How bullets work question?

[Craig]

This might be a stupid question but here it goes.

I was wondering what makes a bullet effective ( spelling ). Bullet weight, Speed, Type of bullet, Foot LBS. I know about good bullet placement so lets talk about all the numbers and how different bullets work

I shoot a Remington 300 Ultra MAG with 180 Gr Swift Scirocco.

200 Yards 300 yards 400 yards

2856 FPS 2672 FPS 2495 FPS
3260 Foot Pounds 2853 Foot LBS 2487 foot LBs

Is it the weight of the bullet plus the speed that punches through the animal. Does the speed affect how good the bullet opens. What does the Foot pounds of pressure do. It it just the shock of the bullet hitting the animal that travels through and damages other stuff. I hope your not confused. What do you think

 

[jarhead7481]

Depending on what you mean by "work". Some bullets are designed to explode on contact, like on prairie puppies, some are designed so they deliver their energy after entering an animal. a fmj was used to enter and ricochet and exit not in a straight line. Nosler's new reloading book has a section that is pretty informative on bullet performance. go to Hornady or speer's website I think you could see design specifics on there also.
I shot a nosler partition bullet into a box of magazines along with a hornady ballistic tip interbond to see how they performed. The interbond penetrated about two inches at 30 cal then expanded to about 50cal, but stayed pretty much together. The nosler partition penetrated about four inches before expanding to about the same, but didn't stay together at the end.
I have also shot a hornady 55gr sx bullet out of a 223 contender at a blackbird which exploded into a puff of feathers. I found later that this bullet is "sx" super explosive. Very thin copper jacket. Enough rambling. Hope this helps. Got it off my chest anyway.
"SEMPER FIDELIS"

 

[steelie]

ft/lbs or energy and being able to transfer that energy to the animal is what is important. The ft/lbs is calculated by multiplying the bullet weight by its speed. It is good to have a good amount of energy on the bullet, but useless if you can't transfer it to the correct place one the animal. Take the same cartrige with three different bullets. A full metal jacket, a lead tip hollow point and a full hollow point, all the same weight. Lets assume we are in a vacuum and don't have to worry about coefficients. The 3 bullets are all going to have the same amount of energy, the difference is how it is transfered. The full metal jacket will go right through even an elk sized animal, transfering little of its energy. The full hollow point will transfer all of its energy quickly without penetrating to the vitals. The lead tip will probably go out the back, not transfering all of its energy, but most of it and in the right place. Hope this helps.

 

[whtailtaker]

Another answer to your question-
I took a Whitetail @ 542 paces [roughly 1626ft] using the below Ammo-in lots of open country

F E D E R A L ?
No. Primer-210
No. 180- Grains/Grams-11.66
Style Hi-shok Soft Point
Caliber 30-06 Springfield
Velocity in Feet Per Second
(to nearest 10fps)
Muzzle 2700
Yds 100 2470
Yds 200 2250
Yds 300 2040
Yds 400 1850
Yds 500 1660

I hit him [broad side] mid chest- lt side
it had enough punch to churn up both lungs and lodge in the lt side of his neck just below his ear-

I retreived 134 gr propeller shaped projectile-

hope this helps- I only use 180gr Ammo

whtailtaker

 

[sagebrush]

Here's what I have learned about bullets. All of them work very well for the purpose they were intended. You just need to select the bullet type to your situation.

I've divided bullets into four categories. 1-Non-premium, these would be Core-lokt, the old Silvertip, Hornady BTSP, etc. These bullets are accurate enough and hold together well enough for your average hunting situation, shots out to 200 yards or so. 2-Polymer tipped, these would be your Swift Sirocco, Hornady SST, Nosler Ballistic Tip, Remington Accutip, etc. These are designed for better accuracy at longer ranges and are designed to impart maximum energy into the animal. At shorter ranges or higher velocities, they can fail to penetrate into the vitals. In smaller calibers, they also don't penetrate bone well on larger animals. I would not recommend a Ballistic Tip for elk out of a .270, but would be fine with it out of a .338. I use this type of bullet on deer sized game from 150 to 400 yards out of a .270 and have had all one shot kills. Very deadly. 3-Premium lead cores, these would be Nosler Partition, Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Core-lokt Ultra, etc. These bullets are designed for better penetration on larger size game such as elk and moose. They will break bone, still reach the vitals and retain enough lead to still have sufficient energy to get the job done. 4-Copper bullets. These are the Fail Safe, Barnes X, etc. These bullets are designed for maximum penetration on the largest of game. Great bullets if your rifle will shoot them. My experience is they will be very accurate out of your rifle or won't shoot well enough to hunt with, and nothing in between. I think a rifle that is susceptible to copper fouling probably doesn't shoot this type of bullet well.

As far as energy is concerned, I read somewhere that you should have about 1200 ft-lbs of energy for deer sized game and 1400 ft-lbs of energy for elk for a bullet to be able to reliably penetrate. Seems to bear out my experience. Shouldn't be an issue with a .300 RUM.

My advice, if you're hunting sagebrush country for mule deer or plains for antelope and you want to be able to reach out and touch 'em, go with a light for caliber polymer tipped bullet (150-165 gr). For elk, I'd go with a heavier premium bullet. Hard to beat a Nosler Partition in 180-200 gr. If your shots will be limited to 200 yards or less, the good ole Core-lokt or Hornady will do just fine.

I'm sure everyone will be able to take exception with what I've posted here, but this is just my experience. Guys have killed pairie dogs with 225 gr bullets and dropped elk in their tracks with a 25-06, but I wouldn't recommend either. Stick with this advice and you'll do just fine.

 

[ozstriker22]

What problem MAY present itself with a Rem Core Lokt 30.06 165g at 275 yards? That's what I was going to use for my next hunt, and 275 yards is about the farthest I feel comfortable shooting without a bench.

Thanks,

Jesse

 

[saminwy]

thats the same 06 round i used for years, i wouldn't forsee any bullet related problems, if your gun likes that round, and if you feel comfortable at that range, let it rip. i always had good performance from the corelocts at that range(i always tried to keep things under 300) i put alot of meat in the freezer with that round. im using 165 gr hornadys now. a gunsmith friend of mine worked the load up, and my 03a3 really likes em. 100 yd bench groups the size of a quarter, not bad for a rifle thats seen as many rounds as that one.

sam

 

[ozstriker22]

Hey Saminy, I use an Springfield 1903-A3 also! I LOVE IT!

Only thing I want is to have a clip instead of an internal magazine... there are A LOT of hills/canyons/rocks in my neck of the woods.

I got a couple of leftover 155 grain FMJ's from a pro military shooting match from a friend. HOLY CRAP. We're talking one friggin hole!

Are the Hornadys a handload? I'd like to run them through my rifle to compare to Rem CoreLokt.

Thanks!

Jesse

 

[saminwy]

yeah, they're handloaded. dont know that i've seen one converted to clips. dont know if that would be doable, but maybe a hinged floorplate could be done.

sam

 

[etoh]

Sagebrush,
I know this is an old post but I respectfully disagree that all polymer tipped bullets should be classed together. I think your description of these bullets is right on the money for Ballistic Tips and SSt's. However, Nosler's accubond and Scirrocos use the bonding process which bonds bullet to jacket making a much stouter bullet. If I'm wrong please correct me, but isn't that the same technology which helps make Trophy Bonded Bear Claws so stout? The only reason I bring this up is that, IMHO, a 300RUM shoots at velocities too high for reliable performance on any game using BTs (don't know for sure about SSTs but I don't think they are bonded). The Nosler Reloading Manual gives 3100fps as the extreme upper limit for BTs. On the other hand Scirrocos and presumably Accubonds should hold up fine and may have better weight retention than some premium lead cores. If I knew how to post pictures I'd put up the scirroco I pulled from this years elk.
Just a different point of view. My two cents. Discussing bullets can be like discussing politics, religion, and red-heads.

 

[Morty_Pass]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-04-03 AT 04:36PM (MST)[p]Rapid expansion. Easy as that. How the bullet is designed will determine how fast it will expand. Bullets dont explode, you could call it that by the rate of expansion, but if you want to really get down to it they dont.

stoh, I have reloaded ballistic tips for my 300 RUM. The work good on whitetails, but you are right, they arent as good. The swift sicroccos work excellet in 300 RUM. Partions do also.

later, M_P