Hornady 55gr SP perfect mushroom

[swampratt]

Buddy shot his doe and the bullet hit the shoulder and went through the other shoulder and ended up just under the skin on the exit side.
This bullet fired from a 16" AR with 25gr H4895 No crimp CCI 450 primer deer was at 150 yards.
https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifle/22-cal-224-55-gr-sp#!/

 

[beastep]

Cool. I have a lot of those to load.

 

[swampratt]

I hope they work for you.
That 55 gr did shed some weight in it's travels it now weighs 37.2 gr.
That deer is all packaged up into breakfast sausage, Italian sausage and summer sausage.

 

[beastep]

Ill only use them for plinking and maybe coyotes. Ill never shoot another deer with a 223.

 

[swampratt]

This deer dressed out at 70 lbs and it pummeled both shoulders, left a lot of blood clotted meat damage.
I got one with the 30-06 with 155Amax through both shoulders one shoulder was completely ruined and the entrance shoulder was part salvageable. The 30-06 there was NO bullet parts found and it sprayed blood and hair on the exit side of the deer where it stood. It made it 25 yards before piling up.
I prefer to hit them in the neck with explosive acting bullets.. but knowing your limits on shot placement and sometimes you need to take the shoulder..or I like just hitting the crease behind the shoulder. Cant get all deer and all situations to cooperate sometimes.
The 55gr V-Max is much more explosive and you do not find anything but shrapnel in deer.
I will say every one I hit with the V-Max fell on the spot.
This tougher 55gr SP allowed the deer to make it 60 yards before piling up.
Some deer do not know when to die though.. This is the first we have killed with the SP 55 gr bullet.

I was told it is a tougher bullet and this one test may confirm that.. More testing will happen.

 

[beastep]

I agree with all the above. And yes, some animals just dont know they are supposed to die. Some pigs I have seen were completely ignorant to the fact.

 

[CGS1]

I have used the Hornady 223 vmax 55gr to deer hunt for years now. Always worked fine for me. Weapon/ Rock River Arms AR-15 16" barrel.
That is what I used on the deer in the picture.

 

[swampratt]

Very nice CGS1 looks like he took the medicine quite well

 

[dennishoddy]

Vmax bullets are designed to be used on varmints. There are better bullets in the Hornady line for deer sized animals.

“The industry's leading varmint bullet with polymer tip and streamlined design results in flat trajectories. The concentricity of the match grade AMP[emoji768] bullet jacket provides maximum accuracy at all ranges as well as explosive expansion, even at velocities as low as 1600 fps.”

https://www.hornady.com/bullets/v-max


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[swampratt]

I read that also about the Vmax but also read real world results from people using the bullet.
And talked to people that use both of the 55gr Hornadys to harvest many hogs. They love the bullet. they also went on to say the 168 gr .308 usually have to track the hog.
I then did a lot of testing including taking a bow/arrow harvested deer head and neck and shooting it too see what happens.
Looked like you took a 2" paddle bit and bored a raggedy hole through the neck.
That would put the smack down on something.

So then we shot coons and skunks and Opossums and seen what it did to them.
Then put the smack down on a few coyotes with the 55gr V-Max.
Finally we shot deer with it.
My loads are not super fast 3200 fps from a 22" barrel and 2800 max velocity from the AR15's with 1:7 twist 16" barrels.

Deer and hogs have not walked away from the V-Max impact for me yet..Shot placement and the fact that it penetrated about 2" and then began to come apart like a hand grenade.

The above 55gr SP that mushroomed i feel it needs to be more explosive.
But it did it's job.