Why do you need to try McGuire Ballistics Copper Rose Bullets for Hunting if you are a Handloader?

It was about two years ago when I first heard of McGuire Ballistics projectiles for a fellow handloader friend of mine. He had such high praise for them, I knew I had to try them out. I am a big fan of the Hornady CX bullet and the Barnes TSX bullet.

So, I order fifty of their 7mm 143gr Copper Rose to load in 7PRC, along with fifty 30cal Copper Rose 168gr for testing in 30-06 Springfield. Once the order was placed, the bullets showed up at my door three days later.

Kelby's 7mm PRC 143gr Copper Rose three-shot group at 300 yards

Out testing DOP on 7mm PRC with 143gr Copper Rose

With bullets in hand, it was time to get to testing. With no load data out there, I did some research on other mono bullets. With the McGuire bullets being longer and higher B.C. than the normal-sized 140-grain class, I started 10% off the max charge. The best source to find starting data would be on Barnes load data or on Hodgdon load data website.

Now that I had found some data to go off, the next step was to figure out if I was going to be restricted by the magazine length or if I could load long and jump .0020 off the lands. Once I figured it out, I was not limited to magazine length. I reached out to Sam McGuire (the owner) over on Instagram, asking him if he had any recommendations and if the projectiles were sensitive to jumping into the lands. He informed me that they're not sensitive like most solid copper bullets. With my testing, I can confirm that to be true, as I have now loaded and shot over 1,000 of these projectiles from 224 cal up to 338 cal. I have loaded these for .0020 off lands to .0400 off the lands and seen great accuracy.

Loading 338-06AI with 225gr Copper Rose .0020 off lands.

Of course, seating more into the case will affect the powder capacity, which in fact can hurt velocity. But you also must be careful loading close to the lands of the rifling because pressure will spike fast when loading close. That all being said, I found these bullets were very easy to load. Pick a powder that will get you 95% case fill or better, along with powder that will burn 100% in the barrel you are using, and you should see some good numbers on your chronograph. If you are unhappy with the grouping, do some seating depth testing. But I recommend going in at least a minimum of .020 increments. And bam, just like that, you're loading the most devastating and lethal hunting bullet I have yet to use.

I have now killed three animals this year with three different calibers, and all the results were the same. Dead on their feet, shot very from 37 yards to 370 yards.

Back in May this year, I went down and hunted hogs with Sam, as he also is a big game guide in California, which is why he started up McGuire Ballistics in the first place. Hence, he had a good, solid copper bullet where he was not going to have to be tracking animals through nasty brush and risking his life or injury or the person he was guiding on recovering an animal.

My first bore I shot on that trip was with Sam's 25 PRC loaded with 122-grain Copper Rose at 370 yards, and dumped him where he stood. I hit the bore high on his spine, once we got the boar opened up, it was like tram I've ever seen. The heart was in pieces, and the lungs were shrunk like a vacuum was pulled on them.

Boar shot with 25 PRC 122gr Copper Rose at 370 yards.

The second bore I shot was with my Kelbly’s Nanook PH 7mm PRC I brought on the trip, and hit a big sow at 37 yards in the mouth running at me. I used the 143-grain Copper Rose, leaving the muzzle at 3,300 fps. This dumped the sow in her tracks and rocked her back on the hind end, and she fell over. Walking up to her, the blood on the ground was impressive. Once we had her hanging to process, we found the bullet in the right front shoulder. The bullet traveled through the jaw, demolished the vitals, broke the neck, and broke the right shoulder, where we found the bullet. It is rare to recover copper bullets as they most of the time have an exit wound.

Sow shot at 37 yards with 7mm PRC 143gr Copper Rose

The third animal was a bear at 115 yards with my Remington 700 chambered in 338-06AI using 225-grain Copper Rose. Shot the bear right behind the left front shoulder. Bear ran 20 yards and piled up. Once walking up to the spot where I hit the bear, there was a blood trail like I had never seen for 20 yards. If I didn't know where the bear died, I would have had zero problems finding that bear due to that blood trail. On skinning the bear, I found the entry broke two ribs, and on exit, four ribs were broken, and the exit wound was big enough to put my fist in. The heart was also cut in half.

Bear shot at 115 yards with 338-06AI 225gr Copper Rose

These bullets are everything and more, as Sam says they are, the best high B.C. copper, easy to tune bullet in the woods. This is every handloader's dream.