{"id":1987,"date":"2024-04-05T14:22:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T14:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2024-04-05T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T14:22:24","slug":"soft-point-vs-hollow-point-for-hunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1987","title":{"rendered":"Soft Point vs. Hollow Point for Hunting"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Wayne van Zwoll<\/a><\/p>\n

I<\/span> expected the elk to fold. It was just 40 yards off. Even in the 2 \u00bdx Alaskan, its shoulder was big as a car door. Instead, it hopped ahead and stood, as if puzzled by the .270\u2019s report. Aware the outcome of this drama depended on which of us recovered from surprise first, I fired again, this time into the spine. The animal dropped.<\/p>\n

\n<\/picture>
Open Tip Match (OTM) bullets are not the same as hollow-point bullets. While OTM projectiles promise flat, accurate flight, do they also offer humane kills?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first softnose had shattered on the scapula. None of its shards had damaged vitals.<\/p>\n

Many years later, in Zimbabwe, I watched a pal send a 300-grain all-copper hollowpoint into an eland facing us at 50 yards. The .375\u2019s blast sent the bull galloping off. We followed, expecting a short trail. But after a kilometer, prints showed the beast was keeping a brisk pace. How could that be? A few minutes on, there he lay.<\/p>\n

[Follow Wayne\u2019s advice on the best way to hunt elk<\/a> before you head into the field.]<\/em><\/p>\n

We dug the bullet from a hip. One of its petals had bent into the nose cavity, keeping the others from opening to over shank diameter. The bullet had driven the length of the huge beast like a solid.<\/p>\n

\"Shown\n<\/picture>
Early soft point bullets had lots of lead exposed for upset at low impact speeds. Winchester\u2019s Sivertip followed the advent of smokeless loads hurling bullets at over 2,000 fps. A .45-70 round is shown to the left of a .30-40 Krag round.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Expanding bullets can fail to behave as we expect in game. Animals aren\u2019t homogeneous. Bones, muscles and gut contents don\u2019t replicate ballistic gelatin. Impact speeds and shot angles vary. Mud, even water on an animal\u2019s hide can affect bullet upset.<\/p>\n

Thick lead bullets neatly killed bison, brown bears and Africa\u2019s eland into the 1880s. Then small-bore cartridges fueled by smokeless powder pushed velocities high enough to foul bores with lead. Harder bullet alloys and shallow rifling improved accuracy; but slim, lightweight bullets lacked the killing effect of heavier missiles. Pass-through strikes wasted much of the energy imparted by high speed.<\/p>\n

Looking Back<\/h2>\n

In 1882, the Swiss Army\u2019s Lt. Col. Eduard Rubin designed a copper-jacketed bullet for the 8mm Lebel, the world\u2019s first smokeless round. Other military powers followed suit. Steel jackets with cupro-nickel coating prevented fouling in U.S. .30-40 Krag bores, but not when bullets were driven faster from .30-06 loads. Tin plating helped, but was abandoned when it was found to \u201ccold-solder\u201d to case mouths. Incorporated in the jacket, tin fared better. Western Cartridge Co.\u2019s Lubaloy jacket of 90 percent copper, 8 percent zinc, 2 percent tin, evolved into the 95\/5 copper\/zinc \u201cgilding metal\u201d alloy in modern jackets.<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Remington introduced its inner-belted Core-Lokt in the 1930s. This is still a fine all-around big game bullet with good penetration and expansion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jackets on both softpoint and hollowpoint hunting bullets are applied from the rear. Their noses are made to expand, to carve broad wound channels and, in deceleration, transfer their energy.<\/p>\n

Most lead cores of jacketed bullets contain antimony to make them harder \u2014 typically 2.5 percent. A hard core best endures heat (bore friction) but fragments most readily on impact. Sierra achieves three levels of hardness in rifle bullets, with antimony proportions of 1.5, 3 and 6 percent.<\/p>\n

Moving Forward<\/h2>\n

S<\/strong>tateside, the first jacketed softpoint hunting bullets were round-nosed, with lots of lead exposed to ensure upset at impact velocities of 2,000 to 2,400 fps \u2014 common for heavy Krag and .30-06 bullets at normal hunting ranges. But these bullets went to pieces at impact speeds topping 2,700 fps, when driven by Charles Newton\u2019s potent .30 or the .300 H&H. To control expansion and gain a ballistic edge, Newton designed a pointed bullet with a copper wire nose insert that also prevented nose damage in the magazine.<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Sierra\u2019s MatchKing hollow-point has an enviable reputation at 600 and 1,000 yards. It\u2019s not for hunting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fast-stepping .270 Winchester and .300 H&H, both introduced by Western in 1925, called for thicker jackets to withstand ever more violent impact on game. Winchester\u2019s Precision Point had a cone of jacket material over the bullet tip and anchored under the jacket proper. Upset began at three lead \u201cwindows\u201d at this juncture. Peters\u2019 Protected Point also had a nose cap. A driving band around the front third of the core and under the jacket was pushed rearward on impact, braking expansion. Each Protected Point bullet required three hours and 51 operations to make! A similar bullet without the band became Winchester\u2019s Silvertip.<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Ballistic gelatin shows how this match bullet disintegrated even at modest .308 velocity (2,600 fps).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the 1930s, Remington developed its Core-Lokt bullet, a mid-section jacket \u201cbelt\u201d resisting core-jacket separation. Remington\u2019s Bronze Point bullet had a conical tip metal tip that drove back into the core to prompt upset. Despite its armor-piercing look, this sleek missile could rupture violently at high impact speeds. Legions of polymer-tip bullets now share its peg-in-nose-cavity design. Their terminal action in game depends a great deal on cavity dimensions and how the tip\u2019s stem fits, also on jacket thickness up front. <\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Hornady\u2019s SST poly-tip hunting bullet, proven in gelatin, delivers lethal upset and penetration in game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In my youth, hollowpoints were either open-tip match (OTM) bullets with a tiny hole in the nose, or light-game bullets built to expand quickly and\/or fragment. Neither performed reliably in tough game. Match bullets might pierce, tumble or mushroom, depending on several variables. \u201cHunting\u201d hollowpoints had thin jackets that extended above the cores. Impact shattered the jacket, exposing the core\u2019s flat top, which yielded like the naked lead of round- and flat-nose bullets.<\/p>\n

There were exceptions. Before WWII, Western Tool and Copper Works peddled a hollowpoint with a thick jacket and a small cavity that limited upset even at high-speed impact. Bitterroot Bullets wore ductile jackets of unalloyed copper as thick as .060, producing double-diameter mushrooms behind their modest nose cavities, with little weight loss. DWM had a \u201cstrong-jacket\u201d bullet, its cavity lined with copper tubing.<\/p>\n

The Choices?<\/h2>\n

S<\/strong>till, most hunters used softpoints for deer and bigger game. Early versions, like the bullet that failed me on an elk shoulder, were too lightly constructed for tough beasts. On deer they could be destructive. When hunters howled about ruined venison on deer shot with fast .270 bullets, Winchester fielded a mild 150-grain load clocking 2,675 fps. Nobody bought it. The contagion of higher velocity had taken hold!<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
The author still favors John Nosler\u2019s Partition bullet, circa 1947, for big beasts with thick muscle and bone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It would bring stouter softpoints. In 1946 John Nosler hit a mud-encrusted moose several times with bullets from his .300 H&H. At last, the beast expired. John found his bullets hadn\u2019t driven deep enough. So, he designed a softpoint with a gilding metal dam behind the ogive to stop upset \u2014 like the RWS H-Mantel. The heel remained intact to drive deep. Jackets on early Partition bullets were machined from tube stock and had a frosted exterior finish with a shiny belt, a tiny hole in the dam. Later jackets made by impact extrusion have a smooth, bright finish. There\u2019s no hole. In the 1980s Lee Reed improved on the Nosler Partition with his Swift A-Frame, bonding the nose section.<\/p>\n

About that time bonding nose to jacket gained market traction in Jack Carter\u2019s Trophy Bonded bullet (now made by Federal). Bonded bullets have proliferated \u2014 Federal\u2019s HammerDown, Terminal Ascent and Trophy Bonded Tip, Hornady\u2019s InterBond and DGX Bonded, Norma\u2019s BondStrike and Oryx, Nosler\u2019s Solid Base Bonded and AccuBond, Remington\u2019s Core-Lokt Ultra Bonded, Speer\u2019s Impact, Swift\u2019s Scirocco, Winchester\u2019s Dual Bond, Woodleigh\u2019s Weldcore\u2026<\/p>\n

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Mechanical \u201clocks\u201d also wed core to jacket \u2014 the inner belts on Peters and Remington bullets of the 30s, Hornady\u2019s current InterLock. A swaged jacket ring helps secure the core of Speer\u2019s Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

Making the bullet\u2019s heel less pliable than its nose helps it penetrate after high-speed impact, without impeding upset after the bullet has lost velocity at long range. Early Trophy Bonded bullets wore jackets of pure copper rod, progressively annealed to be harder at the thick base than at the nose. TIG (Torpedo Ideal) and TUG (Torpedo Universal) bullets by RWS have two cores, for a similar effect. The shank of a TIG has a funnel-shaped mouth to accept the coned butt of the front section. Upset begins at this juncture as well as at the nose. The rear core opens slowest because it\u2019s hardest. A TUG\u2019s rear section fits into a cavity in the front section. On impact, the nose gets slammed from both ends and opens violently. The shank powers on. Speer gave its Grand Slam bullet a two-part core, the rear section harder than the front.<\/p>\n

A Hot Take<\/h2>\n

H<\/strong>ollowpoint bullets might still be relegated to \u2018chuck pastures, were it not for an idea that took shape for Randy Brooks in 1985. He decided bullets didn\u2019t need lead cores, that solid copper or copper alloy bullets could be made to fly accurately and expand reliably. The resulting Barnes X-Bullet had a hollow nose with scored petals that peeled back in the shape of an X. The later Triple-Shock (TSX) had driving bands that improved accuracy.<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Jack Carter\u2019s Trophy Bonded bullets, now by Federal, give double-diameter mushrooms and drive deep with 92 to 95 percent weight retention.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Solid-copper hollowpoints now issue from nearly every company that makes hunting bullets. They fly accurately and plow deep. Weight retention routinely nudges 100 percent! Copper (and similar gilding metal) bullets must be longer to equal the weight of lead bullets of the same diameter and shape. They typically deliver their best terminal performance within narrower \u201cvelocity windows\u201d than lead-core bullets.<\/p>\n

While tipped bullets predate WWII, only recently did polymer become useful tip material. Color-coded to brand or diameter, they\u2019re cosmetically and ballistically attractive. Engineers like them, pointing out that bringing cavities to a uniform finish without a tip can be a chore.<\/p>\n

\"In\n<\/picture>
Bullets with high ballistic coefficients help you hit at distance. This one was designed to kill game, too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2005 Hornady used a soft polymer to make pointed bullets for \u201cdeer rifle\u201d cartridges like the .30-30. In tube magazines primers are jammed by spring pressure and recoil against bullets behind them, nixing use of traditional pointed bullets in popular lever rifles. The resilient poly tips on Hornady\u2019s FTX bullets in LeverEvolution loads compress enough to be safe in tubes; but they resume conical form in the chamber. Like hard-tipped pointed bullets, they fly flat and retain energy well downrange.<\/p>\n

Later, Doppler radar showed that bullets fired from long-range cartridges were reaching in-flight temperatures over 700 F. Result: poly-tip distortion, with steeper trajectories and diminished accuracy. Hornady developed a Heat Shield Tip, its glass transition temperature (at which polymer turns rubbery) eight times higher than that of ordinary tips!<\/p>\n

\"Here\n<\/picture>
Most game is killed inside 200 yards \u2014 this moose, felled by a Hornady bullet from a .338 RCM, at 80.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn-flight friction becomes a problem only at very high bullet speeds over long distances,\u201d clarified project chief Dave Emary. \u201cNo bullet gets to 700 F quickly or stays that hot for long. Doppler hasn\u2019t shown tip melt for\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0polymer inside 300 yards.\u201d For shooters using the PRCs and similar cartridges at long range, Hornady\u2019s Doppler trials produced its ELD-X and ELD-Match bullets. Similar bullets have since appeared from other manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

So, which is best for hunting: softnose or hollowpoint? I prefer heavy bonded softpoints for tough beasts at modest ranges. But solid-copper hollowpoints have become hugely popular. They\u2019re much more suitable for big game than were jacketed hollowpoints of my youth. And they fly as flat as match bullets.<\/p>\n

Tipped bullets \u2014 lead-core and solid-copper \u2014 have nose cavities. So, aren\u2019t\u00a0they<\/em>\u00a0hollowpoints, too?<\/p>\n

Choices, choices.<\/p>\n

No bullet can yet match the killing effect of sound shot judgment and good marksmanship.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in!<\/em><\/p>\n

Join the Discussion<\/span><\/h5>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Federal <\/p>\n

Federal <\/h3>\n


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Hornady <\/h3>\n


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Remington <\/h3>\n


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By Wayne van Zwoll I expected the elk to fold. It was just 40 yards off. Even in the 2 \u00bdx Alaskan, its shoulder was big as a car door. Instead, it hopped ahead and stood, as if puzzled by the .270\u2019s report. Aware the outcome of this drama depended on which of us recovered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}