My neighbour who agreed to do a comparison between the HMR and WSM in exchange for a dozen beers finally turned up this afternoon.
With a .223
He’s just bought it and some Buffalo River 55gn sp and decided he’d rather test that out instead.
Diplomatically resisting the urge to stab him, I explained that I’d already done that test and it wasn’t worth spending half a day remelting, pouring etc to repeat it.
He wasn’t particularly impressed but was somewhat mollified when I gave him his beers as a consolation prize.
The names REXEM and F Bomb are very apt because “Faark” was my first reaction.
It actually split the 30kg jelly block in two and made a devastating wound cavity, with the main body of the projectile travelling 36cm into the block.
These are also very accurate, without having to find a load, I just put them over the minimum load of 2206H at 23gn with CCI BR4 primers and got the satisfying group below at 100m. the flyer is no doubt my doing. Gotta love something that just works, no fuss or fiddling.
The block had dehydrated quite a bit during the wait for the rain to stop so I’m going to repeat the test with a fully hydrated block so that I can get some better pictures of the cavity.
My initial impression though is that I have a new favourite.
I had thought that the level of damage to the block was due to brittleness from dehydration.
As my late Mum used to say “I’m not often right, but I was wrong this time”.
It didn’t just split the block this time, it destroyed it.
I saw a plume of steam/smoke pour out of the entrance wound immediately after the hit, I would truly swap one of my plums to have had a super fast camera on it to have seen the results in slowmo.
Normally I slip the mold back over the block to stabilise it to avoid doing extraneous damage while handling it.
Not this time.
The pics say more than I could.
These projectiles are devastating.
The giant wound cavity is the pale, disrupted area and extended from 20mm in to about 15cm and turned the jelly in that region into a fair approximate of lumpy snot.
First 200m test today, again the remarkable REXEM F-Bomb 62gn.
After totally destroying the block in the last test I wrapped it with about half a roll of cling wrap and thankfully it stayed in one piece.
These miniature artillery shells still delivered an incredible hit, creating a massive permanent wound cavity, and despite a steady ~20kph 90 degree crosswind, only drifted about 3/4" from the aim point.
Back when I used a .222 all the time I used to run 55gr ballistic tips. They were a bit longer than standard spitzer-boat tails, but they worked extremely well on culling hoppers, goats and also took down a lot of pigs. Rabbits could be skinned, gutted and de-boned in the one shot. Blokes used to tell me to use lighter bullets and drive them faster but I found the longer, heavier pills worked better. They extra weight and sectional density is what does the job in flesh and bone in my experience. Those F-bombs certainly look the goods.
Faceplant being what it is and me not being a member, I don’t know if this link will lead to the right video.
If not, search rexem and look for a video dated 6/September and with this as the picture of the first frame
I emailed him, asked about availability of the 6.5mm stuff he’s doing and he just said “soon” and told me to keep an eye on Facetard, yeah well, that 'aint gunna happen.
His stuff certainly looks the goods and I’ll support an Aussie business over an overseas one every time I can. He mentioned that he might do some posting on here, I reckon he’d be more than welcome.
