Maker Rex

[SkullyDogPDW]

Anyone else have good results with the maker REX bullet for hunting Whitetail? This was a 300 Blackout subsonic at about 1000 FPS… Range was about 50 yards. It went all the way through and stopped just under the hide on the other side.

 

[6.5 forever]

Looks like the job was complete?

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

used them for several whitetail.

 

[kelbro]

Anyone else have good results with the maker REX bullet for hunting Whitetail? This was a 300 Blackout subsonic at about 1000 FPS… Range was about 50 yards. It went all the way through and stopped just under the hide on the other side.

Looks good.

What size bullet?

Which powder?

 

[SkullyDogPDW]

Looks like the job was complete?

Yes, it was a clean kill. Only ran about 20 yards.

 

[SkullyDogPDW]

Looks good.

What size bullet?

Which powder?

N110 and a 200 grain.

 

[kelbro]

Thanks. I've looked at their 220.

 

[SkullyDogPDW]

Looks good.

What size bullet?

Which powder?

The final load was 8.9 Grains of N110, under a 200 grain REX. Final velocity was 1060. It is a little high for my tastes, but 8.8 would cycle but not reliably lock back. BTW, this is out of a Daniel Defense DDM4-PDW with a Scythe-Ti can....using the standard silver buffer spring.

 

[dellet]

The final load was 8.9 Grains of N110, under a 200 grain REX. Final velocity was 1060. It is a little high for my tastes, but 8.8 would cycle but not reliably lock back. BTW, this is out of a Daniel Defense DDM4-PDW with a Scythe-Ti can....using the standard silver buffer spring.

If you have room, set your COL a little bit longer, .010” will probably do it. The slight change in load density will drop velocity, and also increase muzzle pressure needed to cycle the action. The faster the powder, the more effect the slight changes make.

The 8.8 might work with the longer length, but I find it easier to find the charge weight that has full function , then fine tune the velocity with seated depth.

The flip side is a slightly faster bullet expands farther, sooner, so often does not penetrate as deep. The slightly slower bullet May exit. It’s a trade.

Paul puts a lot of effort into the expansion rate and velocity window where his bullets work. They all hold up well in fast for cartridge twists. Always like seeing when they worked for people.

 

[Olderthan dirt]

I am using the 338arc 300 gr setup. Earlier a friend and I were doing expansion tests with his 8.6 350gr and my 338. Above 1100 the petals come off. Sweet spot for max expansion seemed to be 930 fps. My 338 was going 1000fps and his 8.6 was only 930. My 338 load would go 300 yards before dropping down to 930 fps. So, we both settled on 930 at the muzzle to get max expansion close up. Not going to be getting 300 yard shots around here.

 

[dellet]

I am using the 338arc 300 gr setup. Earlier a friend and I were doing expansion tests with his 8.6 350gr and my 338. Above 1100 the petals come off. Sweet spot for max expansion seemed to be 930 fps. My 338 was going 1000fps and his 8.6 was only 930. My 338 load would go 300 yards before dropping down to 930 fps. So, we both settled on 930 at the muzzle to get max expansion close up. No going to be getting 300 yard shots around here.

Can you clarify which bullet failed, what velocity, what twist?

The 300 grain 338 arc I would not have expected it to fail at 1100 fps. unless it was faster than a 1/5 twist or a faster then normal powder.

The 350 grain, 8.6 would be expected to fail in a 1/3 at 1100 fps.

 

[Olderthan dirt]

It was a 500 gr maker in 458 that accidentally got the wrong powder charge. Through 4 one gallon water jugs and into a sand box.
Petals disconnected. Not a bad thing I guess.
1-14 twist.
Used the powder charge that the 500 gr acme bullets use. Longer maker caused velocity to increase.

 

[SeabeeKen]

I load them for a friend in his 350 Legend. The 125 gr Maker is a tack driver in his rifle, shooting .037" at 100 with Alliant 2400. It bangs 6" steel consistent at 300 yds. He took a white tail with it this year at 220 yds with full penetration. He loves that bullet! He tells me the deer bleed out much better with the maker than the other bullets we tried.

 

[linebaugh]

I load them for a friend in his 350 Legend. The 125 gr Maker is a tack driver in his rifle, shooting .037" at 100 with Alliant 2400. It bangs 6" steel consistent at 300 yds. He took a white tail with it this year at 220 yds with full penetration. He loves that bullet! He tells me the deer bleed out much better with the maker than the other bullets we tried.

Shooting in the zeros. Thats benchrest accuracy. Any pix of the bullets?

 

[dellet]

It was a 500 gr maker in 458 that accidentally got the wrong powder charge. Through 4 one gallon water jugs and into a sand box.
Petals disconnected. Not a bad thing I guess.
1-14 twist.
Used the powder charge that the 500 gr acme bullets use. Longer maker caused velocity to increase.

The petals coming off is actually huge problem, unless it was designed as a fracturing bullet. The Rex is not a fracturing bullet by design. That’s why it’s important to know if the problem was with the bullet, or operator error. The way your original post reads, the problem was with both the 8.6 and 338 ARC at 1100 fps. Now it was actually a single bullet, loaded incorrectly in a completely different cartridge. That’s a big difference.

Trying to figure out what happened may or may not be important, but any time petals come off a bullet assumed to be shot through a suppressor it raises eyebrows.

Back to your original post, since it wasn’t provided in the second post, it would seem velocity was only 1100 fps. If that’s true, the petals should not have come off even in a 1/5 twist unless possibly this was the 45-70 bullet.

If this was 458 Socom, it starts making sense. Compressed loads are not uncommon. So using data from the wrong bullet, one that may be as much as .400” longer, can be catastrophic. Solids that are skived to start expansion just don’t tolerate compressed powder charges. It’s easy to compromise the bullet and start the expansion while seating the bullet. Not uncommon for those to come apart as they exit the muzzle and take out a suppressor..

Next option is the petals broke off in the dirt, the Rex is not a mini bunker buster designed to shoot animals in a burrow.

One last comment.
Testing hollow point expanding bullets in milk jugs is fun, but misleading. If plastic gets into the hollow portion of the tip, it will delay or prevent entirely the designed expansion rate of the bullet. Passing through more than 2 feet of water might be an indicator the bullet did not expand properly.

I’m a fan of Maker bullets and did extensive testing with the 300 Blackout bullets. The only time I could get petals to shed was with carefully controlled hold my beer loads and conditions. Knowing full well some person would buy his 110 grain subsonic bullets and load them super.

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

The petals coming off is actually huge problem, unless it was designed as a fracturing bullet. The Rex is not a fracturing bullet by design. That’s why it’s important to know if the problem was with the bullet, or operator error. The way your original post reads, the problem was with both the 8.6 and 338 ARC at 1100 fps. Now it was actually a single bullet, loaded incorrectly in a completely different cartridge. That’s a big difference.

Trying to figure out what happened may or may not be important, but any time petals come off a bullet assumed to be shot through a suppressor it raises eyebrows.

Back to your original post, since it wasn’t provided in the second post, it would seem velocity was only 1100 fps. If that’s true, the petals should not have come off even in a 1/5 twist unless possibly this was the 45-70 bullet.

If this was 458 Socom, it starts making sense. Compressed loads are not uncommon. So using data from the wrong bullet, one that may be as much as .400” longer, can be catastrophic. Solids that are skived to start expansion just don’t tolerate compressed powder charges. It’s easy to compromise the bullet and start the expansion while seating the bullet. Not uncommon for those to come apart as they exit the muzzle and take out a suppressor..

Next option is the petals broke off in the dirt, the Rex is not a mini bunker buster designed to shoot animals in a burrow.

One last comment.
Testing hollow point expanding bullets in milk jugs is fun, but misleading. If plastic gets into the hollow portion of the tip, it will delay or prevent entirely the designed expansion rate of the bullet. Passing through more than 2 feet of water might be an indicator the bullet did not expand properly.

I’m a fan of Maker bullets and did extensive testing with the 300 Blackout bullets. The only time I could get petals to shed was with carefully controlled hold my beer loads and conditions. Knowing full well some person would buy his 110 grain subsonic bullets and load them super.

This is EXACTLY why we need folks like dellet to help the rest of us stay safe.

 

[dantiff2]

One last comment.
Testing hollow point expanding bullets in milk jugs is fun, but misleading. If plastic gets into the hollow portion of the tip, it will delay or prevent entirely the designed expansion rate of the bullet. Passing through more than 2 feet of water might be an indicator the bullet did not expand properly.

This^^
I have found the water/ milk jug test to be very unrealistic. A simple bucket filled(packed) with wet paper is way more realistic to real world, actual hunting results that I see similar to on real game animals.
Dan

 

[Olderthan dirt]

458 500gr Bullet expanded well in first water bottle as second water bottle had huge entry hole and back was split wide open. 3&4 had 1/2” holes through them into the cardboard box of sand. Never found the petals. 1112.5 fps.
So, when loading for 8.6, friend was trying for 1050 fps. 350gr maker and the 1-3 twist. His highest load was folding the petals all the way back and twisting around the shank. His lowest ladder gave him great performance.
Highest (left in pic) was 1014 fps and lowest was 930 fps (rt in pic)
All loads fired without suppressors installed.
Highest load penetrated 4 one gallon water jugs and stuck in side of cardboard box.
Lowest velocity load stayed in 4th jug of water.

 

[dellet]

458 500gr Bullet expanded well in first water bottle as second water bottle had huge entry hole and back was split wide open. 3&4 had 1/2” holes through them into the cardboard box of sand. Never found the petals. 1112.5 fps.
So, when loading for 8.6, friend was trying for 1050 fps. 350gr maker and the 1-3 twist. His highest load was folding the petals all the way back and twisting around the shank. His lowest ladder gave him great performance.
Highest (left in pic) was 1014 fps and lowest was 930 fps (rt in pic)
All loads fired without suppressors installed.
Highest load penetrated 4 one gallon water jugs and stuck in side of cardboard box.
Lowest velocity load stayed in 4th jug of water.

If I had to guess, the 458 bullet penetrated the first layer of plastic more or less as designed and expanded correctly. The expanded bullet can not poke a hole once opened, it would have to auger through the second layer of plastic/rear of first jug.

Hitting the second jug was like trying to poke hole with a spoon. Blunt force tore a hole and hydraulic concussion split the back of the jug. The peels probably never made it into the second jug. The base of the bullet passed through the next to jugs.

Three bullet paths top a 220 Maker, 1000 fps. 150 vmax 1700 fps and a bonus round



Maker didn’t quite make 18” of penetration. This is what had to exit the first jug and enter the second.



150 Hornady recovered about 20 yards behind the gel.



Bonus shot. Maker bullet with tip intentionally plugged with silicone. It was the bottom track that exited the side of the gel on the bottom



It really helps to have a visual

 

[SkullyDogPDW]

If you have room, set your COL a little bit longer, .010” will probably do it. The slight change in load density will drop velocity, and also increase muzzle pressure needed to cycle the action. The faster the powder, the more effect the slight changes make.

The 8.8 might work with the longer length, but I find it easier to find the charge weight that has full function , then fine tune the velocity with seated depth.

The flip side is a slightly faster bullet expands farther, sooner, so often does not penetrate as deep. The slightly slower bullet May exit. It’s a trade.

Paul puts a lot of effort into the expansion rate and velocity window where his bullets work. They all hold up well in fast for cartridge twists. Always like seeing when they worked for people.

I'm just concerned about jaming that blunt bullet into the rifling. That's why I kept the COAL short.