Thinking above my pay grade again

[Mitty38]

For all you guys casting hollow points for hunting or self defense and also fiddling with Powder coat.
I have was looking at the Hornady plastic tipped hunting bullets and got to thinking.

What if someone took a gas checked flat nose type bullet then turned that into a hollow point. Got it shooting good with slandered lube.
But then filled the tip of it solid with a plug of PC, baked into the hollow point. No pc anywhere else on the bullet except in and on the tip. You know, Kinda like Fiver's filled hollow points that Elvis Ammo was playing with, but filled with and having just the very top covered with PC.

Has anyone ever gone close to doing this, and what were the results? Would expansion improved and fragmentation decrease? It seams it would.

 

[freebullet]

Air space is the key to violent expansion. Most all those tipped bullets have it.

 

[fiver]

the tip shoves back and bulges the front of the bullet then falls out and lets the bullet do it's thing when it bottoms out.

 

[Mitty38]

So you are more or less controlling the way the expansion happens. Rather than causing more expansion??
If a bullet is some what frangible (to much hardness) then I take it, this would probably be pretty much cause it to blow apart and be ineffective.
With a softer bullet I can see where this could help with controlling expansion, espesioly with a little air space left in the bottom of the hollow, Like Feebullet says.
So we could use this to fine tune exactly how we want the bullet to act once it hits something.
But if we already have a good balance between shape, hardness, charge, shape....ect. I take it that this would be not worth the trouble it would take for the advantage we get.Unless we were fine tuning a bullet for a particular animal at a particular distance. Then maybe not even worth the effort.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

I'm not sure what you would be accomplishing with a powder coat tip on a rifle bullet.

Some of the plastic tipped bullet have a specific function, such as Hornady's Leverevolution bullets designed for tubular magazines.
There may be some aerodynamic advantages for some other hollowpoint rifle bullets at long ranges as compared to a flat tip or hollowpoint
BUT, for the most part, I think it's more marketing than anything else.
I don't think a plastic tip improves a bullet as much as it helps sell a bullet.

Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[358156 hp]

I think the tip would need some degree of compressability to initiate expansion. Also, the adhesive (cohesive?) properties of the powder coat tip might just keep the cavity glued shut.

It could be worth trying though, and it would be simple enough to do. Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[CZ93X62]

Most of my experience with the plastic-tipped bullets has been with Nosler Ballistic Tips. Most of THAT has been .224" 55 grainers in 223 and 22-250 calibers. They expand quite readily, at 400 yards and beyond.

 

[fiver]

the plastic tip initiates the expansion, that's why Barnes added it to the TSX line.
if you look at the shape of a plastic tip, it has a stem [and many of them are a stepped stem] it also has a flat base that sits on the front edge of the jacket.
there is also a small hollow air space below that stem so there is some backward movement in the jacket before the tips release.
some of the bullets have also had the jacket below the tip skived [either thinned or partially cut to help the jacket separate] to help with the mushroom.

now with a lead bullet we have a lot more to consider than a jacketed bullet has.
they both work the same way, only the lead bullet doesn't have the copper wrap to support it.
consequently [ha spelled it right the first time] you have a more violent expansion... we know how that works out by watching little ground squirrels evaporate.
just upsize that expansion.
so we slow things down to retard the violence, and we work within the velocity-distance window we have placed on ourselves.

so of course we being,, you know, homo-sapiens we want more, we want better and we want faster.
so how do we get there?
we start changing things.
more expansion at lower velocity... simple enough.
less expansion at higher velocity... simple enough.
both? heh..... well things are gonna get a bit difficult without adding more parts and pieces to the equation just like they had to with copper wrapped bullets..

 

[freebullet]

I posted these awhile back but it might have been before you joined us. Enjoy!

 

[fiver]

perfectly illustrates what I was saying, Thanks.

 

[Ian]

What are those in the top photo, Bruce? They look like pure lead cores up front and antimonial lead in the back.

 

[freebullet]

Random fmj left, other generic varmint seconds from same order. No maker listed. They spload nice, still under 1moa with tip cavity variations as shown.

 

[fiver]

you know what's really great about seeing pictures of bullets like that?
I start to feel pretty good about my home made ones.
I pick and sort and poke and hem and haw and slightly change how I operate the handle and measure and poke.
then I see that the ones I made by basically just using a modified reloading stroke gives me bullets right on par with the majority of the stuff we buy off the shelf..
and the ones I re-worked the process to get to where they are, are a notch above most of them.
plus I'm pretty positive I am getting the most out of the swage dies I'm using.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

These plastic tips. Most of them anyhow. Are modern HOLLOW POINTS.

Same theory a way to enhance expansion and feed better in the case of the FTX line BOTH in tubular magazines!

A side benefit has proven to be enhanced ballistics. Not with addition of lab radar they are seeing that the composition of that tip is actually DEGRADING in flight and causing a loss to attainable ballistics!!!

Very neat stuff!

as a rule in a close and personalHunter and like what the “Ballistic tips” bring to the table. As a rule I’m not a copper billet guy. Preferring a cup n core if I choose a traditional jackets. Moving more and more to CB for my needs. I really needno more as shots VERY seldom surpass 200.

Cw