Bullet Designs

Bullet Design is Highly Variable Many different designs to meet a variety of intentions. Three main classifications… Round nose Wadcutter Hallow point Round Nose Style Cheapest shape to manufacture Easily loads into chambers Can deeply penetrate soft materials Full Metal Jacket This is a small-arms projectile consisting of a soft core (often lead) encased in an outer shell "jacket" of harder metal (ex. Cupronickel) The jacket allows for higher muzzle velocities compared to using lead alone than bare lead Maximizes penetration Jacket also prevents damage to bores from steel based materials. Half Jacketed (Soft-Point) Bullet These bullets have a soft metal core enclosed by a stronger metal jacket left open at the forward tip. A soft-point bullet is intended to expand upon striking flesh to cause a wound diameter greater than the bullet diameter. Hollow-Point A hollow-point bullet is a type of bullet that expands “mushrooms” on impact. As a result they are much more deadly due to the increasing damage they do on impact to human skin and organs. Can be used for controlled penetration where over-penetration could cause collateral damage (such as aboard an aircraft). Tracers Tracer ammunition (tracers) are projectiles with a small pyrotechnic charge in their base that burns very brightly, making the projectile trajectory visible during daylight, and very bright during nighttime firing. Tracer rounds allow for the visually tracing of the flight path of the projectile This allows the shooter to make adjustments without the use of the weapons sights Wadcutter A wadcutter is a special-purpose flat-fronted bullet specifically designed for shooting paper targets Since the velocities are typically subsonic (under approximately 900 ft/s (274 m/s)) these have minimal penetrating ability. The design does rip a hole in target paper which is visible by the shooter Link to Lecture Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DxuSc4mpsgcHY1JbNQt8S2iGdswqwQPF/view?usp=sharing *Due to the description character limit the full work cited for "Bullet Designs" can be viewed at... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_f9kqHYab6Aoto0t8i-vjzBRAtNqVlPd/view?usp=sharing