In the last 20 years, the design and technology put into hunting bullets has been nothing short of amazing. For the most part, high power hunting bullets were designed with a copper or gilding metal (copper and zinc alloy) jacket, pressure formed around a lead core. The purpose of the jacket was to prevent the lead from touching the bore. While lead bullets work well at low and medium velocities, they are too soft - even in their hardest castings - for ultra high velocities. While these bullets performed very well when used within their performance envelope, the development of the big magnums and their higher velocities quickly exceeded the performance available from the standard jacketed bullet. What results from a bullet pushed too fast for its design is a bullet that self destructs upon hitting the target. While this causes a terrific wound it often does not penetrate far enough to bring down the game animal. Ideal performance for a hunting bullet for typical game is to expand or mushroom up front but to stay intact and plow deeply into the target and exit from the other side causing maximum damage. The bullet has to do this whether it hits only soft tissue or even if it has to penetrate heavy bones.
 For any given caliber, the heavier the bullet -- the deeper it will penetrate. However since it is traveling slower due to its weight it will not expand as much. Designing a bullet to perform over a wide range of velocities is a complex exercise.
One of the first, controlled expansion bullets available was the Nosler Partition. This bullet had a solid metal partition between the front and back of the bullet. The front of the bullet had exposed lead which mushroomed even at relatively low velocities. The back of the bullet was also lead but could not mushroom because the partition prevented it from moving. These bullets changed the course of bullet design forever and are still available today.
However, even this innovative design could not handle the range of velocities from some of the magnum rifles. At high impact velocities even the partition bullets could self destruct and many times the leading mushroom would slide right off leaving just the back core to penetrate.
While jacketed bullets originally had wide and rounded tips, modern designs include very aerodynamic features allowing the bullet to arrive down range with as much retained energy and velocity as possible. Blunt bullets slow down much faster than pointed bullets. This not only results in lower velocities down range but greater drop. Greater drop requires more adjustment for range than a sleek aerodynamic design. The conventional wisdom has always been that blunt bullets are better for hunting in the deep woods where they supposedly glide through obstructions like tree branches and leaves without affecting their flight. Of course there is no evidence that this really happens and modern aerodynamic bullets are a better choice anywhere, anytime.
The only time round or flat nosed bullets are essential in a rifle is in a lever-action rifle with a tubular magazine. Since the bullets in this style of rifle are stacked end to end, there is a danger that the pointed end of one bullet can set off the primer of the cartridge in front of it under the force of recoil.
Pointed aerodynamic bullets are usually called either spitzers or boat tail. The name spitzer refers to the pointed aerodynamic shape of the bullet. A boat tail bullet is shaped like a spitzer in front and has a tapered base instead of a flat base. This tapered base further increases the aerodynamics of the bullet.
You may hear two terms used to describe various bullets. One is sectional density (SD) and the other is Ballistic coefficient (BC). The BC of a bullet is simply an indication of its weight compared to it’s diameter. If the diameter stays the same and the weight increases then its SD increases. Of course as the weight increases so does the length of the bullet assuming the same design. Sectional density is a good indicator of how deeply a bullet will penetrate. For a given bullet design, the one with the highest SD will penetrate deeper. The ballistic coefficient of a bullet is an indication of how aerodynamic it is. The higher the number, the more efficient the bullet will be in flight. Pointed bullets have a higher SD than round or flat point bullets. Which of course makes sense because they are more aerodynamic.
Since the introduction of the Nosler Partition, bullet makers have developed many new techniques to keep their bullets intact and performing optimally over a wide range of velocities. Manufacturers have introduced bullets where the core is chemically bonded to the jacket thereby reducing fragmentation. The original Nosler design has been adapted by several other makers and both Nosler and these other manufacturers have improved greatly on the original design. 
In realizing that one way to prevent the jacket and core form separating and causing self destruction was to not have a jacket and core, Barnes introduced a new single metal design bullet. The bullets are 100% copper and have a tapered hollow point that allows for the front of the bullet to expand. There have been several improvements over the years in this bullet design and currently these are some of the most devastating and reliable hunting bullets made. The drawback to the Barnes design is that copper weighs a lot less then lead. So for a given bullet weight the Barnes bullet is always longer than it’s lead jacketed counterpart. This causes issues in loading the cartridge as it reduces the capacity of the case sometimes resulting, in lesser initial velocities. The latest version of this bullet design, the MRX, has a tungsten core inserted into the back of the solid copper bullet and a pointed plastic tip inserted into the front of the bullet. Since tungsten is even more dense than lead, the tungsten insert more than makes up for the lost weight of the copper bullet, thereby allowing them to make the bullets shorter. The plastic tip, used by many manufacturers over the years, makes for a very pointed and aerodynamic design.
 When hunting large African game, an expanding bullet is not what you want. Very large game such as elephant require very deep penetration to reach vital organs, through tough skin, muscle and bone. For these situations a different type of bullet is needed. This type of bullet is called a solid. Solid bullets have also gone through a technology upgrade in recent years. Originally, solids were lead core, jacketed bullets where the exposed lead was in the rear instead of the front. This jacket material in the front prevented the bullet from expanding. However, the jacket material is not especially strong and even these bullets would deform and fall apart upon hitting large bones at high velocity. Copper coated steel jackets were employed for many years to solve this problem and such bullets are still made today. Today, modern solid bullets are made from solid alloys and machined to shape. These bullets do not deform because the soft lead is gone form the bullet. Barnes and others produce this type of bullet. Speer has produced a similar bullet with a tungsten core to bring the length of the bullet back to the same as a leaded bullet. All of these modern bullet styles have a reputation of not deforming and ploughing through the target.
We list manufacturers of premium grade hunting bullets. Any of these premium brands and bullets will perform well in the field. Knowing that your bullet will fly with minimum loss of speed and energy, having the least possible drop for your cartridge and not self destruct even at point blank range makes the modern hunter very well equipped to handle any situation. |
A-Square Bullets
Barnes Bullets
Hornady Bullets
Nosler Bullets
Sierra Bullets
Speer Bullets
Swift Bullets
Woodleigh Bullets |
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