Sako Powerhead Blade Review – the new lead-free hunting ammunition

Sako has revised its lead-free ammunition and launched a new bullet. Under the name “Blade” you can find this lead-free hunting ammunition in different calibers. The bullet is a pure copper bullet and the cartridge is very accurate by charge and construction. Thus, it has match qualities that are required in hunting.

In this article we would like to inform you about the Sako Powerhead Blade and show you how the ammunition presents itself both on the shooting range and in practice.

Effect levels of the Sako Powerhead Blade

The copper bullet has five different levels of effectiveness.

To ensure direct mushrooming, the bullet has a plastic tip. This tip ensures that the bullet does not first have to accumulate tissue, but can expand directly on impact. In this process, the plastic tip is pushed into the bullet on impact. Sako calls this opening of the projectile the reaction chamber. This reaction chamber, i.e. the opening of the bullet is constructed and shaped in such a way that deformation is ensured even with weak game.

The expansion grooves located in the bullet opening then further ensure uniform bullet mushrooming. Here, the mass of the bullet expands into four large plumes and cause the stopping action. In order to achieve an optimum diameter, the expansion chamber is located underneath: this is shaped in such a way that the plume formation can function uniformly without departing.

In order to ensure a high residual weight and thus a safe rejection, this process is terminated in the fifth part, the expansion stop. Stopping the plume formation is very important, because you want to achieve as much cross-sectional widening as possible to open the wound channel wide without the bullet plumes departing. Thus, the bullet can release more energy in the game body.

Test shooting on the shooting range and ballistic data

First we used the cartridge in cal. .30-06 Spr. test shot at the shooting range and calibrated to the weapon. A Ruger American Rifle, with a shortened 52 cm barrel and a Geco 2.5-15×56 target telescopic sight was used.

The manufacturer’s ballistic data refer to the barrel length of 60 cm. Therefore, it can be assumed that with the 52 cm barrel used, the bullet is somewhat slower and therefore not all the energy is reached. However, this fact had no effect on the precision and effect of the tested cartridge. Especially in practice, shorter and shorter barrels are used due to the use of silencers. Therefore, the test in this run was very important to us. One can roughly assume an energy reduction of 5%.

After the gun was fired in, we were able to achieve very tight scattering circles. Here we have achieved a scattering circle of a 2 € piece at 100 m with four shots (shot image). The ammunition therefore proves to be very accurate, as you would expect from the Sako company. The manufacturer promises consistent accuracy with all common types of weapons for which the ammunition is intended.

With the 11.0 g / 170 grs bullet weight, the pure blade copper bullet is in the normal weight class of the .30-06 Spr.

The ammunition is additionally available in 9.3×62, .308 Win., 6.5×55 SE, .300 Win. Mag. and 6.5 Creedmoor. Additional calibers are planned.

For this purpose, the ballistic data of the cartridge. Running length is 60 cm:

Most of the time, it is difficult for lead-free bullets to respond properly, especially with weak game. Often the bullet lacks the necessary resistance in the game body. However, this problem is solved by the polymer tip in modern lead-free bullets, such as the Sako Blade. Here, these, somewhat firmer bullets, can target. In days gone by, people often had the problem that harder bullets, much like full metal jacket bullets, had little effect in weak game bodies.

The Sako Powerhead Blade in practice test

In hunting practice, we have now tested what the ammunition Sako Blade performs on the hunt. Only facts count here, because paper is patient.

In order to convince ourselves of the cartridge in practice as well, we saw deer hunting as the optimal test scenario here.

Since in the Saarland at the moment the hunt on roe bucks and narrow roe deer already on 01.04. starts, this is the right time to test the cartridge. During this period, bucks assert their territories and game accidents are more frequent. Therefore, we decided to shoot a buck near the road in the early evening.

Shortly before dusk, the previously known roebuck emerged from the hedgerow onto the open area at a distance of about 120 m. The buck was found to be in the open area. In our opinion, the medium-aged buck can be shot in such a hunting ground section, as the risk of a deer accident is very high at this time of the year.

After a short speech we decided to put the ball on.

The shot was almost ideal, so that the buck was at the starting point and no further search was necessary. Only the reject was on the blade, but this did not result in any major game board scoring. Despite bone hits, the scrap was kept within limits.

Lung sweat oozed directly from the caliber-sized bullet hole.

In order to through our years of experience with the use of lead-free cartridges, we consider this hit seat ideal. The leaves can be almost completely denied and an unintentional dead flight is prevented. Thus, this combines an ideal killing effect with the lowest game board degradation.

With the Sako Blade cartridge, hematoma formation is moderate, as is usual with lead-free deformation bullets. After removal of the wound canal, the piece could be almost completely given over to consumption.

Conclusion

With this in-house development of a monolithic lead-free deformation bullet, Sako shows that it is absolutely directed for the lead-free market and has developed a very balanced cartridge with very high precision. Here, the needs in the killing effect and hit performance of the cartridge are satisfied 100%.
In this respect, it is a real competitor to its American relatives.