Copper bullet report

[Terrible_E]

I would have thought a ballistic gel would have been a less damaging back stop than sand and gravel, even water would have less of an effective on a bullet than sand and gravel. To check for bullet expansion lining a number of soak catalogue or thick phone books up one behind the other might give a true test, sand and gravel may given you a medium to retrieve the bullets but it heavy enough to create expansion that would not necessarily be achieved in hind and muscle tissue. Again that is only my opinion, I once purchases some Swedish spiral tip jacketed hunting bullet with a lead tip and core to shoot in a 243 Win the copper jacket was so tough, they were like shooting full mental jacketed bullets, that probably why I am so much of a skeptics about your pure copper bullets. I hunt with heavy cast bullet which are 205 grain. I put one right through the boiler room of a deer at 35 to 40 yards, at that range they exploded the animals lungs, they first went through the scapula, appear to have rotated a bit and put an inch square hole through the ribs, past through the lungs, clipping a piece off the heart and exited the floor of the rib cage. I've shot the same rounds into a Linden tree, that backstop my target. The bullets buried themselves 6 to 8 inches into the tree which was 12 to 15 inches in diameter, fungus used the tunnel made by the bullets to invade the tree. Eventually the rot got to the point where the tree broke and fell down. In the break I was able to recover a number of spent bullets there was no real evidence of expansion, some of the bullet exhibited slight bends to their conformation but that was about it. So copper being considerably hard than cast lead I'm not overly optimistic about them showing much expansion if not for the damage done by the medium you retrieve them from. Figurative speaking you were recovering them from a sand and gravel wall.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

Ballistic gel is expensive and not required for the testing we do. I think you got the wrong idea when I said sand and gravel. I don't really have a proper term for what this stuff is but it's not beach sand but there aren't any pebbles in it if that makes sense. Either way the engineer who designed the place seems to thinks it a good option.

I'm sorry your swedish bullets killed your Linden tree.

Pretty crappy wall considering is slopped at about 45 degrees. Literally.

[Gun Nut]

Ballistic gel is expensive and not required for the testing we do. I think you got the wrong idea when I said sand and gravel. I don't really have a proper term for what this stuff is but it's not beach sand but there aren't any pebbles in it if that makes sense. Either way the engineer who designed the place seems to thinks it a good option.

I'm sorry your swedish bullets killed your Linden tree.

Pretty crappy wall considering is slopped at about 45 degrees. Literally.

It wasn't the Swedish bullets that were being shot at the Linden tree. The 205 grain cast bullet wasn't being shot out of a 243 Win for which I purchased the Swedish bullets, they were being shot out of .303 British so their diameter would be roughly comparable to your .308 pure copper bullet. I did say figurative like a wall, with dense enough material to severely deform the pure copper bullet, a lot differently than the hind and animal muscle, which it is likely to pass through with little expansion. In other words it will act as a full metal jacketed surplus bullet, in some case the cores of full jacketed bullets are designed to have lighter material at the tip of the core, so they will have a tendency to tip upon impact, to provide it with more stopping power at close in ranges.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[Terrible_E]

It wasn't the Swedish bullets that were being shot at the Linden tree. The 205 grain cast bullet wasn't being shot out of a 243 Win for which I purchased the Swedish bullets, they were being shot out of .303 British so their diameter would be roughly comparable to your .308 pure copper bullet. I did say figurative like a wall, with dense enough material to severely deform the pure copper bullet, a lot differently than the hind and animal muscle, which it is likely to pass through with little expansion. In other words it will act as a full metal jacketed surplus bullet, in some case the cores of full jacketed bullets are designed to have lighter material at the tip of the core, so they will have a tendency to tip upon impact, to provide it with more stopping power at close in ranges.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

It isn't that different, that's what I am trying to tell you. If you have anything besides anecdote I would be interested to see it.

[Gun Nut]

It isn't that different, that's what I am trying to tell you. If you have anything besides anecdote I would be interested to see it.

It isn't that different from what? My lead cast bullet or the military full metal jacketed bullet engineered to tip at impact, in either case the full copper bullet is not likely to have much of an aptitude to expand on game, unless it hit some pretty heavy bone. It doesn't mean it won't be an effective killer at close range before it stabilizes. My concern would be at longer ranges after it has stabilized.
Each to their own I'm a cast bullet shooter, they are cheap to mold, and I have proven them effective within their unstabilized range. I hunt in dense bush where I'm not likely to be pushing that range limit. In addition lead cast bullets don't cause the barrel wear, which you get with shooting copper, which you have to push a lot faster to develop its killing energy, because it is lighter metal than lead. The old timers didn't much worry about bullet expansion with their lead bullets, if they wanted to put a bigger hole in something they just went to a firearm with a bigger bore diameter. Sorry, I can't help the anecdote they just make good sense.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[Terrible_E]

It isn't that different from what? My lead cast bullet or the military full metal jacketed bullet engineered to tip at impact, in either case the full copper bullet is not likely to have much of an aptitude to expand on game, unless it hit some pretty heavy bone. It doesn't mean it won't be an effective killer at close range before it stabilizes. My concern would be at longer ranges after it has stabilized.
Each to their own I'm a cast bullet shooter, they are cheap to mold, and I have proven them effective within their unstabilized range. I hunt in dense bush where I'm not likely to be pushing that range limit. In addition lead cast bullets don't cause the barrel wear, which you get with shooting copper, which you have to push a lot faster to develop its killing energy, because it is lighter metal than lead. The old timers didn't much worry about bullet expansion with their lead bullets, if they wanted to put a bigger hole in something they just went to a firearm with a bigger bore diameter. Sorry, I can't help the anecdote they just make good sense.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

So no, you have done zero testing and are just making assumtions. Ok good to know.

[Gun Nut]

So no, you have done zero testing and are just making assumtions. Ok good to know.

Actually I put my bullets to the real test in the field on game, rather than firing them through paper into sand and gravel pits. I would add, please advise me of how your bullets fair under field conditions, in doing so it would be good to have an idea of the game and range you shot at, to make an effective kill, especially if it is well over 100 yards. I think coming from a .308 they are likely to be quite effect up to a 100 yards. I'm only guessing they may be like the .303 and have a wobble range, after which they spin straight. I took a deer with the .243 the .308s smaller diameter cousin using copper jacked lead tipped 100 grain bullet, the range was about 75 yards, the bullet went through the animal and disintegrate on a stone cliff behind it. It had more than an ample killing effectiveness. I was not so lucky with a fox I shot at 200 yards out. It was winter and I tracked his blood trail over an extensive distance until he manage to stop the flow, and I never did find it. It probably did help that I had to break off the trailing at dusk and return the next morning to do the follow up.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[Terrible_E]

Actually I put my bullets to the real test in the field on game, rather than firing them through paper into sand and gravel pits. I would add, please advise me of how your bullets fair under field conditions, in doing so it would be good to have an idea of the game and range you shot at, to make an effective kill, especially if it is well over 100 yards. I think coming from a .308 they are likely to be quite effect up to a 100 yards. I'm only guessing they may be like the .303 and have a wobble range, after which they spin straight. I took a deer with the .243 the .308s smaller diameter cousin using copper jacked lead tipped 100 grain bullet, the range was about 75 yards, the bullet went through the animal and disintegrate on a stone cliff behind it. It had more than an ample killing effectiveness. I was not so lucky with a fox I shot at 200 yards out. It was winter and I tracked his blood trail over an extensive distance until he manage to stop the flow, and I never did find it. It probably did help that I had to break off the trailing at dusk and return the next morning to do the follow up.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

If you love anecdote watch the Meat Eater program. They use copper bullets.

[Gun Nut]

If you love anecdote watch the Meat Eater program. They use copper bullets.

I guess they had to find some good use for copper, after our government found it was costing them too much to make cents of.


You don't stop hunting because you because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

[Deer Hunter]

If you love anecdote watch the Meat Eater program. They use copper bullets.

Nothing new, if I’m not mistaken Barnes copper bullets been around for 30 years. Mind you they improved it over the years.

[Fox]

If you love anecdote watch the Meat Eater program. They use copper bullets.

A lot depends on what you hit and what velocity you are running. I know that for the guns that I hunt with copper bullets are a very bad idea, they are just not going to hit with enough velocity to properly open up. Yes they may expand down to 1800fps but they are not going to open up much at that low of a velocity, they need 2700+fps to properly open, and my main hunting rifles do not start out at that velocity, nor do they beat the crap out of my shoulder when I fire them.