of the exit hole inside of chest cavity, looked like the bullet had tumbled, The bullet hole looks like it went thru the exit hole side ways.

Dave

Entrance 1

Entrance 2

Exit 1

Exit 2

Lungs

By late winter I had the concept in hand  (picture at top of page) and by early spring I had the first test batch in my possession for preliminary testing: 25 x boattail and 125 x flatbase. I kept the boattail and 25 of the flatbase, the rest were mailed out in 25 count boxes to testers who were experienced in shooting monolithics or who were experienced shooting sabotless with Blackhorn209. All were .458″ since all the testers primarily shoot Full-Form.

First run of the Monolithic B.O.M.B off the Swiss lathe:

The first thing I discovered was that these copper bullets were not the nightmare to size that I had heard from other shooters using other solid copper bullets. That meant the choice of copper already showed an advantage. On the flip side, I had to adjust my sizing die 8.75-ish notches tighter. The Hankins die does not have fine graduations like the Swinglock die so you have to estimate or scribe your die if you ever need something in between that you intend to reference again. The usual setting I use for the cup and core bullets was painted green so I knew where to return to. Without that sizing adjustment there was no prayer of those bullets going down the barrel. That is why you pull your plug and size bullets then test fit them at the house. If you don’t you get to the range and they might not load.

Flat Base and Boat-Tail versions of the Monolithic B.O.M.B. Full-Formed after test sizing:

Where I ran into an issue right up front was I had been shooting a bunch of IMR3031 along with jacketed bullets for the past year. I chose to clean the barrel prior to switching over to H4198 and the mono bullet. My test fit at the house was spot on for a clean barrel. After two foulers into the berm and a 3-shot group I found the next bullet had to be hammered down using a rubber mallet. I shot it and hammered down two more (seen below is the target with the first two groups shot with these bullets). If you reference the target it supports my claim that as seating pressure increases it is less controllable and precision suffers (not much in this case but happened nonetheless).

Boat-Tail at 100yds from my gun:

I jumped in the truck and sped away to the house where I again pulled the plug and tightened up the die until I had an appropriate fit for the dirty bore that allowed for one hand of seating pressure. I sized three more bullets, threw my charges, re-primed my modules and headed back to the range since I had an hour of light left. Since the M-BOMB had shot so well at 100yds I could not call it quits until I had shot them to 300yds. I got to the range with enough time to go paint a piece of steel and hammer out a group in the cold, windy evening as the light failed.

Boat-Tail at 300yds from my gun:

Having seen the night before that the boat-tail M-BOMB was stellar when Full-Formed I felt certain that the flat base would be too but Full-Forming the flat base had to wait. With a six week work trip coming up I had limited time so I decided to draw some down to .452″ and smooth size them since I hadn’t gotten .452″ bullets for testing. I chose the flat-base over the boat-tail because conventional wisdom is that you cannot shoot boat-tail bullets Smooth Form. Since I did not have a ton of the boat-tail nor did I have a surplus of time I took the safe bet. Maybe I’ll test that theory later.

I Smooth-Formed them and they tumbled when I shot them so I determined that as soft as these were compared to other copper bullets they were not soft enough for smooth form. It is possible also that running a .458 bullet through a .454 sizer, then a .452 sizer, and finally a Swinglock Smooth-Form die work hardened the bullet to a point where it was too hard for use as a land rider. I decided to anneal them and try again. Fifteen minutes on the electric stove, set to high, softened them up (but did not jettison the tip which annealing with a torch will do as one tester found out which supports the idea they work pneumatically) and quenching them in a cup of Apple Cider Vinegar cut the oxidation right off. Some guys do not bother cleaning them after annealing but I don’t like to put anything that looks like that through my dies or barrel. A quick spin in a piece of bronze wool and they looked brand new. Don’t worry, the .452 version will come pre-annealed using inert gas so you will have a soft and clean bullet for Smooth-Form without having to do any of the work.

A copper bullet will slightly shrink when you anneal it so it came out slightly undersized with my current setting on my Swinglock Smooth-Form die. I didn’t want to adjust the die since I only intended to Smooth Form a few so for the first (and probably only) time in my life I used a pair of files to knurl the annealed bullets up a touch in diameter until I had the proper fit. Some guys do this regularly and it works. I would caution  if you do this, ensure you use high quality files or you could end up with slivers of teeth from the file embedded in your bullets and that will ruin a barrel (happened to a couple of guys I know).

Flat-Base annealed, drawn down to .452, and shot Smooth-Form in my gun:

I Full-Form sized the remainder of the flat base bullets for testing precision and drops to confirm or deny what computer modeling had predicted for ballistic coefficient. They sat for the next eight weeks, unused while I was gone, and were shot when I got back. Apparently a copper bullet will spring back just a touch over time just like a cup and core bullet will. After two months they were just enough larger that they went from one hand loading to two hands. I recommend, regardless of bullet, that you size them only as you need them to fill your shooting needs. I did not bother resizing them because I could load them consistently enough to feel good about it and was getting pretty good precision.

Flat-Base at 100yds from my gun:

Flat-Base at 300yds from my gun:

My buddy Carlos did quite a bit of testing of the M-BOMB as well. Carlos is a long time SML shooter and does a lot of internet muzzle-loader business for Ed’s Gunshop in Vass, NC.  He used two separate rifles for the testing: one gun had a 1-18″ twist like my gun and the other gun was a 1-22″ which is more common for a .45 SML. In either case he met with great success using the M-BOMB and had results compiled for me as soon as I got home from my training.

Flat-Base at 100yds from Carlos’ Gun #1:

Flat Base at 100yds from Carlos’ Gun #2:

Flat Base at 300yds from Carlos’ gun:

With everything having panned out so far Carlos, Rob, and I hit the range to test some 415gn BOMB bullets and to test powder sensitivity with the new M-BOMB. The bore was freshly cleaned so Carlos shot a fouler then we started the test. Using 81gn, 85gn, and 90gn of IMR3031 with the M-BOMB showed very little change in the point of impact across the 150fps change suggesting that the bullet is fairly insensitive to changes in powder charges. This was mirrored in my gun also which showed very little POI shift between boat-tail and flat-base versions of the M-BOMB.

Powder Sensitivity Test:

Kinetic Performance, LLC is pleased to introduce a brand new copper monolithic bullet for the 2016 hunting season. Since I began making bullets about two years ago hunters have either hinted or directly asked for a copper bullet for hunting. Having invested in swaging equipment the only option would have been to use sintered copper. Having some knowledge of sintered bullets I decided they would be too frangible and would likely fail to meet the intent of a tougher hunting bullet that would not be as violent as a traditional cup and core. There was no real way to go about a solid copper bullet without a lathe.

Swiss lathes are the golden standard for turning bullets and I don’t have one in the garage so I had to find a capable and willing partner. I submitted design concepts to several companies before ever putting a test run of bullets together. One company said they would be happy to support my project but never responded beyond initial contact. Another couldn’t keep any information straight, were not timely, and were way too expensive. The third had a brilliant and enthusiastic engineer who fulfilled every promise he made and turned out a great product at a reasonable cost. Enter Peregrine.

Alliwyn Oberholster is the CEO and Technical Director at Peregrine Bullets in Pretoria, South Africa. The company roots stretch back to 1986 starting with a pact between two friends and culminated in the forming of Peregrine in 2009. This is a team of dedicated and brilliant engineers supported by guys with vast field experience in military and hunting backgrounds. We are excited to partner with them to bring you the best muzzle-loader monolithic in the world.

The M-BOMB should be posted in the web-store by mid August since we just wrapped up enough testing to say we are willing to put them into production. There will be several versions:

1. .458″/300gn Flat-Base

2. .458″/300gn Boat-Tail

3. .452″/300gn Flat-Base

4. .452/300gn Boat-Tail

One of the neat options too with this bullet is it can be turned as  a solid with no tip. I tested some made this way and they shoot just like the tipped version. The benefit is they cost less but act identically so you have a viable and more economical practice bullet. I won’t have any of these up front but will put a poll up on a couple of forums and Facebook to gauge interest.