I shopot both the Sierra and Speer bullets and the only gun that liked one more than the other is my 358. The sierra bullets out perform the Speer bullets by quite a ways in accuracy. In all my other guns there isn't enough difference that I could point to an expanded bullet and tell you who made it. On a target the group sizes are so close that I couldn't tell which bullet was used without looking at the load data on the target.

Report back on Hornady .222 HP Bee subsonic rounds with hollow-point deepened.
Drilled a 3.5mm deep hole in the hollow-point end of the projectile considerably deepening the hollow-point and fired with 3.5 grains Trailboss. These projectiles were fired into non-steel belted old car tyres at a range of 55m. The projectile invariably penetrated one side of the tyre and was caught in the inside of the tyre. The drilled projectiles opened up nicely to at least 2x diameter which is significantly more than the non-drilled projectiles. Accuracy at 55m was just under one inch and drilling does not appear to have significantly impacted accuracy.

Waimabana, this is good news and should make your subsonic rounds more lethal. You'll have to update us on your first hunting/harvest.

Just remembered, I have heard some folks load bullets tail first so they transfer more energy on impact (like a hammer).

Also, I have found that, just removing the ballistic tips, will result in significantly more expansion than when it is left installed. Might save some time and effort.

I have a couple of questions about the use of this modified projectile.
A rubber tire is considerably more dense and resilient than skin and soft tissue. Have you considered testing it in water?
The sidewall of the tire is less than a quarter of an inch thick and there is air beyond that and then the other side of the tire. Did the bullet expand while penetrating the first sidewall or did it flatten out on the opposite sidewall?
Will it expand in a similar fashion in soft tissue and small bones or will it just pencil through?

A water test will answer these questions but so would firing it at small game. I am interested in knowing how it performs on its intended targets.

How much weight did the 3.5 mm hole remove and what was the beginning weight? I deepened the hollow point on some 125 grain 35caliber bullets for my 357 years ago, put in a grain of HP38 and a small pistol primer to seal the powder in. The primer was seated cup out and it ignited the powder on impact with anything harder than card stock. The bullets weighed 115 grains and were fired at 1500 fps from a 38 special case using 14.5 grains of H110. They were tested as an ignition source and for their explosive function. My test showed some possible uses as an ignition source in fuel tanks that had air above the gas and the bullet made a deeper cavity in concrete than a 158 grain 357 magnum factory load. I decided it wasn't worth the work unless there was a need to detonate the fumes in a gas tank or you needed to cause more damage in soft tissue than you could get with a standard hollow point round. They were an answer to a need that is not there.
I hope your experiment turns out better.

Waimahana wrote:

...Drilled a 3.5mm deep hole in the hollow-point end of the projectile considerably deepening the hollow-point and fired with 3.5 grains Trailboss. These projectiles were fired into non-steel belted old car tyres at a range of 55m. The projectile invariably penetrated one side of the tyre and was caught in the inside of the tyre.

Gidday mate. There is no real shortage of them pesky Aussie immigrants...possums...in your neck of the woods. I reckon they would be a very good test medium for your modified boollits. It would be very interesting to see how they perform mate.

4.5grns trail boss under a 60 GRN Hornady go phiit. Can hear hammer drop and projectiles hitting thirty yards away. Might as well spear animal with bit of #8 wire for the lack of damage....

And that was a possum they zipped through lol.

Elvis wrote:

And that was a possum they zipped through lol.

I suppose really that a possum is a small and rather soft critter mate, so it doesn’t surprise me that the bullet beetled on straight through.

Another bullet you could think about is the SPEER Varmint hollow point. A .22 55gr TNT HP is allegedly very ‘explosive’ on impact. The have the same for .30 calibre in 125gr TNT HP.

I’m seriously considering them for rabbits in my .223 Savage.

Yes that's an option BUT because they only dawdling along there is not enough zip to open them up.... I love the Speer 52 GRN HP's at full noise.have used 125 GRN TNT in .308 on wallabies,very explody indeed. It's not a deal breaker as these are shits n giggles loads. Even the 22 magnum 40 GRN projectiles won't open at subsonic speed.....now some pure lead cast ones would lol

Elvis wrote:

Yes that's an option BUT because they only dawdling along there is not enough zip to open them up.... I love the Speer 52 GRN HP's at full noise.have used 125 GRN TNT in .308 on wallabies,very explody indeed. It's not a deal breaker as these are shits n giggles loads. Even the 22 magnum 40 GRN projectiles won't open at subsonic speed.....now some pure lead cast ones would

Yep, cast lead boollitts, cast to a maximum of 16 BRN and shot at subsonic velocities, using Trail Boss loads, would give good accuracy and would expand nicely.

IMHO for hunting with cast bullets you better take soft lead (as for muzzle loaders) and powdercoat them to avoid leading in the barrel.

And then read and learn from Mr. Lee's Reloading Manual on how to calculate reduced loads and which powder he recommends... Mr. Lee even gives you the formula to calculate the velocity of the load you chose.

And did I already mention that powdercoating gives you a complete new view on reloading lead bullets?

And when you're not allowed to use the oven for powdercoating and you cannot find a decent oven in garage sales: try Lee's ALOX...

And yes, I have the utmost respect for what Mr. Lee is trying to teach us reloaders! He lets me try things that seems rather risky, but I still have both my eyes working OK (when using glasses) and even still have all my fingers in usable condition

Aloysius wrote:

IMHO for hunting with cast bullets you better take soft lead (as for muzzle loaders) and powdercoat them to avoid leading in the barrel. And then read and learn from Mr. Lee's Reloading Manual on how to calculate reduced loads and which powder he recommends... Mr. Lee even gives you the formula to calculate the velocity of the load you chose. And did I already mention that powdercoating gives you a complete new view on reloading lead bullets? And when you're not allowed to use the oven for powdercoating and you cannot find a decent oven in garage sales: try Lee's ALOX... And yes, I have the utmost respect for what Mr. Lee is trying to teach us reloaders! He lets me try things that seems rather risky, but I still have both my eyes working OK (when using glasses) and even still have all my fingers in usable condition

Agree 1000% Aloys. I have a copy of LEE’s book and it’s amazing the information available to calculate and produce reduced loads in most calibres. My mate and I played with this some years ago and we produced accurate subsonic loads for the .223, .243, 30.30, 308, and 8mm Mauser. Damned if I know where I recorded the data now otherwise I’d put it up here.

LEE’s book is readily available and well worth adding to your reloading library. The information he provides is amazing, making it reasonably easy for pretty much anybody to produce accurate subsonic loads. It even goes into cast bullet hardness and helps a reloader decide on the BRN hardness of his bullets for accuracy and reduced leading. Only problem there is you need a hardness tester to ascertain the hardness of your bullets.

Powder coating cast bullets is fiddly, and SWMBO gets real snarly if you use her oven, but as you say, a small toaster oven solves that problem. Having said that, there is no argument that powder coating is a good way to reduce the leading that soft cast bullets are renowned for producing.

You can test hardness of lead by using simple store bought pencils. Agree the softer the better. Mate makes me some 212 GRN powder coated jobbies for 44 magnum.i run them at nearly full noise and terminal results are simply awesome. They flatten out to look like a coin!!! Certainly flattens animals too.i like them too much to down load them. Piggy Viagra we call them.little blue pills that makem go all stiff...

Elvis wrote:

You can test hardness of lead by using simple store bought pencils. Agree the softer the better. Mate makes me some 212 GRN powder coated jobbies for 44 magnum.i run them at nearly full noise and terminal results are simply awesome. They flatten out to look like a coin!!! Certainly flattens animals too.i like them too much to down load them. Piggy Viagra we call them.little blue pills that makem go all stiff...