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457 round ball performance

Just thought I'd share my test on a horse jaw bone. (This doen't mean I think it is a fine hunting bullet for big game, but the results surprised me.)

That round ball is chrono'd at 1087fps. the round ball weight is 144gn. The bottle pressure was 3100psi. The tuning wheel was maxed out towards the butt stock.
I tested it on the thin part of the jaw first. It easily shot through both bones. Then I tested it on the mid section of the jaw bone where each bone is 1in thick. It made it through both bones completely, but looked as though it was running out of steam through the 2nd bone. This was a 50 yard impact
Horse Jaw Thin Exit.jpg
Thin Bones (I expected this round ball could do this)
Horse Jaw 1in thick per side.jpg
1 inch thick Bones (I did not expect this round ball could do this at under 1100fps and being light weight)

And here is the accuracy I'm getting off an unsteady rest at 50 yards with those Speer round balls (this was not benchrest steady, I was swaying with my aim and pulling the trigger at the right time). The first time I took this rifle out with the round balls, I was getting fliers all over the place, like 6 inch spread. I was using a bag under the forearm and a bag under the butt stock and the rifle and aim was benchrest solid. When I switched to just using a bag under the forearm and my should only holding the butt stock, the groups went to what is shown in the picture below, even though it was less steady than with 2 bags. I think having a bag under this texan butt stock cause the rifle to pull weird under recoil and causes bad accuracy. I suspect that because that buttstock has a flimsy metal plate, that that plate acts springy against the bag under recoil and pulls shots all over the place. I may try just removing that butt plate and using just the smooth air bottle rested on a bag and see what I can pull off. I also tried shooting at 100 yards and the round balls were starting to vere off coarse way more so I think these round balls have an accurate range of roughly 50-70 yards.
.457 round ball 50yrds 3000psi start.jpg


Horse Jaw Thin Entrance.jpg


Horse Jaw 1in thick per side.jpg