Fox Bullets Classic Hunter – .366″ – 250gr – Bullet test

Fox bullets is a bullet manufacturer from Slovenia. They are producing a lead-free hunting and training bullets which are made of copper- zinc alloy. You can found their homepage here: https://www.foxbullets.eu

We want to give our thanks to the Finnish importer Corenius for the possibility to test the Fox Bullets products in our Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab. Yes, we have quite good selection of Fox Bullet products for testing purposes, so there will be more tests! You can found Corenius’s homepage and the availability of Fox Bullets products here: https://www.corenius.fi

But to the results!

Fox Bullets Classic Hunter .366″ 250gr bullet results!

TESTING

Testing was made by reloading the bullets to the 9,3×62 cartridges. We measured the impact velocities ca. 5 meters from the muzzle. Harder impact velocity was 708m/s (2323fps) and the lower impact velocity was 646m/s (2119fps).

Note: This bullet is quite long for this weight class and it steals quite much powder capacity from the brass. Measured lenght is 38,00mm (1,49″).

The ballistic coefficient of this bullet is 0,332 (G1). So If the velocity at the muzzle is 708m/s (2323fps), the lower impact velocity of 646m/s (2119fps) simulates the impact at the distance of 74 meters (80 yards).

THE BULLET

Fox Bullets Classic Hunter bullets are designed for hunting. As they say on their homepage:

“The Fox Classic hunter are lead-free bullets designed for all hunting situations that an European hunter can experience, from a close distance shot on a wild boar on a driven hunt, to an extremely long shot on a gams in the high mountains. Bullets are lead-free and are made of copper- zinc alloy. The selected material provides an adequate deformation even at a lower impact velocities”.

“The grooves on the bullet reduce the contact surface between the bullet and the rifle barrel, which reduce the pressure and increase the speed. The degree of deformation is determined by the depth of the hole at the top of the bullet. The tip is made of thermo-stable plastic that increases the ballistics as well as the terminal effect.”

“At the impact, the bullet deforms into a mushroom shape of a double off the diameter off the caliber. A controlled and rapid expansion enables an effective transfer of energy from the bullet to the body of the game. All this together provide an extraordinary stopping effect, while at the same time keeps the games meat undamaged.”

This 250gr bullet is quite long and the shape of the bullet is quite special. With the Blaser R8 rifle, you usually can reload 9,3×62 cartridges to quite long OAL. But with this bullet, the cartridge’s overall lenght became shorter than normally, because of the shape of the bullet.

So this bullet steals quite much powder capacity from the brass, and you cannot expect very high velocities with it. We would gladly push this 250gr Classic Hunter bullet to even higher velocities than what we archieved in this test, to ensure the good expansion at the target.

At the higher velocity of 708m/s (2323fps) the expansion of the bullet was good. With this velocity, the bullet did not expand to the very end of the expansion chamber. So this bullet can probably also handle little greater impact velocities and expand even little more.

At the slower speed of 646m/s (2119fps) the expansion of the bullet was too modest, concerning the caliber used on the test and the impact velocity of the bullet. Consequently the long lenght and the heavier tail of the bullet resulted bullet to turn sideways inside the target after the expansion.

Retained weights of the both bullets were over 99% and of course at the excellent level.

WOUND CHANNELS

Test targets were the wet newspapers. The bullet with impact speed of 708m/s (2323fps) penetrated 71cm (28″) of wet newspapers, and the bullet with impact speed of 646m/s (2119fps) penetrated 69cm (27,2″). The amounts of penetrations was really good. The slower speed bullet traveled completely sideways and it can be seen from the wound channel. It tumbled quite fast after the expansion.

SUMMA SUMMARUM

Copper alloy bullets usually likes quite high velocities, because the material is harder than it is on the bullets that are made from the pure copper. And it can be seen on this bullet test. Density of the copper alloy is also usually little lower, which can be seen on the bigger size of the bullets, compared to pure copper bullets.

Our opinion is, that this bullet is not for the slow velocity reloading. You have to push it hard, to get the good results at the greater shooting distances. But with this bullet, the size and the special shape of the bullet will not help you on that mission!

At the short distances, the bullet will expand ok, and you can expect really good penetration!

Sincerely yours – The Hard-Hitting Shooting Lab