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POWER TO THE CORELEAD FREE, ACCURATE AND DEADLY ON BIG GAME. By J. Guthrie

W INChEsTER FIGURED ON ITs NEw Super-X lead-free load doing pretty well. After all, the Power Core 95/5 had all

the bells and whistles of other homogenous solid designs at an affordable price. But after a year on the

shelves, the folks at Winchester have been blown away by hunters’ reception. It has done so well that Winchester is doubling the cartridge lineup this year to include some new magnums and deer hunter favorites.

27.com26 .com

POWER TO THE CORELEAD FREE, ACCURATE AND DEADLY ON BIG GAME. By J. Guthrie

W INChEsTER FIGURED ON ITs NEw Super-X lead-free load doing pretty well. After all, the Power Core 95/5 had all

the bells and whistles of other homogenous solid designs at an affordable price. But after a year on the

shelves, the folks at Winchester have been blown away by hunters’ reception. It has done so well that Winchester is doubling the cartridge lineup this year to include some new magnums and deer hunter favorites.

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CARRYOVER HERE

Nearly all homogenous solids, whether they are made of brass or copper, share some common qualities. Most have a cavity in their nose that turns the hydraulic forces associated with striking a water-based target into expansion. Because traditional homo-geneous solids like the Barnes X or Nosler E-Tip are extremely hard and have smaller frontal areas, the bullets lose little or no weight after impact al-lowing them to penetrate like nobody’s business. Hunters can expect 30 plus inches of penetration from long shots with magnum calibers or average shots with standard calibers. Most designs have relieving grooves to give bullet material a place to flow as it screams

down the barrel, reducing fouling, and decreasing the overall surface area to help control pressures.

EnginEERing ExCEllEnCEMike Stock, a 10-year Winchester

veteran who now manages the cen-

terfire product line, said Winchester took a completely different approach when designing the Power Core 95/5. The bullet material of the Power Core 95/5 is treated to retain more softness than most other homogenous designs and programmed to act like a tradi-tional jacketed lead softpoint bullet.

The Power Core 95/5’s special alloy—95 percent copper and 5 per-cent zinc—gives it some advantages, as does the design. With a deep central cavity extending past the ogive, the hollowpoint can compress when it hits the forcing cone, reducing pressures. The soft material is also less likely to foul barrels, eliminating the need for relieving grooves or coatings. Elimi-nating multiple steps in the manu-facturing process and the polymer tip found on other designs is what allows the Power Core 95/5 to come in at such an attractive price.

The only disadvantage is giving up some penetration because of the bul-

The Winchester Power Core 95/5

bullet offers a deep hollowpoint

cavity and massive expansion on big

game, retaining nearly 100 percent

of its weight.

Hunters can expect terminal performance tuned for deer and similar-sized animals, high energy deposit and ideal penetration.

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CARRYOVER HERE

fast .30-caliber cartridges like the .300 Win Mag and .300 WSM,” Stock said. “In the .30-06, or the new .308 load, that same 150-grainer is a 350-yard bullet. We found that 2,000 fps is the low end of the performance envelope. That is what the bullet needs to expand reliably.”

Seven-millimeter lovers will get a double dose, too. Winchester is adding both the 7mm WSM and the 7mm-08 to the catalog, both utilizing the same 140-grain bullet that was introduced in a 7mm Mag load last year. Other ad-ditions include a 130-grain .270 WSM load and a 90-grain .243 load.

“This is an optimal round for white-tails, so we couldn’t go without a .243,” Stock said.

New bullets like the .243 get a com-plete redesign to guarantee reliable field performance. Every bullet will utilize the same 95 percent copper, 5 percent zinc alloy. The Power Core 95/5 cavity, where all the magic happens in terms of tuning an expansion profile and energy dump, changes for every caliber.

“You wouldn’t use the same cavity dimensions in the .243 bullet that you used in the .300 Win Mag bullet,” Stock said. “The general cavity shape, thick to thin back to thick, stays the same, but diameters and profiles will certainly change. Power Core 95/5 has to have that massive front area and the

right amount of penetration, and the cavity controls that.”

Hunters who want to take their .223-chambered modern sporting rifles/AR-15s out hunting would do well to take a close look at the 64-grain Power Core 95/5 introduced last year. Stock figures on getting 12 to 13 inches of penetration out of the bullet. With carefully placed shots, the bullet is perfect for whitetails, antelope and small hogs.

“The Power Core 95/5 has been a fun project,” Stock said. “Its performance on game has just blown us away. An all-brass bullet is extremely strong, and you can do a lot in terms of design with this material. We have really pushed the performance envelope and still been able to come in at a lower price point than most other lead-free bullets. We’ve come a long way from launching round hunks of lead at 1,000 feet per second.”

For hunters required to shoot lead-free bullets, the Power Core 95/5 is a great value, but the bullet really goes beyond filling a spot on the shelves for cost-conscious shooters limited to lead-free rounds. Power Core 95/5, given its tremendous expansion and weight-retention capabilities, would make a great hunting round for the majority of North America’s big-game hunters.

let’s massive frontal area. Since there is no jacket to separate or lead to smear off, the Power Core 95/5 still retains almost 100 percent of its weight, even after striking bone.

“We were looking for 13 to 16 inches of penetration because this round is suitable to take down antelope-sized game up to massive mule deer and elk,” Stock said. “If you look at recovered bullets, you will notice the expanded segments are much wider than other, harder bullets. A soft nose allows those segments to move around and not shear off, and the Power Core 95/5’s massive frontal area drives all that energy into the animal. That’s what makes this bullet so devastating.”

KEEP it COmin’Some of the new introductions were easy since the caliber was the same and, more important, the velocity windows matched. The .300 Win Mag, intro-duced last year, and the .300 WSM have similar velocities and are obviously the same caliber, so Winchester loaded the same 150-grain Power Core 95/5 in the WSM this year. A quick study of the catalog will show that same 150-grain bullet was available in .30-06 last year and will be offered in the .308 this year.

“The .30-caliber bullet will work great all the way out to 500 yards in the

For hunters required to shoot lead-free bullets, the Power Core 95/5 is a great value and top performer.

PoWER To THE CoRE