You will find two types of expanding big game hunting bullets. The very first are conventional copper cup bullets and the next are premium or, controlled expansion, bullets. Premium bullets are considerably more costly than conventional bullets. At what point does the additional 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 is supposed keeps the bullet intact throughout the expansion process as it’s being driven at high speed, in to the vitals of the game animal. The task for bullet companies is to generate a bullet that’ll remain intact and retain a higher percentage if it’s weight over a vastly different velocity range. barnaul 7.62×39 The impact velocity of the bullet can vary from as high as 3400 fps for a bullet fired from a magnum cartridge in to a game animal at close range, to as low as 1700 fps for a bullet from an inferior cartridge striking the game animal at 400 yards away. This scenario may be compounded by the fact the close shot from the magnum could strike the shoulder bone of a sizable, tough animal such as for instance a moose or buffalo and the long range shot might be put in the softer behind the shoulder area of a small-bodied deer or antelope. A mainstream bullet simply can not be made to execute perfectly or even satisfactorily under every situation. The bullet maker is left to generate a bullet that is, in several situations, a compromise. This leads to 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 an effect velocity as high as about 2700 fps. Beyond this time, the performance may become erratic. There are lots of stories of the way the bullets from high velocity cartridges such as 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 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 when the expansion reaches the partition it is stopped, producing a large portion of the bullet remaining in-tact, therefore driving deeply in to the animal’s vitals. The Swift A-Frame bullet improves with this design by the addition of a bonding process, which fuses the jacket to the core, causing even more retained weight. It’s this retained weight that ensures outstanding performance, especially on large game. The Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet is another great design, which has a lead core only in the forward portion of the bullet, while the rear part is solid copper.

Such as the Swift, it can also be bonded. After the expansion reaches the solid rear part, it is progressively stopped, therefore ensuring the bullet retains most, or oftentimes, each of it’s weight. The Barnes TSX bullet is perhaps the most revolutionary premium bullet of all. The whole bullet consists of pure copper and has a hollow nose cavity which promotes expansion. The TTSX and MRX versions, make use of a plastic tip to advertise expansion and to boost their Ballistic Coefficients. These bullets expand to create 4 sharp petals which slice because they spin and travel forward, creating immense tissue destruction. They often retain 100% of these weight and are proven to be extremely deadly. You will find other premium bullets from various bullet companies with bonded cores which are vast improvements over conventional bullets. Some of them are Woodleigh Weldcore, Nosler Accubond, Hornady Interbond and Remington Premier Core Lokt.

When does the additional cost of premium bullets become justified? They do whenever employing a high velocity cartridge where in fact 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 using any smaller than normal caliber, such as a.223 Rem on deer. Also, anytime dangerous game like grizzly, cape buffalo or lion are hunted, a premium bullet is definitely the best option, regardless of the cartridge being used.

Considering the costs of the various expenses that enter any hunt, the additional cost of premium bullets is negligible. Some well-informed hunters use premium bullets for all of their big game hunting. I am some of those hunters.