The North Fork .458″ 300gr FP (flat point) will be the first bullet for our .458″ bullet test section!
Manufacturing of North Fork bullets were formerly located in Oregon USA, but in the year 2020, the production were sold and moved to Sweden. For us, the Finnish hunters, this is of course the great thing.
As they say on their homepage: “Over a decade ago, North Fork Bullets began with the goal of creating the best hunting bullets in the world while providing exceptional service to its customers.“. What they want to offer are the bullets that are extremely accurate, bore friendly and devasting.
We want to give our thanks to the new Swedish manufacturer of North Fork bullets for the possibility to test the North Fork bullets in our Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab. You can found North Fork bullets on their homepages : https://www.northforkbullets.com & https://www.jbhunting.se
But to the results!
North Fork .458″ 300gr FP bullet results!
TESTING
Testing was made by reloading the bullets to the .458 Winchester Magnum cartridges. We measured the impact velocities ca. 5m from the muzzle. Harder impact velocity was 759m/s (2490fps) and the lower impact velocity was 618m/s (2028fps).
We do not know the ballistic coefficient of this bullet, but it MIGHT be somewhere around 0,225 (G1). If the velocity at the muzzle is 759m/s (2490fps), the lower impact velocity of 618m/s (2028fps) would simulate the impact at the distance of 113 meters (123 yards). Note: There might be error of guessing the ballistic coefficient!
THE BULLET
They say that the bullets are : “Engineered to give you the utmost in expansion and unfailing reliability over the widest Range of velocities possible whether shooting a high velocity magnum or a standard Cartridge. North Fork bullets produce the “perfect mushroom” every time. The benefits, Whether the game is up close or at a longer range, are predictable expansion and high Retained weight providing deep penetration. With the lead core in front of the bullet and the Solid copper shank in the rear, impact results in a “perfect mushroom” over a large range of Velocities. At impact, the front lead core expands until it reaches the solid copper shank Stopping the mushroom at its maximum diameter.“
The jacket of the bullets are made of pure copper, and gilded metals or copper alloys are not used. Lead core is bonded to the jacket to produce a bullet, which will have a high retained weight and which will not break and separate under the impact.
We believe this bullet is made for a .45-70 government cartridges, so the higher impact velocity of 759m/s (2490fps) was little bit out of the specifications! But we wanted to try it! The bullet held up the abusing really well, and did not break! Width of the mushroom narrowed little bit because of the high impact velocity, but the retained weight is still at the acceptable level (83%).
At the slower velocity of 618m/s (2028fps) bullet expanded well. Retained weight is also at the exellent level (ca. 99%). You don’t need to reload this bullet to the 760m/s muzzle velocity, because this bullet will also work on the lower velocities! But if you want, you definetely can!
It would have been great to test this bullet with even slower velocities for the .45-70gov users, but we run out of bullets. If we have possibilities to test lower velocities on the future, we will update the results to this article! We believe, this bullet probably will expand at the impact speed of 550m/s (1804fps).
WOUND CHANNELS
Test targets were wet newspapers. The bullet with impact speed of 759m/s (2490fps) penetrated 57cm (22,4″) of wet newspapers, and the bullet with impact speed of 618m/s (2028fps) penetrated 56cm (22″). The amount of expansion of the bullet was really good for the weight of it, and it leaded also to the good penetration.
The wound channels can be seen below. The harder impact of faster bullet can easily be seen from the cavitation.
SUMMA SUMMARUM
Really good bullet choice, for a many different type of guns! The lowest velocities are still untested, but we would easily recommend this to the .45-70gov caliber. With the muzzle velocity of over 700m/s (2300fps) this bullet is really good choice for moose or bear hunting. Good penetration, nice velocity for moving subjects and really manageable recoil. Like Doug Marcaida would say; it will kill.
Sincerely yours – The Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab
