Shazaib Khatri113You will find two types of expanding big game hunting bullets. The initial are conventional copper cup bullets and the 2nd are premium or, controlled expansion, bullets. Premium bullets are considerably more expensive than conventional bullets. At what point does the extra cost become justified?
The lower cost conventional hunting bullets have a lead core that is encased in a copper jacket. This copper jacket is what’s supposed keeps the bullet intact during the expansion process as it’s being driven at high speed, in to the vitals of the overall game animal. The challenge for bullet companies is to produce a bullet that may remain sellier and bellot ammo review intact and retain a high percentage if it’s weight over a vastly different velocity range. The impact velocity of the bullet may differ from as high as 3400 fps for a bullet fired from the magnum cartridge into a game animal at close range, to less than 1700 fps for a bullet from an inferior cartridge striking the overall game animal at 400 yards away. This scenario could be compounded by the fact the close shot from the magnum could strike the shoulder bone of a big, tough animal like a moose or buffalo and the long range shot may be put into the softer behind the shoulder section of a small-bodied deer or antelope. A main-stream bullet simply can’t be made to do perfectly as well as satisfactorily under every situation. The bullet maker is left to produce a bullet that is, in many situations, a compromise. This results in significantly less than satisfactory results, at times. The bullet in the close shot may disintegrate and fail to penetrate sufficiently, whilst the bullet in the long shot may fail to expand properly, causing minimal tissue destruction.
It’s generally known that a conventional bullet will perform reasonably well for a direct effect velocity all the way to about 2700 fps. Beyond this aspect, the performance can become erratic. There are lots of stories of how a bullets from high velocity cartridges including the Weatherby Magnums, disintegrated on impact and failed to penetrate, causing long tracking jobs or lost game. These bullet failures are what generated the creation of controlled expansion, or premium, hunting bullets.
Premium bullets have revolutionary designs that allow them to be driven to magnum velocities, while still delivering outstanding terminal performance. The first to ever arrive on the scene could be the Nosler Partition bullet, which has a copper partition at across the midpoint of the bullet. The bullet tip was created to start expansion easily at lower velocities, but once the expansion reaches the partition it’s stopped, resulting in a large part of the bullet remaining in-tact, therefore driving deeply in to the animal’s vitals. The Swift A-Frame bullet improves on this design with the addition of a bonding process, which fuses the jacket to the core, causing much more retained weight. It’s this retained weight that ensures outstanding performance, especially on large game. The Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet is another excellent design, which has a lead core only in the forward part of the bullet, while a corner part is solid copper.
Just like the Swift, it can be bonded. After the expansion reaches the solid rear part, it’s progressively stopped, therefore ensuring the bullet retains most, or oftentimes, all of it’s weight. The Barnes TSX bullet is probably the most revolutionary premium bullet of all. The whole bullet is constructed of pure copper and has a hollow nose cavity which promotes expansion. The TTSX and MRX versions, use a plastic tip to promote expansion and to increase their Ballistic Coefficients. These bullets expand to make 4 sharp petals which slice because they spin and travel forward, creating immense tissue destruction. They often retain 100% of their weight and are shown to be extremely deadly. You will find other premium bullets from various bullet companies with bonded cores that are vast improvements over conventional bullets. Many of them are Woodleigh Weldcore, Nosler Accubond, Hornady Interbond and Remington Premier Core Lokt.
When does the extra cost of premium bullets become justified? They do whenever employing a high velocity cartridge where in actuality the impact velocity of the bullet will exceed 2700 fps, especially when hunting large game where deep penetration is needed. Also, use premium bullets whenever using light-for-caliber bullets or when working with any smaller than normal caliber, such as a.223 Rem on deer. Also, anytime dangerous game like grizzly, cape buffalo or lion are hunted, reduced bullet is definitely the most effective option, regardless of cartridge being used.
Considering the expenses of the various expenses that go into any hunt, the excess cost of premium bullets is negligible. Some well-informed hunters use premium bullets for all of their big game hunting. I am one particular hunters.