[gmor]

for bear defense or hunting is there any merit to go to a bullet heavier than 200gr? i'm thinking this may be the optimum weight for a .40 cal bullet. do you know of any penetration testing of various weight hard cast bullets? thanks

[marlinwalker]

I would second that the 200 gr bullet weight is the optimum bullet weight for the 10mm. Seems to me that going heavier has diminishing returns as the velocity starts dropping off steeply. And heavier bullets also tend to cause feeding problems in some guns because of their more square profile and large metplats.

I don't know of any penetration tests to back my opinion but it makes sense to me.

[sqlbullet]

I have a 205 grain RFN mold that drops from my alloy about 202-203 grains before lube. I cast from 96/3/1 alloy and water drop to get a hardness equal to linotype after six months of aging.

My starting loads with that bullet penetrated 11 milk jugs of water. I suspect no expansion as the exit hole in the last jug looked like a .400 hole. 11 jugs was all that would fit on the table, so I didn't recover the bullet, nor do I know how many more jugs it would have gone though. That is almost 6' of water and 22 layers of plastic.

I have never tested heavier bullets either, but that seems like pretty good penetration to me.