Woodleight Bullets?

KnotRight

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While on the 45-70 forum someone was talking about the Woodleight Hydrostatically Stabilized Solid Bullet (that is a mouth full) and how it penetrated. It appears to be used on dangerous game. Not much of that around Savannah but was thinking about buying a box to reload. A little bit expensive, $1.80 per bullet in the 45-70.
Has anybody played around with this bullet?
 
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Designed for 45/70.....................

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The Woodleigh Hydro's are designed as a "Cup Point" type solid, not a true deep diving penetration solid like the Cutting Edge and North Fork's you see above. A Cup Point solid has a slightly dished out Meplat, this produces a larger surface area that comes in contact with the Terminal medium. This larger surface area fools the Terminal Medium into believing it is actually a larger diameter than it really is. It causes more tissue damage than a Flat Nose solid, but because of the larger surface area in contact with the Terminal Medium it does not, will not penetrate as DEEP as a real solid. As you see in the direct comparisons above.

It is BETWEEN a Real Solid for deep penetration and a Trauma inflicting bullet, such as a Raptor or Conventional Soft point. North Fork first produced the CPS, Cup Point Solids many years ago, long before Woodleigh.
You can see the dished out meplat............. The top two have been fired and recovered, the bottom one is unfired......... The Woodleigh is nearly the same as this, very slight disruption in Terminal Medium, including Animal Tissue.

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North Fork designed a couple of "Expanding CPS" bullets for the 45/70s, and they are extremely impressive, so much so that John, one of the owners of North Fork, and I designed several of these Expanding CPS for the B&M Cartridges in .500 caliber, that actually expand..........

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The Woodleighs do a very good job and are good options where you want more penetration than a standard Expanding or Trauma Inflicting bullet. But they are not true solids when it comes to "Deep Penetration" as you can see in the tests done above.

They are not as good as a Deep Diving Solid, and they don't produce as much trauma as a Conventional Premium Expanding bullet, or Non Conventional Raptor...... Kinda neither here nor there, but in Between.
 
The Woodleigh Hydro, North Fork CPS, and any other Cup Point type solid is best used for buffalo or heavy bovine where deep penetration is desired for that first shot. Normal load out for buffalo is a trauma inflicting bullet for the first shot, followed by Solids. In the case of Cup Point type projectiles one could use only those, but like most things, its still a compromise, you don't get as much tissue destruction as you would with a typical Conventional Soft, or Raptor type, and you don't get as much penetration as a normal properly designed solid.

I know of guys that have used the Woodleighs and North Fork CPS on elephants, body shots are fine, broadside heart/shoulder only, but some have used them for head shots. They did well, made it to the brain, and produced good trauma, however depth of penetration was short. Recovering the bullet in the head. These are not good for that application in my opinion especially from odd angles, or from the frontal which can be very tricky. I much rather have a properly designed solid and its extreme penetration for elephant.
 
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