Guns & Outdoors Forum

I may have posted something similar on the previous forum, but I do not recall off the top of my head. I wish I had pictures and recovered bullets to show, but I do not. Now that I have had a chance to see a different rifle in a different caliber perform with a FTX bullet, and I dont recall the previous conversations if there was a thread before, has anyone else here had any experiences with rifle caliber FTX bullets?

I used to use the 325gr FTX in my little .458 but after two rather unsatisfactory results in one weekend I stopped using those bullets. I had two shots at does at about a medium distance for the cartridge that were about as boradsided as you can ask for. Both times the bullet took a sharp turn and exited about half way back on the doe. Both does ran around 60 yards after being hit. I chalked the first one up to possible shooter error where maybe I didnt see a stick or twig in the shot path that upset the bullet even though it entered right where I was aiming. When the second one did the same thing on a shot that I know was 100% unobstructed by anything but air and maybe a couple bugs I figured it was a bullet issue. Obviously neither bullet was recovered since there was an obvious exit wound. The entrance wounds looked rather large and there was a lot of mess inside the chest cavity, along with stomach contents hanging out the exit on the second one. All three of us (my dad, a close family friend with many decades of hunting experience, and myself) were scratching our heads trying to figure out the sudden chance in bullet path inside the animal. I stopped using those bullets for hunting and switched to a Speer 350gr soft point. Those seem to track straight based on the two deer I have taken with them.

This deer season my dad finally had a chance to use his .430 on a deer. He was using the 265gr FTX. Where we nap in the woods you are really limited to about a 40-50 yard max distance. He shot his doe with an almost broadside shot and she took off running in my direction (we have a hill between us and do not take any shots in the general direction of eachother or any presumed hunter location we notice) but stumbled and dropped before entering one of the shooting windows I have. Again, an exit but the exit hole was not in line with the shot. Big mess in the chest cavity as expected. After we skinned the doe we noticed that the entrance hole was well above expected size and a lot of tissue damage. The exit hole was smaller than expected. When my dad started to cut the doe up he found the plastic tip from the bullet in the tissue outside of the rib cage on the entrance side. We suspect the front of the bullet did not stay together at impact.

We both find that these bullets shoot very well in our rifles, but just do not like the performance on game. What experiences have any of you guys had with FTX bullets in rifles? Is this maybe a common thing with these bullets? I know the .450 BM had an issue with the 250gr FTX when it first came out, but I assumed it was due to being constructed like a pistol bullet and just not staying together when impacting above pistol velocities. We were both running the bullets below max rated muzzle velocity per the Hornady load manual.

I have used them in.358 Winchester and they tracked straight but appeared to be somewhat soft and notable destructive.

I gotta ask, are you 100% sure the deer was completely broadside? No slight angle or bend in the deer’s body?

Bullets don’t always track straight after impact. In fact, most likely don’t. He’ll, look at slow motion he’ll tests and he’ll sucks for realism. Bone, changing density, bullet disruption, etc all tend to deviate bullets to varying degree.

Regardless, if you don’t like the results……..find something that gives you what you want. No sense in going out with something that doesn’t give you that warm/fuzzy feeling.

Not being a ****. But, life has enough stresses. A bullet doesn’t need to be one.

If you’re just in the mood for conversation, I have in total one experience with one caliber. And it was fine. So, aficionado…..I ain’t.

I used one in the .430 SJS.
Turns out Hornadys info on velocity limits were conflicting in different publications.

Turns out we drove it something like 600- 800 FPS faster than we were supposed to. Literal fist sized entrance wound.
So…can’t really blame a bullet we over sped.

I’m wondering if the OP broke the velocity threshold as well.

Just out of curiosity, at what speed are you launching these bullets at?

I have switched to the Speer 350gr in my little .458. It has not made any sudden sharp turns so far. I do not expect a perfectly straight path, but I do expect it to exit somewhat close to in line with the entrance. I can not say for certain that it was 100% broadside, but I can say that if you drew a straight line from entrance to exit it would have been at a decent enough angle that it would have been very obvious that it was not close to broadside.

I did not see my dads shot, so I can not say how broadsided it was or wasnt other than what he say. He will be switching to the 265gr InterLock as he has enough to satisfy his hunting needs for deer in the limited firearm zone.

I was driving the 325gr FTX at about 2150 fps and my dad was driving the 265gr FTX at just under 2200 fps. Both velocities are below the listed maximum muzzle velocity. Both are below max load velocities listed for those bullets in things like .450 Marlin and .444 Marlin. I will admit that I did not ask Hornady the rated impact velocities for these bullets.

This is mostly to see what experiences others have had with the FTX line. I should have probably chosen a different subject title.

I have switched to a bullet I am more comfortable with in the field. Group sizes average slightly bigger at 100 yards, but are still well within my acceptable group size for hunting. I dont think a deer is going to notice the difference between a 325gr at 2150 fps or a 350gr at 2100 fps. I could push the 350gr faster if I wanted to, but was about maxed out with the 325gr at about 2150 fps.

I use the FTX bullets in my 450Bushmaster upper. Never recovered a bullet, but they have all been 100% perfect performances with massive destruction and tracked straight through the animal. I think I have shot 3 deer with it. Two bang-flops and one that I had to track about 50 yards.

On the 1 deer I had to track, I did find.. just the tip… about 20 yards back from where the bullet exited the deer’s chest. Let me see if I can find the pic

Found it:

I've tried the 300gr FTX in my 50 Beowulf. Shot 1 deer with them, deer ran 50-60 yards. It was the first deer I'd ever had to track when hit with the "wulf
Everything shot with the 335gr Rainier plated HP had been a "bang flop" until that one. Only had one run since I went back to the rainiers, and that was a doe at ~150 yards. which is right at what I think the limit of the round is. She made it ~30 yards

Edited to add: I don't remember the exit being anything impressive, or "out of line". I was straight through and, IIRC the exit was <1", which is "tiny" compared to what the rainiers have done for me

On my dads doe the plastic tip didnt even make it into the chest cavity. We suspect the front of the bullet just flew apart just after it make it through the hide. That is about what the one he found looked like.

I have never tried any of the Rainer plated bullets in the little .458, although it seems they are out of business now. How well do those HPs seem to hold together? I gave up using SSTs for game when we kept finding lots of small pieces of jacket fairly shallow in the wound path and fairly long run offs with game.

The FTX bullets shoot really well, as do the SSTs, and I will probably continue to use them for practice loads. They do shoot to a slightly different point of impact than the Speer 350gr does, but close enough for practice use.