LEVERevolution?

[Kerz]

Hunting this weekend in KY. My brother uses a Win 94 30-30 and we loaded LEVERevolution 160 gr bullets. Load development this summer went well with 100 yd accuracy at 1.5 inches , with consistent velocities about 125 FPS less than factory. During the hunt he missed a deer at 75 yds. This was followed by another miss at 85 yds two days later but as luck would have it the deer turned and ran back toward him. The follow-up shot was 35 yds to the neck. The deer dropped but the entry wound was most suspicious, being somewhat elongated with hair blown away. No exit hole. All shots from a tree stand and the last shot was absolutely clear. He’ll be looking for the bullet when we skin it.
It gives the appearance of bullet explosion prior to the deer or in the case of the 35 yd shot, right at the deer. Anyone had similar experiences?

 

[callshot]

I imagine that at close range the bullet is still traveling faster and hits harder than a longer distance shot. What charge and powder did you use? Steve

 

[Kerz]

Steve
32 grs Varget. Plan to pull some bullets and confirm the charge. Our initial work found good grouping at 100 (~1.5 inch with 3 shots). In any case I really wouldn't expect bullet separation even if it was running over 2400 FPS. Field dressed the deer and only fragments found.
Vic

 

[anachronism]

I've been seeing reports like this on some other boards, regarding the Leverevolution bullets. They seem to be a bit frangible at closer ranges, but then again they are billed as a longer distance bullet, with reduced "drop", so this may be one of the tradeoffs.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

WOW, You would think the 30-30 being a short-range round that the bullet would work well from 25 yards to maybe 150 yards. I hope you find the problem. Max load for Varget and that bullet is 32.4gr according to the online data. http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp 8) 8)

...Jimbo

 

[sailorb]

Just a side note. I have used Hornady SSts and XTPs in my muzzleloader for a while. Lately, I have had very inconsistent results including one deer where it fragmented on impact and another where it didn't expand. The entrance and exit wounds were the same size. I think Hornady has a problem with consistent manufacturing. I use their bullets for target/varmit shooting, but not when the chips are down. Noslers fill the bill in my center fires and I use Barnes T-EZ in the muzzle loader.

 

[kelbro]

Interesting. I bought a box of those and some LVR powder just to see what all the fuss was about. After reading more than a few reports like this, I will probably stick with my #2 alloy 170gr bullets.

 

[Elad]

Maybe he hit it with the first round and you are seeing the exit wound? Just a thought.

 

[mike7mm08]

Welcome to the world of hornady bullets. Their SSTs XTPs and FTXs have a very thin jacket and our touted for their expansion abilities. At close ranges that expansion comes at the expense of pentration or in some cases total bullet failure. I have seen first hand failures of all these bullets and have heard of many others with the same problems. Seems as if Hornady did not balance all aspects of bullet design with these three bullets. All these bullets will perform poorly at close ranges and high impact velocities. Even at longrange there are much better choices.

Come on it is a 30/30 you don't need to shoot three hundred yards you want a bullet than can perform from the base of your tree to about two hundred yards. Any conventional cup and core type bullet will do that and has done that for the last 100 years.