Refreshing backstop

[volshooter]

Our range, private, need refreshing. The 4x8 3/4 inch plywood as well as a dozen of the railroad ties behind them. I was really looking forward to this as I have studied spent rounds for 40 years.
Railroad ties cannot be compaired to ballistic gel or meat, but the found rounds were interesting.
I collected a hundred or 4 spent rounds.
FMJ rounds were ignored.
HP hand gun bullets failed big time, zero expansion.
Federal premium mushroomed perfectly, as well as Barnes X. Large caliber above .30 showed a lot of differences. Mostly jacket separation on SP and HP's, failures from Hornady and Speer and the like. Larger calibers, 35 and up, were all factory and performed well. This range is used up to .500 nitro.
I found it very interesting just how pitiful handgun projectiles performed. My hard cast "lipstick" .45acp were not damaged as well as the Golden saber defense round.
I have watched many a video on how handgun projectiles are susposed to react on soft tissue.
Having a good time going through the spent rounds. I'm just gonna stick with ball ammo.

 

[contender]

I too get to pick up a lot of spent bullets at my range. Like you,,,, I have seen many bullets that have little damage & didn't expand.
However,,, as you have noted,,, wood, crossties etc are not actual flesh etc. I have also killed a lot of critters,,, and terminal performance can be a tricky subject.
It all depends upon what you desire to use a bullet for.
Plinking? Many will suffice.
Competition? Test & find the most accurate.
Self defense? Do some serious testing & studying.
Hunting? Pick a bullet that will give a good wound channel,,, and allow fast blood loss.
Heavy critter self defense? Deep penetration that destroys w/o coming apart.

My observations are that no one bullet can do it all. Luckily,,,, we live in an age where we have many choices. That said,,, I have been using a lot of cast & pced bullets as my overall plinking, competition, & hunting bullets. Often,,, a bullet can perform more than one function quite well.

 

[pruger45]

I harvest spent projectiles too! I re-melt them and pour them into ingots marked with an "R" for re-cycled!