Copper mushroom

Mthuntinfool

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Thought some of you might like to see how a 139 grain Hornady GMX bullet out of a 7mm RM looks after recovery. One 456 yard shot on a cow elk, recovered on the off side under the hide.
93% weight retention weighed it at 129.5 grains after clean up
 

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Wow - I am surprised it lost that much mass, to be honest. Thanks for sharing - I haven't recovered any except for one I found digging in the dirt at my gun range.
 
I was too, but it went through both shoulders, so I was still impressed it held together as well as it did. I hardly ever recover the bullet, so I though it was interesting.
 
Ahh, the shoulders make sense now. Doesn't it feel nice not to worry about microfragments of lead with those kind of shots? A shot like that on a mule deer with my accubonds made me go to lead after I found a small piece of lead in the shoulder fragments.
 
Ahh, the shoulders make sense now. Doesn't it feel nice not to worry about microfragments of lead with those kind of shots? A shot like that on a mule deer with my accubonds made me go to lead after I found a small piece of lead in the shoulder fragments.

They are great bullets, as long as your rifle likes them. Like all copper stuff, some rifles are picky. It worked for you.

I have never gone back to all-copper, after I shot Barnes for a bit. One of my 7 mags liked them and one did not, so I went back to Nosler Partitions and Hornady Interlocks.

I have never worried about small pieces of lead in the meat. First off, you cut out most of the blood-shot meat where the fragments usually are. Secondly, I have never run into anyone in my many years of life/hunting that had any health issues with lead in meat. A lot of the worry about that is pure environmentalist bs.

Shoot lead, watch it die and the EAT IT, but if your rifle likes the copper, they work real well, too! Good job on the cow.
 
They are great bullets, as long as your rifle likes them. Like all copper stuff, some rifles are picky. It worked for you.

I have never gone back to all-copper, after I shot Barnes for a bit. One of my 7 mags liked them and one did not, so I went back to Nosler Partitions and Hornady Interlocks.

I have never worried about small pieces of lead in the meat. First off, you cut out most of the blood-shot meat where the fragments usually are. Secondly, I have never run into anyone in my many years of life/hunting that had any health issues with lead in meat. A lot of the worry about that is pure environmentalist bs.

Shoot lead, watch it die and the EAT IT, but if your rifle likes the copper, they work real well, too! Good job on the cow.


I'm with you on the lead deal SB. I think its a bunch of BS.

Great looking slug, good to know they hold up like a copper bullet should.
 
My main thing with lead is the fact I like to feed my kids the meat I harvest. In general, approximately 30-50-70%% of lead ingested by children is absorbed, compared with approximately 10% of that ingested by adults, depending on your source.

Not trying to make this into a lead vs. copper argument but I limit my exposure to lead at any chance I get. Be that in wearing gloves when I paint or washing my hands after loading a mag.
 
Thanks for posting, that pic is worth 1K words. I have had several mushroomed partitions stop under the offside hide of elk. That hide is tough and elastic.
 
That one looks good. I think the GMX doesn't open up quite as much as the Barnes bullets do in my experience.
 
thanks for the comments. This was my first time using this bullet on an animal, I was impressed with the accuracy so I am glad it performed well. I usually shoot Hornady interlocks, but tried the GMX on a suggestion. I was excited to recover the bullet, and see how it held up.
 
thanks for the comments. This was my first time using this bullet on an animal, I was impressed with the accuracy so I am glad it performed well. I usually shoot Hornady interlocks, but tried the GMX on a suggestion. I was excited to recover the bullet, and see how it held up.

I have always like the 139 Interlocks for deer/antelope, loaded to 3100 fps in a 7mag, but I have never shot the GMX. I am glad that bullet works well for you. An elk at that range, was a good trial for the bullet.
 
I like the copper bullets. Here are a couple that I've recovered.

09406f8a.jpg


E-Tips.
 
.30 Cal 180 grain Nosler E-Tip.

296 yards, recovered between ribs and hide on opposite side of an 8 year old cow.



 
Thought some of you might like to see how a 139 grain Hornady GMX bullet out of a 7mm RM looks after recovery. One 456 yard shot on a cow elk, recovered on the off side under the hide.
93% weight retention weighed it at 129.5 grains after clean up

Thanks for posting the pics. Any idea what the velocity was at 450 yards when it hit the cow?
 
Way back 2004 when I first started using Barnes TSX I recovered my first same kind of story 6X6 bull slightly quartering away 250 yards found opposite side under skin. I didn't weigh the bullet before hand but it was suppose to be 168 grain and recover bullet was 167. Out of a 300 WSM. I have used them every since and they have worked very well in every cartridge I have shot.

Not everybody is a fan of monos which is fine by me, I have yet to be proven wrong by them.168tsx.jpg
 
Please correct me if I am wrong, but are you supposed to use a lighter weight copper bullet than you would with a lead bullet to get the velocity higher? I seem to think that I heard that someplace.
 
Way back when I used the original X bullets in my 7 mag, I recovered two of them from an Oryx on White Sands Missile Range. They both retained 95+ percent weight.
 

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